Do We Love God?
Love Is An Action One Learns From Service
by Eric Elkin
“The reality test on whether or not we love God’s children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands?”
Do we love God? This question seems like something a confirmation student would need to answer before getting confirmed. My own confirmation celebration remains a blur. There must have been some “test,” I just don’t remember it.
Friends have shared their confirmation stories with me. Some needed to stand in front of the congregation and recite Luther’s Small Catechism. Others were tested by elders in the congregation at a special meeting the night before confirmation. In one congregation, I witnessed students taking a very long extensive test.
Most congregations ask their students to write a statement of faith. Something that lets the congregation know the students have learned what it means to love God. We will listen to these words with great joy. Yet, I believe we always put these students in an awkward position. We want them to say what we want to hear. Do they really love God, though? How will we know?
“Not everyone is your brother or sister in the faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor.”
I was confirmed twice in the faith. My first confirmation was the ritual celebration ending my five-year journey through catechism classes. (Yes, five years of confirmation classes.) I do not remember what I thought about that whole experience or what I did to be officially confirmed. Yet, the time was not a waste. The dividends payed-off much later in life.
My second confirmation occurred in the woods of New York. While working as a counselor in a summer camp, I learned to love. This love was different than any other experience in my life. It was not an emotion one finds on a card but an action one discovers from service.
In those woods of New York, I learned what it means to see everyone as born of God. If God is the author of life, then no child can be born apart from God. I learned there were two great commandments — love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus, however, also added two amendments to these commandments. We are to love our enemies and to love as he has loved. Sometimes I do not feel capable of following these additions. Trying to figure out how to do this has driven me crazy this past year. How do I love my enemy when my enemy seems so full of hate?
This Sunday, two young women will be confirmed in the faith in the church that I serve. When the celebration is over, I hope they learn the action of faith, love. This was a lesson they were taught with words, but I hope they discover its practical application. For it is in loving that we end up learning we are loved, as well.
Click to read 1 John 5: 1-6
Reflection Questions:
What do you remember about your confirmation celebration?
When did faith start (or, stop) making sense to you?
What experience shaped this understanding, or walking away?
When have you felt loved?
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