A Quality Love Relationship

Ready for a loaded statement? Here goes: The quality of your love relationship with God is only as good as your best love relationship here on earth. Do you agree?

Let's assume that the amount to which you are willing to love and be loved is the measure of the quality of a love relationship. If this is true, than we can assess the quality of our relationships according to two categories: how much we love others and how much we let others love us. To accurately assess our love for others, let's look at what the Bible says about loving one another:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." -John 13:34-35

"Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." -Romans 12:10

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." -Ephesians 4:2

Loving someone is hard work. But what about letting others love us? How can we determine whether we are allowing someone to love us? God loves us, our spouses love us, our parents love us, even some of our friends truly love us. So, what does it look like when we are letting them love us? To gain some perspective on this topic, let's look at the negative consequences of not allowing others to love us. Here's a passage from the Bible which should help.

"Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women." -Nehemiah 13:26

The passage says that although Solomon was loved by his God, he looked for love elsewhere. This is the tip-off that we are not letting others love us. Where are you looking for love? Have you built up a large deficit of love in your heart. For years I struggled to fill my "love tank" with worldly things while my relationships with family and friends crumbled. I had not learned to let others love me. Instead, I had maintained a dangerous, subconscious code to keep everyone at a distance. These were the darkest years of my life.

So, what is the quality of your love relationship with God? Are you loving Him and letting Him love you? Can you point to an earthly relationship in which you are living out the love that is described in this message? Is your love relationship with God any better than the best love relationship your are maintaining on earth?