A Deeper Kind of Love

Copyright 2015 by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved

To love God out of desire rather than necessity is one of the greatest goals of the Christian life. We tend to love Him because of what He can do for us rather than for who He is. It is no doubt true that an authentic kind of love can be ascribed to someone who meets our greatest needs and desires, but the most transcendent devotion is that which comes from recognizing that the person in question is worthy of adoration quite apart from any good thing we derive from them.

The closest analogy in human love would be the man who so falls in love with a woman that even if she were forever unattainable by him he would love her still. This is the kind of love that gives thanks that such a woman exists at all, no matter to whom she ultimately belongs in a temporal sense. Such devotion is exceedingly rare among human beings. This is especially true today when the spirit of “what have you done for me lately” so often seems to undergird the rickety foundation of contemporary romance.

Of course this kind of love is also rare among those who profess to love God with all their “heart, soul, mind and strength” as well, so we believers need to think twice before getting on our moral high-horse. Very few saints have reached the place where they can honestly say that they love God for Himself alone. All of us come to God as beggars in need of that which we do not deserve. This is the state of every person who cries out to God for salvation through His Son. Every one of us initially falls in love with our Lord for the same reason: His incredible kindness in loving us enough to save us from ourselves. This is the starting point for every Christian and it is nothing to be ashamed of. We are all profoundly needy and it is on this neediness, and the divine response to it, that our initial love is naturally based.

However this cannot remain the only basis of our adoration. As we truly mature in the faith and grow in the knowledge of God we cannot help but begin to love Him for another, greater reason. In time the devoted child of God begins to see the sublime beauty of the divine character and a new kind of regard for Him grows in our deepest hearts. This is the devotion that comes from realizing that His attributes make Him the proper object of our affection in and of themselves. We start to love God not for what He has done for us but solely for Who He is.

This is not a natural love but a supernatural one. It is not open to those who have not already experienced what C.S. Lewis called the “need-love” we earlier described. It appears that one must have the Holy Spirit dwelling within before any “disinterested” love based on sheer appreciation of the divine nature can be generated. It comes not just with time but with a steady discipline of worship and adoration that puts us in touch with the Being of God on a deeper level than just thanksgiving for His favor in our lives. It ultimately involves the dawning of thankfulness that this God of perfect beauty, of every kind, exists…even if He were not to ever grant us one more blessing.

If this seems difficult to imagine it is simply because we have not yet attained to the level of maturity and knowledge mentioned earlier. Some believers may, in fact, rarely experience it this side of Heaven. It might also be true that it is a love not very often known even by those “ancient Christians” who have been hard after their Lord for a lifetime.

Either way it is still a goal worth pursuing because loving God for who He is, not just what He does, is something He deserves in the deepest sense and for no other reason than who He is.