"How do I love God?" John 21

Why should there be an emphasis in our society and churches on personal accountability and responsibility to ‘group?’

Simply stated, it is 'because we love God – we love others.'

The highly esteemed English clergyman from a hundred years ago, G. Campbell Morgan, said "Our relationship to God creates our value to our fellow man. Our value to our fellow man is the test of our relationship to God."

Three times in one conversation Jesus asked Simon Peter, "...do you love me?" Each time Peter was affirmative and each time Jesus told him to take care of the flock.

There are those who want to take a historical approach to this and say that the fulfillment of this mandate was Peter becoming the first bishop of the church in Rome.

There are others who take a broader view of Jesus' mandates (myself included in this group) as giving direction to that generation for the purposes of future generations in fulfilling the work of the "Kingdom."

Jesus, by extension, was saying to me and my generation 'if you love me take care of those around you.'

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Sonnet 43) said, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." She went on to say in the next few lines:

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light...

Mrs. Browning was a dedicated and devout Christian. She had a deep faith that was reflected in so many of her writings. This love sonnet may well have been written with her future husband, Robert Browning, in mind, but it is equally applicable as an expression of her soul's deep yearning for the eternal and ethereal.

St. Augustine, some 400 years after Christ, posed a question to himself - "What do I love when I love my God..." (Confessions, X, 6)

I must ponder both of these as I take stock of my response to Jesus' question, "Do you love me?"

What DO I love when I love my God? Do I love mankind "...to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach..."?

Do I love God "to the level of every day's most quiet need," day and night?

How do I love God?