What Does The New Testament Tell Us About How We Can Love God?
Introduction
This article is the first of a series that will unpack some of the analysis work currently being undertaken to draw out the main teachings from the New Testament from a personal discipleship perspective. The description of the way this analysis is being done was explained in the previous Faith Article (Note [1]).
This, in turn, referred to an earlier article [2] that set out that the main message from the New Testament for disciples is ‘Become more like Jesus’. As this is the most important message from the New Testament we have chosen to define this as the ‘Kingdom Objective’.
Over the course of this series we shall aim to build what we will refer to as the ‘One Page New Testament’ - #onepagenewtestament. This will be a pictorial summary of the main messages for disciples in a systematically derived, structured form. We will try to keep the descriptive text to a minimum and share with you the different ‘Themes’ that are being created. We will consider the scriptures on their own merit, Theme by Theme, hopefully without introducing much in the way of theology. This article, however, includes an exception as one interpretation of the relevance of the Old Testament Law in the New is outlined.
If readers take away nothing else from these articles than the sense, logic, and directives in the Figures - for disciples to put in to practice in the strength God gives - we will hopefully have achieved our initial objective.
The Themes that we will introduce, and describe briefly in this article, are shown in light blue in Figure 1.
Figure 1 - New Testament Themes that teach us how to ‘Love God’
Kingdom Fundamental 1 [KF1] - The Command to ‘Love God’
Jesus identified the command to ‘Love God’ as one of the two most important in the scriptures. We have used the term ‘Kingdom Fundamental’ to describe this level in the Systematic Discipleship structure we will be developing. This, together with the need to ‘Follow Jesus’ and ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ are the three elements of discipleship that should be core to our lives as believers.
We already understand that when Jesus was questioned he said we are to:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, (Mark 12:30)” [3].
It is one thing to know this in our minds but another thing to try and put it into practice - day in and day out.
If we look at what the New Testament teaches about the command to ‘Love God’ we can find a number of Greek words that help explain this Theme. Three are outlined here:
agapaó - to love (Strong’s Greek reference 25)
agapé - love / goodwill (Strong’s Greek reference 26)
phileó - to love (friendship / affection) (Strong’s Greek reference 5368).
Example scriptures we can use to illustrate this need to ‘Love God’ can be grouped under two subheadings:
Kingdom Fundamental 1.1 [KF1.1] - Have Love for God / Jesus
Kingdom Fundamental 1.2 [KF1.2] - Do not Hate God.
Let’s briefly explore some of these that fall into each category.
Kingdom Fundamental 1.1 [KF1.1] - Have love for God /Jesus
In this first area, scriptures we can highlight include:
Matthew 22:37 - Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
John 8:42 - Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me.
John 21:15 - When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
Ephesians 6:24 - Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
Others that we could list include: Romans 8:28, James 1:12, 1 John 4:19, and 1 John 5:2. There are something like 34 scripture verses that convey this sense of ‘Have love for God / Jesus’.
Kingdom Fundamental 1.2 [KF1.2] - Do not hate God
Conversely, there is one scripture that gives a warning - ‘Do not hate God’:
Romans 1:30 - slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents.
Any worthwhile relationship (e.g. a strong friendship or marriage) requires effective two-way communications to understand each party’s priorities, expectations, wants, and needs. It is no different when we look at our relationship with God, and this can be best summarised in terms of two what we will call ‘Kingdom Practices’ - to:
Kingdom Practice 1 [KP1] - Listen to (Obey) God
Kingdom Practice 2 [KP2] - Talk (Pray) to God.
These Kingdom Practices in turn can be broken down into more detail at a fourth level we will call ‘Kingdom Actions’. These will also be supported by a range of Bible references.
For this first article we will look briefly at what the New Testament tells us about studying the scriptures in the context of the Kingdom Practice to ‘Listen to (Obey) God’ (see above). The Kingdom Practice to ‘Talk (Pray) to God’ (above) will be described in the next Faith Article in this Systematic Discipleship series.
Kingdom Practice 1 [KP1] - Listen to (Obey) God
As part of the process of listening to God there are two Kingdom Actions that we can derive from the New Testament that demonstrate that we are committed to our relationship with Him. We should:
Kingdom Action 1 [KA1] - Study the scriptures (to hear God’s word to us)
Kingdom Action 2 [KA2] - Obey God / Jesus (as an outworking of love not legalism).
These are explained in more detail below.
Kingdom Action 1 [KA1] - Study the scriptures (To hear God’s Word to us)
Two reference sources have been used to identify Greek words that either mean or are related to the terms ‘scripture’ and ‘listen’ - Louw and Nida’s ‘Greek English Lexicon’ [4] and ‘Mounce’s Expository Dictionary’ [5]. These books have been used as a basis for identifying verses in the New Testament that will help us get some insight about what disciples of Jesus should understand about scripture, from the scriptures themselves.
