Test of Love
The greatest commandment is to Love; love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Matt 22:36-40
You cannot love your neighbor unless you love yourself, and you cannot love the Lord unless you love yourself. We cannot love ourselves unless we experience God’s love in the first place and accept what that love reveals about ourselves.
Most of us fail in this area because our revelation or our self assessment is based on skills, accomplishments, status, financial resources, or appearance. This kind of self-esteem can not only lead us to feel independent and prideful and to indulge in self-worship, which dulls our desire for God, but also can lead to disastrous consequences when we fail to measure up to our own standards. If we are not at peace with ourselves in this area, we will not have peace in any area of our lives because we will always be in competition, striving to achieve something which in fact is not real. Paul talks about unwise people who are measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves in 2 Cor 10:12.
If we only trust in ourselves and earthly resources, we will inevitably be left with a sense of false worth. A good example of this is In Numbers 13:33 when the Israelites said “…we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.”
God had commanded them not to look in the mirror and decide what their capabilities are, but to look to Him and see what His capabilities are. To make sure that they trust and rely only on God’s capabilities, He puts them to tests. These tests were to make them see how mighty He is and to show them there is no other hope in victory.
The same way, God asks us to love ourselves not based on what we see in the mirror or based on the parameters set by our friends, but based solely on His love for us. Love is an attribute of God. Love is a core aspect of God’s character, His Person. Therefore we can be sure that we will be tested on this to prove to ourselves that we cannot love the LORD our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves based on skills, accomplishments, status, financial resources, or appearance.
The purpose of exams that we take is to measure how much we know about the subjects the exam covers. In school classes, the purpose is to measure how much we’ve learned about the material that was taught, usually within a given time period. Similarly, God tests us to see if we truly Love Him with all of our Heart & Soul. He Tests Our Character. 2 Cor 2:9 “For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the TEST, whether you are Obedient in All things.”
Job 7:17-18 says we are tested daily, and for what? So that we know where we stand with God, that we are approved by Him. Why is this important? 1 Thessalonians 2: 4 “But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.” God’s tests gives us the acknowledge of his approval which in turn gives us the ability to be independent of the need to please men. In other words, the sense of worth and fulfillment we get when we know that we stand right with God, gives us the ability to look at ourselves and love what we see, because we see that which has been approved by God.
This also give us hope, as indeed Romans 5: 3-5 testifies “ And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us”
So the tests we go through, if viewed from God’s heart, is to reveal to us the measure of how much we know about his love for us and also to prove that the only true love is the love that originates from him, through which we can measure ourselves, which we can bask in and have it overflow from our hearts to others.