I love God because of what He has already done. He formed me. He sustained me. He carried me through moments I did not think I would survive. He offers daily mercy, not distant reward.

Why Loving God Is Not About Wanting Heaven

A Scriptural Reflection With Voices From Christian History

A life of faith is often described as a path that leads toward heaven. People are encouraged to believe, behave, and hold on until the end, where they will finally receive the ultimate reward. That description is common, but it does not capture the heart of what Scripture teaches about loving God. When you look closely at the biblical story, and when you listen to the reflections of thoughtful Christian thinkers through history, you find something far more relational and far more beautiful.

Imagine being in a relationship where the only reason the other person stays with you is a future payout. They speak kindly and put in the right gestures, but beneath all of it is the expectation of a financial windfall. No one would call that love. It would be hollow because the person is being used. The relationship is real in appearance but false in motivation.

Faith built on the hope of heaven often resembles that same dynamic. Scripture consistently calls people into love, devotion, humility, and transformation. None of these things can be reduced to a strategy for gaining an eternal prize.

The Call to Love God for Who He Is

Jesus placed love at the very center of everything.

And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

Matthew 22:37 (NASB)

This is the language of devotion. Jesus describes love that comes from the deepest part of a person. He does not motivate this love by promising heaven. He simply states that this is the greatest commandment.

John echoes this same truth.

We love, because He first loved us.

1 John 4:19 (NASB)

This is a description of relationship. God’s love draws out love in return. Good behavior is not a negotiation. It is a response to being loved. In the King James Version, this verse reads, “We love him, because he first loved us,” which makes the direction of that love even more explicit, but the heartbeat is the same.

John continues with a hard line that cuts through religious pretending.

If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

1 John 4:20 (NASB)

This shows the difference between genuine devotion and outward performance. Love cannot be faked in God’s eyes.

Jesus Teaches Against Transactional Religion

Jesus warns His followers about practicing righteousness for the purpose of being noticed or rewarded.

But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Matthew 6:3 (NASB)

This instruction points toward sincerity. If someone performs acts of charity for the sake of status or personal advantage, the heart of the action is lost.

Later in that same teaching, Jesus hits the real center of gravity in a person’s life.

for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:21 (NASB)

A person whose primary treasure is heaven itself often ends up valuing the benefit more than the One who gives it. Jesus calls for a heart anchored in God, not in rewards.

He also tells His followers:

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:33 (NASB)

Seeking the kingdom is about aligning with the life of God. It is not presented as a tactic for achieving a reward. It is described as the proper order of a life shaped by trust.

Goodness for Its Own Sake

Paul pushes the point further.

For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:14 (NASB)

Paul sees love as the very fulfillment of God’s intention for humanity. Love is what goodness looks like when it is alive and real.

Then he gives his famous reflection:

If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:2 (NASB)

Faith is emptied of meaning when it loses love. The actions might remain, but the soul of the life is gone.

Paul also writes:

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

Romans 12:9 (NASB)

This requires sincerity, which cannot grow from reward seeking.

Transformation, Not Compensation

The Old Testament echoes this same theme.

He has told you, mortal one, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8 (NASB)

Walking humbly is not described as a way to gain something. It is simply what goodness looks like when someone knows God.

The Psalms often describe goodness as something that flows naturally from trust in God.

Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4 (NASB)

Delight is personal. It cannot be performed for gain.

Eternal Life as Knowing God

Jesus defines eternal life in relational terms, not as a cosmic prize pack at the end of the line.

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

John 17:3 (NASB)

Heaven is never described here. Eternal life is the knowledge and relationship with God. It begins now. It continues forever. The emphasis is never on getting somewhere. It is on knowing Someone.

What Scholars and Thinkers Have Said

C. S. Lewis wrote frequently about the danger of treating God as a means to an end. In The Problem of Pain, he observed that some people want “not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven” who simply hands out comfort. His point was that God’s love is aimed at forming people into something greater, not bribing them into obedience.

In The Weight of Glory, Lewis wrote that “the reward of virtue is virtue.” He explained that when someone chooses what is good, the goodness itself becomes the blessing that shapes the soul.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned against faith that expects forgiveness and heaven while resisting transformation. In The Cost of Discipleship, he described true discipleship as a love for Christ that leads to obedience because the heart wants to follow Him, not because it wants to gain an advantage.

N. T. Wright writes about virtue as something that grows within a person over time. In After You Believe, he describes Christian character as the result of countless choices that train the heart toward goodness. His emphasis is always on formation, not transaction.

Dallas Willard wrote, “Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning.” His work in The Divine Conspiracy highlights the idea that genuine love leads a person to put effort into becoming more like Christ, but that effort is not an attempt to buy anything from God.

A. W. Tozer wrote that people must come to God “because of who He is,” not because of what He can give. In The Pursuit of God, he explains that God desires to be known and loved, not used.

John Stott often wrote about love as the foundation of Christian ethics. In Basic Christianity, he said that the Christian life begins with “a personal encounter with Christ” and grows from that relationship, not from fear or reward.

Timothy Keller taught frequently that the gospel produces joy in God Himself. In The Reason for God, he explained that the Christian life is not a moral performance to obtain heaven but a transformation that flows from loving God.

Early Christian voices also echo this truth. Augustine wrote that virtue consists in “rightly ordered love” and that the heart must choose God for who He is, not for what He gives. Aquinas taught that the highest form of love for God is “charity,” which loves God for His own goodness.

All of these voices point to the same truth: love for God must be sincere. It must be freely chosen. It must be rooted in who God is, not what God gives.

Heaven as Continuation, Not Reward

When love is the core of a person’s relationship with God, heaven becomes something natural. It becomes the continuation of a relationship already valued. It stops being a prize and becomes simply the setting where the love that was cultivated in this life continues without interruption.

A life shaped by genuine love does not need a reward to justify itself. Love is its own reason. Love holds its own weight. And when someone loves God for who He is, that love becomes the most natural and enduring part of their existence.

That is the kind of love Jesus described.
That is the kind of love Scripture calls for.
And that is the kind of love that makes heaven feel like home rather than a payment.

Spiritual Parallels

Loving God Only Because Heaven Sounds Pleasant

If the only motivation someone has for loving God is the hope of a peaceful, beautiful afterlife, the focus is no longer on God Himself. It becomes a longing for comfort. It is no longer devotion. It is desire for escape.

Treating Faith Like Life Insurance

Some people treat belief like an insurance policy. As long as the paperwork is in place, they think they are covered. That isn’t love. That is fear management.

Obeying God Only Because You Fear Hell

Fear may keep someone in line for a short time, but it never grows roots. Fear cannot produce love. Fear can produce outward obedience, but the heart remains untouched.

Seeing Prayer Only As a Way To Get What You Want

If prayer becomes a way to pull levers or request favors, it stops being communication and becomes a transaction. It is like treating God as a vending machine rather than a Father.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright ©, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org