How many times have you entered a conversation in which another person asks you to define love? Those conversations are always fun and quite interesting as individuals take their turns give their definition.
Today will be spent talking a lot about love and the ones we love. Gifts will be exchanged with individuals among just about every age and generation. Yet the world knows little of what love is and how true love demonstrates itself.
The great fear is that this may be also true of me and many within the church today. We define and think of love as some mystical experience that comes upon us without us having any warning or responsibility. We describe love as a feeling. While our love for one another will be accompanied with feelings, our love is a decision to act toward one another for his or her good and as Jesus Christ has acted toward us.
Jesus said His new commandment was that we love one another as He has loved us. Paul's famous chapter on love in 1 Corinthians 13 perhaps describes Christ's love for us in a most illustrative way. He writes:
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
Christ's love is patient and kind, otherwise He would have erased us from history at the first act of rebellion. Instead, He has showed kindness to us. When Jesus came to earth, His love was demonstrated in humility and humbly He went to the cross. There was no boasting or arrogance. When in the garden He prayed, He did not insist on His own way, but rather He surrendered Himself anew to the will of the Father. And this all because of love for the world.
His love for us did not rejoice in our rebellion and wrongdoing. Instead, He came to declare the truth to us so that the truth would make us free. His love is stronger than all forces of evil and evil acts of humanity. It bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. His love never ends.
The cross expresses the unimaginable love of God through Jesus Christ. This is the love He expects of His followers. And I have failed miserably. The tragedy beyond my own disobedience and sin is that the world fails to see God's love displayed every time I fail to live out His love.
More important than us defining love is that love define us.
Jesus said by our love the whole world would know that we are His disciples. The love of Jesus should define everything about our lives. It doesn't mean we don't stand firm or speak truth. It just means it defines how we do so.
When I begin to love as Christ has loved, the world will know I am a follower of Jesus Christ. This may not always mean the world will come to follow Jesus, but it will be a compelling testimony that, for some, will lead them into the Kingdom of Christ.
Take a Daniel moment:
- Praise God for the unconditional, unimaginable love He has shown toward us.
- Ask God to teach you what it means to love all others as He has loved you.
- Pray that our love for one another would compel sinners to follow Jesus.
- Specifically pray for those you have difficulty loving. It is a great first step to God changing your heart.
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