The two major commandments of God are "Love your God with all your heart, mind and spirit and love your neighbor as you love yourself". Loving God is being obedient to His commandments.

If we say that we love Him we will walk in his way and try to please Him. The extent of one's love is measured by his efforts to please the other. Will we ever hurt a person we love..? Very often our wrong choices and misplaced priorities hurt Him. He does not like our rituals but desires relationship. He does not care about our ritualistic religious practices. He needs our love, obedience and a way of life that pleases Him.One can do many things for the spouse, get expensive gifts and visit exotic places. But if there is compromise in fidelity it is of no use. Similarly all our external expressions of piety are meaningless in the absence of genuine relationship with God.

If we love God we will love others. Even in the Ten Commandments the first four are about our love for God and the rest is about the way we need to love others. If a person is governed by the principle of love there will be no enmity, jealousy, covetousness, deception, quarrels,divorce, theft, greed, pride and embezzlement.I Corinthians:13 defines the attributes of love. One who is motivated by this love will never grab things and run after fame and name.

Where there is love, self does not raise its ugly head. One who possesses this love will lead a life of contentment. His love for God helps him to rest in Him in total confidence. For he knows that all things are for the good for those who love Him. So he leads a life of contentment. This attitude will engender within him a selfless love for others. It is impossible to love others without experiencing love for God. If one can accept what happens to him as God ordained, he cannot envy others and allow that bitterness to fracture the relationship with them. Loving God and trusting Him is essential factors that will promote good relationships with others.

Do we love God.? Do we love others?

There are 16 traits which can disclose our nature .They are found in I Corinthians 13:4-8. We can say that our love for God has motivated us to love others if we excel in these.

"Wherever the word love occurs we will write our name and check if we fulfill that requirement. If we allow another person to evaluate us in these parameters we can try to improve in the areas we lag behind. Such exercises will be helpful in our spiritual growth as we enter Lenten season.

Dr. (Mrs.) Edriana Jeyasingh