1 John 2:15-17
Our Lord God called David the King of Israel, “A man after His own heart”. God knew the heart of David because he was just and right man therefore, God knew that by anointing David as the king of Israel he would govern Gods people with wisdom and understanding and give them justice without showing any partiality or favouritism and serve Him faithfully and whole-heartedly till the end and bring glory and honour to Him. King David loved and served God whole heartedly and proved that he was really a man after Gods own heart. So, God honoured David by giving this title. A person can serve God whole heartedly only when he loves Him whole heartedly.
How was it possible for King David to love God whole heartedly?
The main reason why David could love God whole-heartedly was because he did not allow worldly love to enter into his heart and capture his heart. Didn’t King David have opportunities to fall in love with the world and the things of the world? Yes, indeed since David was a famous King in Israel, he had thousands of opportunities to fall in love with the things of the world but one thing that kept King David away from worldly love is that he had an intimate relationship with God. He sought God daily through prayers and reading the word of God hence his relationship with God became stronger and stronger day by day and he loved God with a heart full of devotion. So, nothing of the world separated him from God’s love.
After his rule, his son Solomon became the King of Israel. In the beginning of his rule, he loved and served God whole heartedly like his father David but gradually he separated from God’s love. He served God with a divided heart of devotion.
What caused him to separate from Gods love?
King Solomon married with the foreign women who were worshipping pagan gods. Love for these women compelled Solomon to worship their gods even after knowing that the God of Israel is the one true God. Now he was serving God with divided heart of devotion which caused God to punish Solomon for his unfaithfulness. God took away the kingdom of Israel from David’s household and gave it to one of his enemy, Jeroboam to rule during Solomon’s son Rehoboam reign. And only one part of Israel that was Judah was given to Solomon’s son Rehoboam to rule.
Idolatry is one of the main reasons why people cannot love and serve God whole heartedly and get separated from God’s love.
What is idolatry?
Matthew 6:21
Loving created things more than the Creator is called idolatry. It may be a person or an object. How can a person know whether he loves the Creator more than the creation?
The Word of God gives clear answer for this as where your treasure is there your heart will be. What does it mean? The thing that a person’s heart longs or desires most of his time and seeks to get it is the treasure of his heart or an idol installed in his heart which robs God’s love from his heart and compels him to do evil things in the eyes of God and separates him from God’s love. So he cannot love God whole heartedly and the result is that he loses God’s best in his life.
Matthew 6:24
We all know that our Lord Jesus Christ had 12 disciples. From the beginning to the end of Jesus’ ministry; all the apostles loved and served God whole heartedly except Judas Iscariot who betrayed Lord Jesus Christ for 30 silver coins and handed Him over to his enemies to crucify him.
What caused Judas to separate from God’s love?
The Word of God tells us that man cannot love God as well as money. Either he loves one and hates the other. Judas Iscariot set his heart on money instead of God so his love for money blindfolded his eyes of understanding and he could not recognise the one whom he was about to betray is the Lord and God and the treasure of heaven and earth who would have supplied all his needs till the end of his life along with Eternal Life. This led him to do such an evil thing against God and he got separated from God’s love and the result was that he lost his life and also eternal life.
Today many families are separated from one another and relationships between the families are broken just for one reason that is love for money, wealth and possession. To get all these things they betray their own loved ones with whom they once upon a time ate, sat, walked and enjoyed life. Now they live in hatred and enmity with each other and there is no love.
Can such people love God?
The Word of God tells us that if a person cannot love other person whom he can see than he cannot love God who is unseen. In other words the person is separated from God’s love and his love for God is not perfect.
1 Samuel 15:10-12
Before David could become the King of Israel, King Saul was ruling the kingdom of Israel and David was serving under him. From the beginning till the end of his rule, he did not serve God faithfully and whole heartedly. Each time he did his own will and disobeyed God. So, God was grieved that He made Saul the King of Israel and He rejected him and made David the King of Israel.
What caused King Saul to separate from God’s love?
Saul the first king of Israel on being established in his kingship; 1st thing that he did was to go to a place called Carmel and set up a monument in his own honour and exalt himself so that he would become famous before the people. Secondly, once there was a war between the Israelites and the Philistines and David was serving under king Saul. In the battle David killed more Philistines than King Saul so the women of that town praised David’s success. On hearing this Saul felt jealous because in future people would make David the King of Israel and his throne would be shaken and he would lose his position. So, in his entire rule he could not set his heart on God but he was behind King David so that he could put an end to David’s life and protect his own name, fame and position.
So he couldn’t love and serve God whole heartedly and was separated from God’s love.
Many people cannot love and serve God whole heartedly because instead of setting their heart on God and His will they set their heart and mind on seeking name, fame and position. This leads them to do evil things in the sight of God which results in losing God’s best in their life.
These above-mentioned things are the reasons for man to be separated from God’s love. So, we need to check our hearts as to which is the thing that takes us away from God and we need to overcome it. Amen!