Carol J German

“I was lookin’ for love in all the wrong places. Looking for love in too many faces. Searching their eyes, lookin’ for traces of what I’m dreaming of. Hoping to find a friend and a lover, I’ll bless the day I discover, another heart – looking for love.” (“Looking For Love in All the Wrong Places” lyrics, by Johnny Lee, songlyrics.com)

Your heart was made for love. God placed it within you when He created you in your mother’s womb. I have two grandsons being knit together in their mother’s womb as we speak. They are made to love and to be loved. In a few short weeks, they will arrive, and this grandma can’t wait to love on them and show them Christ’s love.

Your heart was made to beat for only one love. Unfortunately, it’s easy to share your heart with other less important loves, like people or money. When you share your heart with something or someone along with Jesus, your heart becomes divided, and you fall into a deadly trap of casual love. Take a minute to listen to the song I referenced above. Pay attention to the lyrics. How does this person reveal a divided heart?

You and I like to look for love in all the wrong places.

The Bible teaches on casual love. You and I would be wise to take this seriously and allow God to do a work within our wayward, nonchalant hearts. The Bible warns believers to not get listless, weary, bored, become incurious. The enemy will use it to his advantage to make us indifferent, spiritually hard-hearted, and uninterested in the things of God.

In Matthew 22:1-14, you see this apathy. It’s an apathy that has plagued this world since Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden because of sin. Most people ignore God’s love. We know this by the scriptures, see Matthew 7:13-14, 21-23, and Luke 13:23-27.

In this passage, a king, referring to God, prepared a great wedding feast for his son, aka Jesus. Many were invited. In fact, every person is invited to the wedding feast that will take place one day, see 1 John 2:2, 4:14-16, and John 3:16. The king sent out his servants to tell his guests that the banquet was ready. Come and enjoy, but they refused to come! Again, the king sent out more servants, “The feast has been prepared. Everything is ready. Come to the banquet!”⁴ Unfortunately, the guests were too busy. They ignored the king’s invitation. They went about their lives, uninterested in what the king had in store for them. Some even insulted the messengers and killed them. They did not want to hear about the gala that was being planned for them.

This angered the king. He had the murderers destroyed. “The wedding feast is ready and the guests I invited aren’t worthy of the honor.”⁸

The king should have cancelled the party and moved on with his life, but his love for others was too great. It went deep within his veins to his core; for the king was love. God is love, and in His love for unworthy man, He sent Jesus to be the Savior for the whole world, see 1 John 4:16-17. “Come to me, follow me, and I will bring you to the King’s table and there will be a wedding like no other,” is what Jesus is telling every one of us. (This is my own rendition. It isn’t from the scriptures.) Look at Matthew 4:19-20, 9:9,16:24-26, John 10:27, and Luke 9:23-26, to see what the Bible does say, and find other verses too.

The king did not cancel the party. He had his servants go to the street corners and invite everyone they saw. Many came, the good and bad alike, filling the banquet hall, see verses 9-10. Why did this group of people have time for the party? Could it be, they knew they didn’t deserve to be in the king’s palace? They were dirty, uncouth, broken. They could never pay the king back.

In the world’s eyes, they were unworthy. In the king’s eyes, they were just what He was looking for! Humbled hearts who knew a good thing when they saw it and enjoyed the feast fit for a king. Their lowly hearts needed some tender, loving care by the Savior who loved them.

The king noticed one man who came to the party without appropriate clothing fit for a wedding. He asked the man, “How are you here without the proper clothes for a wedding?”¹¹ The man gave no reply.

This man had casual love towards God. He thought he could slip in with an unrepentant heart. By the king’s response, no one may enter the wedding feast without the proper wedding attire. What happened to the sinful man, see verse 13.

What is the appropriate wedding attire that God expects from His children? Study Psalm 51 and respond to God accordingly.

When you ignore the voice of God, you forfeit your invitation into the wedding where Jesus and His bride, His Church, will come together for eternity. When you live casually for God, you will miss out on what your heart is needing. Even in your life on this side of heaven, you will miss out. Living casually for God means your priorities are misplaced. This causes you to wear the wrong attire and wearing the wrong attire will dim your light for Christ. You will appear as a friend to the world rather than a follower of Jesus.

Jesus’ love is anything but casual. Give Jesus your full attention, repent and change, for it’s time to put on your wedding clothes for your heart was made for love.