1Co 13:5 (Love) does not seek its own...
There are many who claim to love God and yet seek their own.
* Many people do good works for God because they want salvation in return for SELF.
* They make huge sacrifices in their lives because they believe that somehow they can earn a place in heaven for SELF if they do it.
* They give donations to charity, make pilgrimages, do fasting etc to somehow gain brownie points so that SELF can escape the fires of hell.
This is "loving" God not for the sake of God, but for the sake of self. The motivation behind all these things is to seek one's own advantage. It is actually tossing bouquets of flowers heavenward to God, knowing fully well that it will land back to you.
This is not really a love relationship, this engaging in trading business! This is saying: “I love you because I need you. I want to get something from you in return.” This is simply using God for SELF.
And that is why God’s salvation is never given this way. God wants a true love relationship with us.
One of the reasons why salvation is given freely as a gift by His grace, by His undeserved favor, through faith, and not of works, is because after receiving this kind of salvation, we can truly focus fully and wholly on pleasing God for God’s sake.
When you as a sinner, worthy of God’s judgment, will be given salvation freely as a gift, as an undeserved favor from God, your response will only be that of gratitude towards Him. You will be melted by His goodness and His love. You can’t help it but love Him back.
This time, you will want to please God for God’s sake. You will want to obey His commandments to solely please Him and not to get something in return for self.
