Loving Jesus

Twice, during my career, I hired someone who married another member of my team – both marriages “worked.” It’s a nice footnote that makes me happy. The second one was so easy to spot. First, they were enamored with each other, making sure to sit beside each other during meetings. From there, they followed their trajectory towards love and then marriage. It was a beautiful thing. They were proud of each other.

That’s the mark of a true believer in Jesus. We love Him, and He loves us. We are inseparable. It’s unthinkable to plan a getaway from Jesus for some alone time. Never!

Apostle Peter’s love and commitment to Jesus were unmatched by anyone. And in this love of Christ, he found something that he was eager to communicate to every believer:

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. – 1 Peter 1:8-9 ESV

Did you notice that? Our love for Jesus is at the heart of the salvation of our souls. You may feel the need to throw up your hands and say, “No, there’s a lot more we must do!”

If we have found the love of our lives, we begin to dress in ways that please the one we love. We give up the time we spent on meaningless things, so we can spend more time with the one we love. We meet the parents. We buy a ring. We gather friends and families together to witness our commitment to the one we love. We reside with the one we love.

We do the same with Jesus, the one we love. We change how we dress, giving up the clothes of this world and putting on holiness. We meet Father God through reconciliation bought by Jesus. As for giving something valuable (i.e., a ring), we give our faith, which God first gave us, which “is far more precious than mere gold.¹” We make a public confession of our faith in Jesus. We are publicly baptized, showing our death, burial, and resurrection, so that we now live with Jesus in His world. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper / Holy Communion / Eucharist.

The Church is the Bride of Christ, and we are the Church. Believers are in love with Jesus. We cannot be “of the Bride” if we have no love for the Bridegroom. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands.²” We could say that Jesus’ “love language³” is obedience. That would be a perilous thing if He were not God. But Jesus is God. As Apostle Thomas declared to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!⁴”

A Test of Our Faith

We, as Christians in America, have our faith continually challenged. Our testing is the visual and audio “noise” that never ceases to wash over us.

Because of misleading messaging, many Christians have adopted a false empathy, a deceptive etiquette that they use as an excuse not to tell someone about the good news of Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul stated his perspective: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16 ESV)

My Prayer

I pray that we keep our love for Jesus alive and never feel embarrassed about Him, sharing with everyone how great is our God⁵.

Fact Check

1. 1 Peter 1:7 – A Living Hope. (n.d.). Bible Hub. Retrieved August 5, 2025, from https://biblehub.com/1_peter/1-7.htm ↩︎
2. John 14:15 – Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit. (n.d.). Bible Hub. Retrieved August 5, 2025, from https://biblehub.com/john/14-15.htm ↩︎
3. What Are the 5 Love Languages? Definition and Examples. (n.d.). Psychology Today. Retrieved August 5, 2025, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/click-here-happiness/202009/what-are-the-5-love-languages-definition-and-examples ↩︎
4. John 20:28 – Jesus Appears to Thomas. (n.d.). Bible Hub. Retrieved August 5, 2025, from https://biblehub.com/john/20-28.htm ↩︎
5. Chris Tomlin – How Great Is Our God. (n.d.). Genius. Retrieved August 5, 2025, from https://genius.com/Chris-tomlin-how-great-is-our-god-lyrics ↩︎