What does God most want of us: our love or our compliance, our trust or our subservience? Jesus chose love as the answer he gave. Theoretically, evangelical Christians–“born-again” drives them–choose “trust.” The old hymn, “Trust and Obey” claims that “there is no other way.” Trust and obey, love and therefore comply, why ask that we choose between them? God wants it all: love, compliance, trust, subservience, obedience. These are not separable. Why then ask what God wants most?

I raise the question because, having been in church since before I was two-years-old, I’ve seen the unloving demand for compliance dominate the attitude of many churches. I’ve watched many leave, rejected by the church, because they would not comply with the church’s interpretation of God’s expectations. If anyone stepped out of the bounds–or refused to live inside the boundaries set by the church–they were easily dismissed. Hardhearted churches. Members becoming meaner year after year. That is what I have seen; that is why I renew the question of the “greatest commandment.”

I’ve listened, especially in recent years, to the supreme emphasis being given to God’s supremacy and thus, our compliance. The sovereignty of God rules. Again, I’ve witnessed the hardheartedness of these “sovereignty” people. That is why I ask which God “most” wants.

God wants our love. That is, as Jesus clearly stated, what God wants. All else flows from the love of God. “We love because he first loved us.” All else is wrapped up in love. “If you love me, keep my commandments,” as the natural re-sponse to our love for him, the depth and breadth of that love will all love involves. “The fruit of the Spirit is love . . ..” Love leads the list of the fruits of the Spirit. The other fruits–joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control–all grow out of the interactivity of God loving us, us loving of God. And neighbor. And enemy. When loving, we find we are filled with joy, know and produce peace. “Love is patient.” Kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control–these all are components of love.

As Covey has so pointedly stated: "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." Love is the main thing, a loving love, a divine kind of loving, a Jesus kind of loving.

If we love God, we will love each other, and compliance will follow. If we love God, we will, with no sense of pressure or threat, be subservient to his sovereignty.

God is sovereign, but his is the sovereignty of love, not of sheer power or coercive will. It is easy to be subservient to the sovereignty of love.

When out of love we serve the God of love and bow before him and ask, “Lord what would you have me do?” others will be attracted to the joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control they see demonstrated. Unthreatened, uncoerced, they will want to know how and why we live like that. At that point they will be willing, they will be ready to hear the word of God.