Article July 27, 1987 Issue

Loving God supremely

The more we put our love for God at the center of our lives, the more we will love others with a joyous and healing love.

Lola L. Willson

To have and love one God seems a tall order sometimes when there's so much emphasis on achieving more status at work, becoming more affluent at home, having a more fashionable life style, and dieting and exercising for a "perfect" body. Very quickly these goals can become gods that we either adore or fear. We worry that perhaps the goals are unattainable for us or will be taken from us after we have attained them. What whimsical and uncertain gods—not worthy of our worship!

Christ Jesus showed us the results of true worship when he refused to be tempted by worldly power. He said, quoting Scripture, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."^{Matt. 4:10.} With these words he banished the temptations that had assailed him and welcomed the divine comfort that was immediately present to minister to him. This rebuke took place after he had been tempted in three very basic areas of human life. Jesus was tempted to admit that his life was sustained by food, that his intelligence could be fooled and compromised into making him do something self-destructive, that the attainment of material possessions, power, and success was worth the sacrifice of his integrity and fidelity to God.

Jesus knew he already had all possible good from God, and he refused to relinquish this good by bowing down to or worshiping anything else. He challenged each devilish suggestion with the spiritual fact, with the power that was his as the Son of God. Standing fearlessly in his spiritual conviction, he maintained his complete reliance on his Father's omnipresent goodness and provision, and the temptations disappeared. This true way of worship is epitomized in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Here he showed us how to love God supremely, and in his life, his healing work, his resurrection, he demonstrated Christ, the power of his heavenly Father, God.

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