Firstly, there are four Greek words that mean or refer to ‘scripture’ [4], [5]:
graphé (Strong’s reference 1124) - defined as ‘a writing, scripture’ and its usage includes ‘(a) a writing, (b) a passage of scripture; plur: the scriptures’. This word appears 51 times in the New Testament.
graphó (Strong’s reference 1125) - defined as ‘to write’ and its usage includes ‘I write; pass: it is written, it stands written (in the scriptures)’. This appears 192 times in the New Testament.
nomothetés (Strong’s reference 3550) - lawgiver - a law-giver, legislator. There is only 1 occurrence in the New Testament.
nomos (Strong’s reference 3551) - defined as ‘that which is assigned, usage, law’ and its usage includes ‘usage, custom, law; in NT: of law in general, plur: of divine laws; of a force or influence impelling to action; of the Mosaic law; meton: of the books which contain the law, the Pentateuch, the Old Testament scriptures in general. There are 196 instances in the New Testament.
Secondly, there are number of Greek words that are either directly or semantically (have similar meanings) related to the term ‘listen’. The most relevant (drawn from the references at [4] and [5]) include those below, defined by the reference at [6] are:
akouó (Strong’s reference 191) - defined as ‘to hear, listen’ and its usage includes ‘I hear, listen, comprehend by hearing; pass: is heard, reported’. There are 430 instances in the New Testament.
akoé (Strong’s reference 189) - defined as ‘hearing, the sense of hearing’ and its usage includes ‘hearing, faculty of hearing, ear; report, rumor’. This occurs 24 times.
ous (Strong’s reference 3775) - defined as ‘the ear’ and its usage includes ‘(a) the ear, (b) met: the faculty of perception’. There are 37 examples of this word in the New Testament.
parakouó (Strong’s reference 3878) - defined as ‘to overhear, to hear amiss, to take no heed’ and its usage includes ‘(a) I hear carelessly or incidentally, or I pretend not to hear, (b) I refuse to hear; I disobey, disregard’. This can be found 3 times.
eisakouó (Strong’s reference 1522) - defined as ‘to listen, to obey’ and its usage includes ‘I hear, listen to, heed’. There are only 5 uses of this word in the New Testament.
If we look at all of the verses that contain these Greek words, we can group many of them together and draw out a number of Themes that we should trying to pay attention to as disciples under this ‘Study the Scriptures’ topic. We can summarise them as follows:
Kingdom Action 1.1 [KA1.1] - Know that God is the giver of the law.
Kingdom Action 1.2 [KA1.2] - Give the same authority to scripture as Jesus and the Apostles do.
This (and the related scripture verses) can be further broken down into three lower level Themes which we shall just name here:
KA1.2.1 - Read / study / know the scriptures.
KA1.2.2 - Grasp that Jesus fulfilled Old Testament scripture / prophecy.
KA1.2.3 - Understand teaching from the Old Testament in the New Testament.
Kingdom Action 1.3 [KA1.3] - Accept the Holy Spirit’s teaching through the New Testament’s authors
Again, this can be separated into three more detailed Themes which we will not describe further at this point:
KA1.3.1 - Believe the truth that is the New Testament scriptures.
KA1.3.2- - Recognise that Jesus spoke truth and prophesies in the New Testament.
KA1.3.3 - Know that the ‘Holy Spirit testifies to Jesus / the truth (in the Bible).
Kingdom Action 1.4 [KA1.4] - Hear / listen to God / Jesus / Holy Spirit (through scripture).
Let’s look at each of these lower level Kingdom Actions (KA1.1 to KA1.4) briefly, to understand which scriptures can be considered to support these. We will keep the numbering used above to (hopefully) make this easier to follow!
Kingdom Action 1.1 [KA1.1] - Know that God is the giver of the law
A number of verses testify and confirm that God is the provider of the law. These include:
2 Timothy 3:16 - All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
James 4:12 - There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you--who are you to judge your neighbour?
Romans 16:26 - but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith
Other references we could look at include: Romans 7:22, Romans 7:25, Romans 8:7, and Hebrews 8:10. There are at least 11 scripture references that could be grouped in this category.
Kingdom Action 1.2 [KA1.2] - Give the same authority to scripture as Jesus and the Apostles do
Jesus confirms the authority of scripture in a number of places:
Matthew 4:7 - Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’
Matthew 5:17 - Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfil them.
Matthew 22:29 - Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”
Luke 24:27 - And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Luke 24:44 - He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
Other verse references we could look at include: John 7:38, John 10:35, Acts 17:2 and Romans 3:10. There are potentially around 180 verse references that can be placed in this Theme.
