Lifted Vision Ministry

In our relationship with Jesus, what is the difference between “liking” and “loving?” Is there any difference at all? Can they co-exist? I’d like us all to ask and ponder within ourselves these two questions today: Do I like Jesus? Or do I love Jesus?

Not too long ago, my friend in Christ shared an interesting concept with me. It was, that if you like something, you become greedy with it, but if you love something, you give up your greed for it. The illustration goes like this: those who like flowers will pick the flowers and keep them, but those who truly love flowers will water them instead.
I thought this could relate to our walk with Christ too. Those who love Jesus truly sacrifice their momentary desires and give up their lives to follow Him. Do I just like Jesus? Do I love Jesus? Let’s think again about our response. In terms of our humanness, sometimes we love something or someone but we don’t always like their behaviors or actions. I believe that is our emotions at play and to a point, we cannot help or stop those feelings completely. However, the Bible never once commands us to just “like” something or someone; the Bible calls on us only to love: to love God and to love others as ourselves.

In fact, that is the greatest commandment of all time according to the scriptures and even Jesus Himself:

-Matthew 22:36-40 NIV-
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

So when it comes to loving others, if we say to ourselves, “I want to make that person happy because I love that person, and since I love them, I also want that person to be happy because of me” then I believe that our hearts are in the right place before God; even preferring others before ourselves (Philippians 2:3). However, loving the Lord and loving people are quite different according to what Jesus says in Matthew. We should certainly love others even as much as we love ourselves, and especially treat others the way we want to be treated;

-Luke 6:31 NKJV-
“And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.”

However, my plea is that we should love God even more than we love ourselves! We should love God even more than we love our own lives and forfeit our greediness of self even too! The love of God should be shed abroad in our hearts more than anything else in our lives! Our hearts should beat for Him and Him alone!

-Matthew 16: 24-25 KJV-
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”

The answer is loving > liking! Placing God in the right place in our hearts; loving Him unconditionally through our prayers and actions, will ultimately lead to us loving people in the right way consequently too. It’s by God’s beautiful and perfect design that all of this is possible! So friends, let’s not be ashamed to love God and love others, boldy, radically and without reservations!

Today is Part One of this 3 part series as we dive into the differences between liking vs. loving and how we are called to interact with people and our merciful God. Today’s consensus is, if we truly love Jesus, we will obey Him, sacrifice for Him and put Him first always in our hearts, minds and souls.

-John 14:15 NIV-
“If you love me, keep my commands.”

God Bless All!