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NASB | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 3:16 ¶ "For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life. |
Bible Question: Hello. my name is Shannon. I am 11. I would like to know why we have to love God. I know he died for us and i am thankful. But it says somewhere in the bible that we have to love god more than anything else. Why? |
Bible Answer: As you have stated, we are to love God but He would much rather that we love Him on a voluntary basis rather than feel a "requirement" to do so. The biggest, most powerful reason we SHOULD love God is so we can go to Heaven. In the beginning as provided by Genesis, mankind had a very special, face-to-face relationship with God. But we lost that special relationship when sin was introduced into the world. Now God has sent His Son to fulfill a promise God made after closing down that Garden of Eden. He provided the ONLY Way for any human being to go to Heaven and that is done by obeying God's Commandments or His Son's Last Will and Testament which was executed by the Holy Spirit through His Apostles. Again we find ourselves loving God as described in 1 John BUT we MUST also love our fellow man in obedience to God. If we don't love our fellow man and claim to love God, He calls such a person a liar. So you see this loving of God most probably comes upon us in a gradual sort of way, like refining of silver. That process takes a lot of heat and much patience as depicted in Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. As you grow in maturity and experience, you will realize the value of these words far more than you do at this moment. BTW, welcome to the Forum. It's so refreshing to see such a young person come to the Forum in this way. Praise the Lord and God bless you. Inquisitor |