Serving God out of Love, not Fear or Compulsion

How Faith is Hindered by Dread and Obligation--and Enriched by Love

Dec 15, 2008

Too often, Christians serve and follow God out of fear or obligation. Only by loving Him, however, can they truly enrich their faith and life.

For many Christians and non-Christians alike, the word “church” evokes one of two images: a fearsome minister preaching about the terrors of hell, or a grudging congregation standing up, sitting down and repeating the same tiresome prayers. Too many believers attend worship services because they feel obliged to do so, or simply because they worry about what might happen if they stay home. Neither reason, however, provides a practicing Christian with true spiritual intimacy.

Serving God out of Fear

The Bible repeats the same message over and over again: God is fearsome and powerful, and has every right to destroy this sinful world. Most preachers have touched on this message in their sermons; others have made a career out of it.

But dread alone is no reason to worship or obey the Lord. Once one has accepted Christ into their lives, as Paul reminds the early church, they have no reason to fear this world or next—rendering the preachers’ warnings defunct. If anything, Jesus came to eradicate the fear of destruction or vengeance that many in the Jewish community had.

Serving God out of Obligation

The next great pitfall a Christian can make is to see worship as a requirement. When Evening Mass and Bible study are seen as routine commitments, spiritual life often reaches a plateau; the believer treats their time with God as just another daily ordeal. It is no wonder that variety has become a major element of the contemporary church service.

It deserves notice that Jesus set no specific time for prayer; indeed, He challenged the institution of the Sabbath—which set a time and duration for spiritual rest. The concept of the “church calendar,” now an integral part of Anglicanism, is nowhere to be found in the New Testament.

When spiritual life is chopped neatly into sections, color-coded by the day and divided into sections, it is no wonder that people have such trouble finding intimacy with God.

Serving God out of Love

There is, then, one alternative to the above two predicaments: instead of serving and following God to dispel worries or keep up with commitments, let love for Him be at the center of one’s faith. This is quite important to do, as the article The Importance of Loving the Holy Spirit explains.

It is impossible to overstate Christ’s two great commandments: Love God, and love one’s neighbor. These two teachings form the real center of Christianity, and for good reason: only when one loves God does worship become enjoyable, outreach welcomed and life enriched. One should also understand that God loves everyone,as this article shows.

When a congregation truly appreciates God, its preacher need not remind them to come to church or speak of hell’s terror; they come out of joy. The first worship communities were organic, springing up wherever a group of brothers (as Paul called them) wished to share and expound on their love for Christ.

The best thing about a love-centered faith, however, is that it mirrors the reason God gave for serving humanity. The Lord was not obligated to save the world, nor did He fear it; instead, He gave Christ up out of compassion and mercy. Likewise, if a Christian is serious about Jesus, their faith will grow out of sincere compassion for God. At that point, everything else becomes simple.

There are plenty of reasons one can give for attending church. Love, however, bests all of them.

The copyright of the article Serving God out of Love, not Fear or Compulsion in Protestantism is owned by Kenneth Burchfiel. Permission to republish Serving God out of Love, not Fear or Compulsion in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.