Why Do I Love Christ?

I had a great breakfast meeting yesterday with a good friend of mine who is in ministry. We talked about many things but only one thing really stands out to me. We began to discuss the average Christian, as we see in our churches and my friend made a profound statement. He said, "Many people love Christ for the wrong reason. As a matter of fact we the church often teaches the people to love Jesus for the wrong reason." He went on to explain by asking me a question. "What if Christ neve would have endured the Cross and died for our sins, would that change the nature of who He is?" The answer to my friends question was no it would not change.

The point here is that we should not love Christ simply for the things He has done for us but we should love Him because of who He is. This was something I had never contemplated before but it makes sense. If I only loved Mary Kathryn for the things she did for me then my love for her would change on the days she doesn't really do anything. A sad truth, I believe, is that many Christians treat Christ the same way. Our love is contingent on what He does in our lives when it should be based on who Christ is.