Kingdom Action 1.3 [KA1.3] - Accept the Holy Spirit’s Teaching through the New Testament’s authors
We understand from the 2 Timothy 3:16 (above) that God breathed the text of scripture through His Holy Spirit. Therefore, if we consider the use of the word ‘graphó’ (meaning to write) when the authors use phrases relating to their writing we understand that they are writing teaching from the Holy Spirit (truth) that we should follow.
John 1:14 - The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 17:17 - Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
John 3:3 - Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.
John 8:58(2) - “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
We could all consider John 15:26, John 20:31, 1 Corinthians 14:37 and Ephesians 3:5. There are around 325 scripture verses that we could group under this heading.
Kingdom Action 1.4 [KA1.4] - Hear / listen to God / Jesus / Holy Spirit (through scripture)
There are many New Testament verses where listeners and readers are encouraged to listen, pay attention to, or hear what is being said verbally and in writing.
Matthew 5:21 - “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’
Matthew 7:26 - But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
Matthew 11:15 - Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Luke 9:35 - A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”
We can also look at the following: Matthew 13:14, Mark 8:18, Mark 13:7 and Luke 9:44. There are approximately 125 verses that can be listed under this Theme.
Kingdom Action 2 [KA2] - Obey God / Jesus (as an outworking of love - not legalism)
This is the second concept under the Theme to ‘Listen to (Obey) God’.
Five Greek words feature strongly in this analysis:
agapaó - to love (Strong’s 25)
agapé - love / goodwill (Strong’s 26)
agapétos - beloved (Strong’s 27)
akroatés - a hearer (Strong’s 202)
and kaleó - to call (Strong’s 2564).
Some of the verses in which they appear provide the support for the need to Obey God / Jesus. These include:
Luke 6:46 - “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
John 14:15 - If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
John 14:23 - Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
1 John 5:3 - In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
Other verses we can consider include: Romans 2:13, Philippians 2:12, James 1:22, There are around 40 examples of verses that can be grouped in this context.
If we look at all of the verses that contain these Greek words, we can group many of them together and draw out two more Kingdom Actions. These are:
Kingdom Action 2.1 [KA2.1] - Apply the NT teaching on obedience to the OT
Kingdom Action 2.2 [KA2.2] - Obey God / Jesus (through the commands in scripture - the Law of love)
Kingdom Action 2.1 [KA2.1] - Apply the NT teaching on obedience to the OT
Again, we’ll look at the scriptures that support these two topic areas using the above numbering shortly, but first we will consider a little necessary theology! (Please note that this is one interpretation of the relevance of the Old Testament Law for Christians. Others may take a different perspective and it is up to you, guided by your pastors or teachers, to come to your own views on what is the ‘right’ way).
There are many references to the Law (commonly interpreted as the first five books of the Old Testament) in the New Testament. In summary, the Old Testament Law applied to the nation of Israel to set them apart from the nations that they displaced and who continued to cause ongoing issues for them, particularly in relation to idolatry. These Old Testament laws did not apply to the gentile nations around them since they were only given to the people of Israel.
Jesus tells us that he did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it (Matthew 5:17-18). When Christ was on earth the Old Testament law was still in effect (Old Covenant) but through His life (fulfilling the law), crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension the New Covenant came into being and the Old Covenant was superseded (Romans 10:4, Galatians 3:23-25, and Ephesians 2:14-16).
Thus the Jewish civil law (Romans 7:6); ceremonial (sacrificial) law (Hebrews 9:11-27); dietary laws (Mark 7:18-19); and segregation laws (Acts 10:9-16 and 27-29) ceased to apply with coming of the New Covenant.
The moral laws remain (summarised through the 10 Commandments - although even the command to keep of the Sabbath was overtaken as a specific reference from St Paul - Romans 14:5-6). These moral laws are repeated both by Jesus (Matthew 19:18-19, Mark 10:19 and Luke 18:20) and by Paul (explicitly in Romans 13:9, implicitly in 1 Timothy 1:8-11 and elsewhere) in the New Testament and thus remain applicable to Jesus’ followers.
Another way of looking at it might be to distinguish between interpreting and understanding what the Bible (Old and New Testament) teaches about behaving ethically (essentially thinking about and conducting ourselves in a way that does no harm to a neighbour), and Old Testament laws that related to God’s desire for the nation of Israel to have a distinct, separate identity from the people groups around them.
Christian Philosopher Ed Langerak puts it this way:
Being shaped by biblical revelation is the primary way that Christian ethics can be distinguished from alternative ethical perspectives, both religious and secular; thus one important question for a Christian ethicist is how morality (the practice) or ethics (ideas about the practice) depends on religion (convictions and commitments) or theology (critical discussion about those convictions and commitments) [7].
