“Can’t Buy Me Love” is an old Beatles song about the fact that money can’t buy love. It may get people’s attention, but that’s not the same thing as love. The song asks for someone who doesn’t care about those things because the singer knows that money can’t buy love. It was written by Paul McCartney, who later commented that the title should have been “Can Buy Me Love” because of all the things wealth had brought. He was wrong of course because that wasn’t love. The truth is that true love can’t be purchased, it can only be given from the heart.

When God gave the ten tribes of Israel to Jeroboam it included a promise of a perpetual throne if Jeroboam would remain faithful to God (1 Kings 11:37-38). But as soon as Jeroboam was on his throne and established his kingdom he rejected God and went his own way by building idols and set up a false religion (1 Kings 12:25-33). Since giving him the kingdom wasn’t enough to get Jeroboam to love God, the promise of a perpetual rule for his family couldn’t buy his love either.

Later Jeroboam’s son became ill so he sent his wife to Ahijah, the prophet who had revealed the gift of the kingdom many years earlier, to find out what would happen to the child. Thinking he could buy God’s favor he sent her with a large gift basket. Knowing they were out of favor with God his wife was going to hide her identity, which showed how little they understood God. Ahijah was told by God what to say. It wasn’t good news (1 Kings 14:1-20).

As we approach the Thanksgiving Holiday here in America we should be genuinely thankful to God for all the blessings we’ve received. Some will, but many won’t. Oh, most will gather with family, mouth a traditional prayer, and then consume large quantities of turkey and traditional holiday foods, without any further thought about the God who gave it to them. (Yeah, that has been me too many times to count.)

How many of us are like Jeroboam; rejecting God when life is good but trying to buy His love when problems come? God already loves us and simply asks us to love Him in return; fully, completely and freely. He offers us His love at the great cost of His Son, but won’t force us to accept the gift, nor can we buy it from Him. All we have to do is surrender ourselves to Him in gratitude. But that’s a lot harder than we might want to admit, isn’t it?