Here nestled in the middle of the second commandment is this fantastic statement about the love of God.  The second commandment tells us not to create a manufactured image of God.  It also tells us not to bow down to any image, even if you do find an image of Jesus in your grandmother’s meatloaf; thank God for it then eat it, don’t bow down to it.  God is so serious about this commandment that He takes three verses to express how He feels about this matter.

The reason God gives that we shouldn’t bow down to other gods is that He is a jealous God.  God will not share our love with anything else.  His love for us is limitless; it never ends.  Because He loves us so much, He expects us to direct our love back to Him.  When we don’t, it upsets God because that was what we were created for, to love and worship God.  When we direct our love to something else, God considers that idol worship.  Of course, this doesn’t apply to the love that He has given us for others, like our spouse or children, unless we allow that love for others to replace Him in our hearts.

God is so serious about this that He will punish those who choose to love something other than Him.  That should give us pause but it is our verse for the day that grabbed me.  God created us to worship Him and obey Him.  Our verse tells us that if we will do that, God will lavish His love on us.  It is the word ‘lavish’ that is so cool about this verse.  To lavish is to give abundantly or without limits.  This verse teaches us that if we will love God and obey His commands, He will give us His love without any limitations.

When I lavish my love upon my wife, I am doing everything that I can to make her life as great and blessed and joyous as I possibly can.  The problem with me lavishing my love upon my wife is that I am limited; I can only do so much.  Another problem is that I don’t know enough to make her life all that it could be; my knowledge is limited.

God doesn’t have those problems; He knows exactly how to make our lives as good as they can be, and He also has unlimited resources and power to make whatever He desires come to pass.  All I have to do to experience that lavishing of God’s love is to love Him and to obey Him.  Here’s the amazing part about that, even the ability to love God and to obey Him are gifts that He gives us through the power of the Holy Spirit.  God commands us to love and obey Him and then gives us the Holy Spirit so that we can because without the Holy Spirit we could only love ourselves.

Can you imagine what it might be like to experience the unlimited love of God being poured into your life?  We can do more than imagine it; we can experience it.  All we have to do is love Him and obey Him.  Jesus, help us to experience the lavishing of God’s unlimited love.

Read: Exodus 19:16-21:21; Matthew 23:13-39; Psalm 28:1-9; Proverbs 7:1-5