Evaluate Your Love for Jesus

Chinese Christians have been ordered to renounce their faith in Jesus and worship President Xi Jinping. What does that mean? It is known Xi is not divine. What then does it mean to worship him? They know he cannot function as our God, that is, perform supernaturally, to do for them what the Christian God alone can do for His people.

To worship him means to give their supreme loyalty to him. To regard his decisions as right, and worthy of compliance, to adore him, and venerate him. It means to comply with his rules, commandments.

For the Christians it is a one way street. Xi can never do for them what the Christian God can for His people.

For the Christians it means they are to hold Xi in the same regard Christians are to hold their God, to be in awe of him. To worship means to sincerely be motivated by love from within for Xi, to submit to his authority and power. Praise is an integral part of worship. Likewise obedience is fundamental in worship.

The Chinese Christians have been ordered to love Xi more than they do Jesus.

Are you beginning to get the picture? Consider those traits expected by Xi. Then take note that they are the same traits we are to show our God.

A lawyer asked Jesus what was the greatest commandment. This was not a new question, the scribes had been debating it for centuries. They had documented 613 commands in God’s Law—248 positive; 365 negative.

“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.‘” Matthew 22:37

HEART. In ancient times before medicine was advanced it was believed by many that thoughts originated in the heart and were carried by the blood to the brain where it became conscious. So we are to love God with all of our thoughts “whole heartedly.” From the heart “flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

SOUL. We are to love Him with all our soul. This is a reference to our human nature. We are to love God with our passions, hunger, perceptions, and interest.

Our very nature should be to love Him.  We are also to love Him with how we talk, and what we do with our hands, and how we utilize our talents, and how we react to challenges. Our entire being is to be a display of our love for God.

MIND. We are to love Him with all of our mind. It is estimated the average person thinks over 50,000 thoughts and accomplishes hundreds of tasks every day. How many of your thoughts a day please Him?

With these thoughts as a background, stop now and evaluate how you love the Lord and engage in a new current commitment to Him.