Love

 ¹⁵Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  1 John 2:15

"Man is created in such a way that he must love something."  

C.F.W. Walther

We were created in the image of a loving God.  Before their fall into sin, Adam and Eve loved God with their whole heart and each other as themselves.  After the fall man by his nature loved the world instead of God.  He loved the creation instead of the Creator.  

In Jesus we see the love of the Father in its purest form.  At Jesus' baptism and at His transfiguration God revealed how pleased He was with His Son, how much He loved Him. Jesus whole earthly ministry demonstrated the love of His Father.  When Jesus wasn't praying to His Father He was showing His Father's love for the people.  When Jesus gave His body and blood on the cross for us sinners He proclaimed the love of God in the greatest way possible.   God didn't even spare His only begotten Son.  

The only way we can love God more than the world is when that love is given to us from an external source.  Jesus is that source.  We deny Him and our sinful nature pushes away the love of the Father and pulls us back to love the world instead, but Jesus keeps coming back to us.  He daily calls us to repentance and then forgives us and gives us His Father's love.    When we are joined with Jesus in our baptism and the Lord's Supper and the hearing of the Gospel, we are safe in Jesus who has the love of the Father in Him.