Five Keys to Understanding Our Love For God – Thomas Watson (5 of 9) 

By Daren Dirksen

Published August 22, 2024

In the Great Ejection, church leaders forced 2,000 faithful pastors from their positions. Thomas Watson was one of those that had his ministry, home, and reputation taken from him. Even in the midst of his losses piling up, he still looked to care for his church family through writing a book on Romans 8:28. Which states, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

In the passage, God says that all things work for good. As we have seen in earlier posts, that includes all the best and all the worst things. What a benefit and a blessing! What a healing balm. What an overcoming avalanche of grace from above!

The natural question to ask next would be to ask, to whom do all things work to good? The Bible brings us to the second part of the text with this qualification. All things work to good to them that love God.  To those who are against God, there is no part in this blessing. This forces us to ask ourselves, am I growing in my love to God?  In chapter four of his book, Watson gives five things that concern love to God:

1. The nature of love to God. The nature of love is the inflaming and expansion of the soul and its affections breathing after God as the ultimate good.
2. The ground of love to God. The ground of love is knowledge.  Watson points out that we cannot love that which we do not know. First, we desperately need to know the fulness, sufficiency, and the enablement of grace to us (Col. 1:19).  Second, we need to know the freedom of our access. “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” (Rev. 22:17). Third, we need to know that this fullness in God is ours (Ps. 48:14).
3. The kinds of love to God.  We need to know the love of appreciation, delight and sacrifice for Him. With this love, you will want Him and what will honor Him.
4. The properties of love to God. First, He should be our first love and our whole love (Mk. 12:30).  Second, it must be a sincere love. It needs to be primarily for Him, not for self-interest. Watson says that we must love God more for what He is, than for what He gives. He gives an example of how a mother does not need to be hired to love her child. In the same manner, a soul deeply in love with God does not need to be a hireling who’s only there for the rewards. As he points out, the stars vanish when the sun appears. Third, it must be a fervent love. Fourth, it must be an active love, always burning like a fire. Our love will never be as He deserves, but may we try! He is worth it. Fifth, it must be liberally kind. Sixth, it must be particular. Like His love, it should be like a love beyond anywhere else. It should be a love joined with adoration that He alone has the key to. Last, it should be a permanent love that will persevere always. It is the one heart that does not stop beating.
5. The degree of love to God.Our love for Him must be in and above all our relationships and things that we have and seek.

Watson gives a clear glimpse into love for God, but those who do not love God must be sharply reproved. Watson warns, “He is blind whom beauty does not tempt… When the body is cold and has no heat in it, it is a sign of death: that man is dead who has no heat of love in his soul to God.” As 1 Cor. 16:22 declares, “If any man does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema-maranatha.”

May you repent of your sins and turn to Christ believing that He saves, lest you perish for eternity. Beg Him for a heart that truly loves and grows in and for Him.  As Watson states, “God, who is the chief of our happiness, must have the chief of our affections.”

In the next post, we will look at tests and signs that this love is genuine.

Q What is it about God that stirs your love to Him?  Share that with Him and another person.