Make Love Your #1 Goal

December 28, 2023

How would you complete this sentence? “My number one goal in life is _____” Think about that for a minute. What word, what phrase would you

use? Would you say, “My number one goal in life is to be happy?” Or “My number one goal in life is to be loved?” Or “My number one goal in life

is to succeed at my career?”

How would you answer that question? It’s very important. If you haven’t ever thought it through, you should, because however you answer that question is what I call your dominant life principle. Everybody’s got a dominant life principle. It’s the most important value in our life. Every time we make a decision, every time we have a choice, we decide what we’re going to do based on our dominant life value, our dominant principle of life.

If my dominant life principle is comfort, then I’m going to tend to choose the easiest thing to do, what’s the most convenient thing. If my dominant life value or principle is safety, then I’m going to tend to make every decision in life based on what’s the safest choice. If my dominant lifestyle is to be approved, to be affirmed, to be applauded, then I’m going to tend to choose things in life where I get the most affirmation. It’s extremely important that we think through what is going to be the most important value in our life.

What does God have to say about this?

1 Corinthians 14:1 “Let love be your highest goal!”  

He says, let love be your highest goal. Not status, not success, not possessions, or power or privilege or prestige, not comfort, not money. He says we should make love our highest goal. Why does he say that? Make love the highest goal of our life. Why? Because God is love and he wants us to be like him. 

Love is also how the world will know we belong to God.

John 13:35 “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

Not our good deeds, not how well we keep the “rules,” not by how much “christian activity” we participate in. Rather, it’s the love we show to others.

The Bible tells us that God created everything in the universe in order to love it. Because God is love. It doesn’t say he has love. He is love. He created us as an object of his love. And God wants us to be like him. So he created us to learn how to love.

One day Jesus was walking down the street and a guy came up to him and he said, “Lord, what is the most important command in the Bible?” Jesus said, “I can do that. I can summarize the entire Bible for you in two sentences. If you get these two things you get it. You get what life is all about.” It’s called the Great Commandment. We’ve looked at it many times.

Mark 12:30-31 (Jesus) “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. No

other commandment is greater than these.”

That’s pretty clear. He said nothing in the Bible, nothing at all, is more important than these two things. Learn to love God with all your heart and, by the way, learn to love everybody else. He said, “If you get those two things, you’ve got it. You understand what I put you on this planet to do.”

It’s Simple: Love God, Love People.

Life is all about learning to love. Everything else is excess. Everything else is secondary. Make love your highest goal. One day we’re going to stand before God and he’s going to say, “Did you learn to love me? That’s why I sent Jesus Christ so you could learn to love me. And did you learn to love other people? Because that’s what I put you on earth to do.” If you miss that, wrong answer! It’s all about love. Life is all about love. Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. That’s what it’s all about.

1 Corinthians 16:14 “And do everything with love.”