Good day to you all,
Today the message I would like us to examine focuses specifically on love, being inspired by John 13:34-35.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35 ESV)
What we can gather from these verses is that we must learn to love one another just as Jesus Christ has loved us. So just how has Christ loved us? Let's think. For one, He died for us, and as we know, "greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) But let's be honest here people; how often does the opportunity - and the challenge - for us to physically lay down our lives for our friends come along? I haven't jumped in front of any bullets recently - have you? Perhaps so; perhaps not, but my point is this: that even though we may not all be given the opportunity to express selfless love in such a physical manner as this, we can lay our lives down in other ways.
And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." (Luke 9:23-24 ESV)
I want to come after Jesus, don't you? In order to do this, He calls us to "take up our crosses daily," and to even lose our own lives in service to Him. But what does this have to do with loving others? More than you might imagine, in fact. Loving Christ and loving others are so intricately interwoven that you simply cannot separate the two. Following Jesus involves us learning to love those around us - encouraging them, building them up in Christ, putting our own desires aside in favor of theirs; loving them (See 1 Corinthians 13 for this). Sometimes, this is hard. When the emotions are running low and the impatience is running high, when we simply don't want to, or when there's just something tugging us away from doing what's right, we must look past this and make the decision - the commitment - to love anyway.
Do you think Jesus enjoyed being beaten, flogged, tortured, nailed to a cross, and crucified while those He came to save stood around mocking Him? I think not. But He chose to anyway - now this, this is love.
Let us pray that we can have this kind of love first for God, and second for all those around us. It may not always be fun or enjoyable (though often times, it can be) - but this is the nature of sacrifice. The beauty in all of this is that as we learn to sacrifice of ourselves for the glory of God and the well being of others, we are blessed with a life that becomes so much more satisfying and fulfilling than ever before! What a wonderful paradox this is!
And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40 ESV)
Blessings,
Andrew
