Loving God – Joshua 23:11

So be very diligent to love the Lord your God for your own well-being.

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Father God knows that our love for Him brings about our own well being. To love God is to love oneself since loving Him naturally brings His goodness to a person. We can debate about our motivation for loving God and certainly selfishness is never a biblical motivation for anything good; however, it is Father God’s leader, Joshua, who is speaking here and he says to be diligent in our love for the Lord God for our own well-being. If it is God’s anointed leader who is suggesting the motive of self-preservation and enhancement, how can we argue about the validity of such a motivation?

Ultimately, our purest motivation for loving God flows out of our deep respect for who He is and what He does; yet, He also enjoins us to love Him in order to receive the blessing He provides – True Life. He knows the alternative is death. When we love Him it is truly for our own well being. When we don’t, the consequences are dire.

Matthew 22:37
And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’