On Loving God

I don't want to go to hell, no Saint wants to go to hell. In fact, even a sinner, who believes in neither God nor hell, doesn't want to go there either; he just may not believe he will have to. Hell is a terrible place to spend eternity. On the other hand, God wants all of us to spend eternity with Him. The problem is, too many people have been fooled into thinking that just because they don't believe any of this, then it's not going to come to pass. But judgment is coming.

There are of course Saints who serve God, but not because they love Him, They serve Him because they don't want to go to hell. I can't say if God accepts this or not, since I don't know the mind of God. But I would encourage every person who tries to live a Christian life to do so, not to keep from going to hell, but because you love God. Seek God, read the Bible about Him, seek Him the more, develop a deep and effective prayer life and seek Him even more. The more you come to know and understand about God, the more you recognize His greatness, His mercy, His grace, and the wonderful, powerful love He has for you, the more you will love Him. This is how you serve God with gladness, because you are not serving under threat of punishment, but willingly and freely giving over your will to Him.

Saints all over the world who have not come to this understanding often have a very hard time living righteously, because they are not serving God willingly and out of love, but out of terror of God's wrath. This is not what God wants; He wants our willing, freely-given obedience. He doesn't want to "strong-arm" us into service, because He knows that such service will be half-hearted. It's very hard to be faithful to someone you don't love, a fact to which many adulterers can attest. It's the same concept when we apply it to spiritual things; the less one loves God, the harder it is to obey Him in faithful service. This accounts for the rampant sins and the myriad, weak excuses for such constant sinning among those who call themselves Christians. The Bible teaches that those who love God keep His commandments, and that those who don't love Him don't keep His commandments. The Bible also teaches that, even if we love God, there is yet a possibility (though not a certainty) that we might fall, and we have an advocate in such situations, but that is no license to willfully walk in sin with no sense guilt.

When the Bible talks about "fearing" God, it means having extreme respect for the awesomeness of God; it doesn't mean being terrified of God in the sense being talked about here. Loving God means not only doing what He says (obedience) and it also means that our service, and whatever sacrifice we make to serve Him, is done willingly and with pleasure. If we delight ourselves in the Lord (serve him because we are happy to do so), then He promises to give us the desires of our hearts. If you serve God because you are terrified of the fires of hell, then there is torment in that fear, and that is not of God. It means your love has not been made perfect, because the Bible says that there is no fear in love, for perfect love casteth out fear (1 John 4:18). Serve God because you love Him; love Him because you know Him; know Him because you have sought Him, and seek Him, while He may be found, because you want to know the joy of delightful service to God.