It is mainstay of traditional Christianity – and most emphatically of evangelical Christianity – that an adherent love God – and Jeus, as God’s son – as well. God and Jesus are two inanimate figures that one can only imagine, so one can wonder how it is that one chooses to love them.
Let’s begin with his overarching declaration when he said (according to Matthew (ch.22): “I have not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets…. But, this is the first and great commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, strength and mind – and your neighbor as yourself”.
So, in a practical, living sense, what does it mean to “love the Lord your God”? Respect? Yes. Honor? Yes. Even Worship? Yes. But, how do you love an entity that you cannot see, touch or feel – or with whom you have had no physical experience? How do you evidence (even to yourself) that you are doing that? Everyone contains his or her own image of who God is – and what is expected to show that love. So, maybe you love the mental image you have of God – but that’s not love of your actual God. Perhaps what Jesus meant by that statement is to recognize that one has obligations beyond oneself to which he/she must be devoted. The way of the narcissist must give way to that of the one who realizes that his/her being must be devoted to living for others. That is the meaning of life.