We love God. To be a lover of God is the greatest and most glorious thing that you can say about a human being. It means that he is loved of God.

That is not what man is in Adam. Man in Adam is a hater of God. Man loves the darkness, and he hates the light; and God is light, and in him is no darkness. And whatsoever is light exposes the darkness, and the darkness hates the light. Man became darkness in Adam. That is not how God made Adam. God made Adam holy and righteous and therefore knowing and loving God. Adam talked with God as God walked with Adam in the garden in the cool of the day in sweet fellowship of love. But Adam gave ear to the devil—the original hater of God—and Adam became darkness. So did all Adam’s posterity become haters of God. And all the haters of God shall perish.

But to love God!

The love of God is the affection of the regenerated heart toward the triune God, whom the believer knows to be his God in Jesus Christ. The love of God is the holy fear of God that causes the elect child of God to tremble before the glory and majesty of God, knowing that this God is for him and not against him. The love of God is the heart’s deepest embrace of God as the believer knows him to be the God of his salvation. The love of God is the awe and wonder of the believer toward God as the believer stands in the light and beholds God in all his beauty and loveliness revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, his savior. The love of God is the definite choice of God by the will, which has been liberated from the bondage of sin and darkness, and from a heart enlightened with the light of God, a heart that knows that God is gracious to me, a sinner, in Jesus Christ. The love of God is to stand in the presence of God without fear and trembling and having the boldness of the sinner, who stands in the light forgiven for Christ’s sake. Yes, love is the fruit of faith! We love God: the simple yet profound statement of scripture regarding the attitude of the regenerated heart toward God. The love of God that springs from the heart is ineffable in the end. The love of God is expressed in fervent prayers and joyful praises. The love of God is expressed in obedience to God’s commandments. The love of God is expressed in the stubborn stand for the truth and the refusal to tolerate the lie. But the depths of the love of God, who can speak them? To the endless ages we will express this love.

We love God because he first loved us. Oh, herein is love, not that we loved him but that he loved us. He loved us with an eternal, unchangeable love. His heart ever burns with delight toward his people in Christ. God eternally esteems his people as most precious and dear to him. He ever, with unwavering constancy, wills their blessedness. With unfaltering divine fervency, he decreed to have his people in his covenant fellowship and friendship. He loved them while they were yet his enemies, who with malice in their hearts and darkness in their minds hated him. Do you not see Christ? God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And when we see Jesus Christ crucified, then by his Spirit we know and believe the love that God has toward us.

And we love him because he first loved us.