All of this does not mean that we should not read and understand the Old Testament laws since all scripture is of value (2 Timothy 3:16). The moral / ethical prohibitions of the Old Testament are still valid for Jesus’ followers to take note of and seek to apply to themselves - as the Holy Spirit empowers.
In New Covenant terms we understand that although we have done, and may continue to do, things that are ethically or morally wrong in God’s eyes, all the sins of believers have been paid for through Christ’s atonement on the cross. In responding to what Christ has done for us, we are now required to fulfil the law of love (Romans 13:8-10, 1 Corinthians 13, and Galatians 5:13-18).
If we look at the Greek word nomos - the Law (Scripture) - (Strong’s 3551) there are a number of verses that we can draw on that teach about ‘obedience’ to the (moral) Law / justification through faith (in addition to those above):
Romans 2:13 - For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
Romans 3:20 - Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Romans 3:28 - For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
Romans 3:31 - Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.
Romans 6:15 - What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!
We could also refer to: Romans 8:4, Galatians 2:16 and Galatians 3:24. In all there are around 120 verses that can be identified with this heading for the word nomos and other related Greek words (e.g. phulassó - to guard, watch, keep, observe (Strong’s 5442)).
Kingdom Action 2.2 [KA2.2] - Obey God / Jesus (through the commands in scripture - the Law of love)
Having understood a little about New Testament teaching of the Old Testament Law we can now look at the related scriptures that focus on our need to be obedient, as the Holy Spirit enables us.
There are a number relevant Greek words that we can consider here too. For example:
peitharcheó - I obey one in authority, conform to advice, obey, follow (Strong’s 3980)
hupakoé - obedience, submissiveness, compliance (Strong’s 5218)
hupakouó - I listen, hearken to, obey, answer (Strong’s 5219)
téreó - I keep, guard, observe, watch over (Strong’s 5083)
Example scriptures we can consider include:
Matthew 19:17 - “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
Matthew 28:20 - and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Luke 11:28 - He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.
John 14:21 - Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Acts 5:32 - We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
We could also consider: Romans 1:5, 2 Thessalonians 3:14, 1 Peter 1:14, 1 John 3:22 and 1 John 5:3. There are around 80 verses that we can put into this topic area.
Summary
In this first Systematic Discipleship article, we have introduced five levels for our Systematic Discipleship structure, comprising:
One Kingdom Objective - ‘Become More Like Jesus’
Three Kingdom Fundamentals - ‘Love God’, ‘Follow Jesus’, and 'Love your neighbour as yourself’
Nine Kingdom Practices - the first of which we have called ‘Listen to (Obey) God’
Two Kingdom Actions - ‘Study the Scriptures (to hear God’s Word to us)’ and ‘Obey God / Jesus (as an outworking of love - not legalism)’
A number of lower level Kingdom Actions that we can derive from reviewing and grouping the verses associated with a number of linked Greek words having a similar related meaning (as set out in [4] and [5]).
We have highlighted some of the Greek words that have been investigated (many more have been considered but not recorded here) as part of the process of identifying Themes that can be drawn from the verses in which these Greek verses appear - as they can be applied to discipleship.
Ultimately, these groupings will be subjective as will be the inclusion (or exclusion) of many verses within each Theme, especially as some verses have a much stronger relevance to the derived Themes than others. Hopefully, showing the number or relevant verses within each Theme gives some indication of the strength of their validity.
During the analysis, the aim has been to restrict the number of Themes that can be associated with any specific Greek word to eight or less - as any more implies poor analysis technique and the wrong choice / naming process.
In the next Faith Article we shall consider the Themes and scriptures that we can derive under the second Kingdom Practice - ‘Talk (Pray) to God’.
Any constructive thoughts on this Article, the process being undertaken, and related feedback are welcome.
Notes:
[3] - Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.TM.
The Bible references presented are illustrative rather than aiming to be ‘proof texts’. They are examples only as there are many more we could look at.
Please note that when looking at any Bible verse references, you should ideally consider more than one translation / respected version to get a more rounded view, and also look at the wider context for each verse too. In particular, when Greek words are translated, Bible scholars do not always use the same English word for every time it appears in the Greek. This is why it is useful to look at more than one Bible version.
[4] - “Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, based upon Semantic Domains” Volumes 1 and 2 - Louw and Nida - Published by and © United Bible Societies - 1988
[5] - “Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words” - © William D Mounce, 2006 - Published by Zondervan
[6] - biblehub - https://biblehub.com/greek/
[7] - https://pages.stolaf.edu/ein/christian-ethics/what-is-christian-ethics/
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Reading the articles will take only a little time to study - more if we look up the additional Bible references - and probably a lifetime to work out in practice. Hopefully they will help make each of us ‘Become more like Jesus’!
If you have any constructive feedback, please feel free to share via the comments box below.