In his book, “Love Does”, Bob Goff makes these observations:
- The ones Jesus first picked to follow Him started out typical, to be sure.
- God is constantly inviting them into a life that moves away from the typical.
- Jesus lets us be real with our life and our faith.
- He said we’d know the extent of our love by how well we loved people.
(all from page 15)
Let’s stop right there on that last point. Notice ”“ we will know the extent of our love by how well we love people, and not by how much people love us.
Yet most of us, if we’re honest, desire to be on the receiving end more so than on the giving end.
I recently set out to find the answer to the question ”“ How does Jesus call us to love?
“Â Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him.”
(1 John 3:18-19, NASB)
Real love involves self-sacrifice. Not others necessarily sacrificing for us, but each of us sacrificing of ourselves. We do this by becoming more concerned with the needs of others than with our own needs. We become willing to unselfishly give of our time, our effort, and our prayers.
“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring one another.” (Romans 12:9-10, NLT)
No pretense. Genuine love. Honoring one another, again, this means to put the needs of others before your own.
Sometimes we wonder what God would have us to do. What is His will for us? Does He have commands He wants us to follow? Let Jesus’ words speak for themselves:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35, NASB)
Jesus was telling His disciples to love each other with the sort of love they had seen and experienced modeled by Jesus Himself. Loving in this manner would be the proof the world needed to see, in order to know they were His.
To “prove” as defined in dictionary.com:
- establishes the genuineness of
- establishes the authenticity
- shows the character or ability expected especially through the actions
Did you catch the last definition? It is our love especially demonstrated through our actions which will display our character.
In a world being marked by division, disunity, and hatred, let us become known as a people marked by unity, love, and kindness.
A good question to ask ourselves today is:
What is our love demonstrating?
May our love be a display of Jesus Himself.
“I pray the Holy Spirit helps me love others in kindness, truth, grace and mercy””the way Jesus loves me.” Me too, Karen. Me too. You can read Karen Friday’s post, 3 Ways We Love Like Jesus HERE. The Lord seems to be reminding us this week to do the hard thing and love like Jesus.
Come, sit a spell. Bring your coffee, your posts, and your thoughts. If you link up, kindly visit those who have drawn up a seat around you.
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
Today I may be joining …
I think Romans 12:9 challenges our wimpy view of love. It protects from harm. I like how you say love proves our character. A challenging thought.
Amen! Love isn’t expressed in words nearly as well as it is in actions. “I love you” are words that I probably don’t say often enough. Now, it might be because I never heard that as a child. Even my adopted dad never told me he loved me until I was in my 30s; he did, however, show it every day of my life with him. My dear wife would probably like to hear it more often, but I pray she knows it within her heart as I attempt to exhibit my heart for her with each breath. So loved this post my friend. Thank you for helping to soften hearts today.
For lots of reasons dear to my heart, I love this message, Joanne. What a big, expansive, open-handed love God has and wants us to love with, too. Keeping no one outside its perimeters. Just when we think we’re loving like Jesus, He opens our hearts and shows us there’s more deepness to what we think love is.
Love this: “We do this by becoming more concerned with the needs of others than with our own needs. We become willing to unselfishly give of our time, our effort, and our prayers.” It’s not just giving money, that sometimes is too easy. Giving time and effort is much harder!
“In a world being marked by division, disunity, and hatred, let us become known as a people marked by unity, love, and kindness.” Amen. Let it be so, Lord.
Thank you, Joanne for these great reminders about love. Loving well is actually self-forgetful! Living out prioritizing others, seeing them and hearing them, meeting them right where they are!
Joanne, this is a timely message for me to have read today. I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. You were able to answer some questions I’ve been grappling with. Thank you. Blessings.
This is something I need to hear often. No matter how many times I hear it, I too easily lapse into self-interests and self-focus instead of putting others’ interest first.
It is always good to examine ourselves to see if we are walking in faith, love and kindness, Joanne. I appreciate your question, “What is our love demonstrating?” And your prayer, “May our love be a display of Jesus Himself.”
Loving others well is often a bigger challenge than we realize, and I think that’s why we need God’s love to always be working through us. Holy Spirit, help me show YOUR love to those around me.
Joanne, loving other like Jesus is hard for me. But as I know this and I am intentionally really loving them. It is easy to pretend to love but God knows when we are being authentic. I pray for the Holy Spirit to help me love those around me.
A thought provoking post Joanne. I think it’s always challenging to love others well if we are trying to do it in our own strength & wisdom.
When we’re listening to the Holy Spirit & love in His strength, we can love more wisely & fully as not everyone responds to the same form of love.
Blessings, Jennifer
We don’t usually like that self-sacrifice piece, do we …
And yet He is patient and kind as He waits for our response.
Jesus makes it pretty clear, doesn’t He? But it can be a lot more challenging to walk it out, especially in our “me-focused” culture. I often think if we were just determined to live out Phil. 2.3-4 in our lives and relationships, it would be a very different world.
I very much enjoyed Bob’s book. He challenges us to live big, doesn’t he? And may we always remember that we live for a BIG GOD. He will take care of us no matter what He is calling us to sacrifice. Thanks for this reminder, Joanna.
Joanne, this is so convicting. I am among those who may at times desire to be on the receiving end of love more than the giving end, but you’re right–how we demonstrate love is how others know we belong to Jesus.