John
15:12-13
Love
is not something you choose to do and make apart of your life as a Christian. You
are commanded to walk in Love as a child of God for God is Love… 1 John 4:8
says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” The
law was put before us and no man has ever kept it, Jesus came to this earth to
fulfill the law that we could not and to pave the way back to God… Through
Christ we were taken from the state of sin into our current state which is
grace… Under grace Christ gives us a new commandment to abide by and this
commandment is “love…” The bible says that love covers a multitude of sins and
love (1 Corinthians 13) is better than anything we have in life… “And now
these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Jesus
informs us today of the foundational commandment that we must live by as a
child of God… He says, “That ye love one another, as I have loved you…” Love is
the building block of our salvation, John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten son…” If it was not for love, God
would not have sent His son, if it wasn’t for love, Jesus wouldn’t have died on
the cross… Love is more than just speaking words; true love is the ability to
act for the greater good of another despite the pain, torment or agony that you
may encounter… It would not have been enough if Jesus would have simply said I
love mankind (just as we do today), but didn’t act toward showing it… Jesus
demonstrated His love when He allowed Himself to be beat, when He stayed on the
cross and gave up the ghost… Let us stop speaking words of love, but
demonstrate our love toward each other through our actions… Love has to be the
center focus of our life because the bible says that “God is love…” 1
Corinthians 13 provides a list of things that are meaningless or unprofitable
to a man without love and we see today that Jesus reminds us that we must have
love one to another if we desire to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord…
As a child of God we are held to a higher standard, we are not only to love,
but Jesus says we are to love as He loved us… To love as Christ loved means
that we must be willing to sacrifice, we must be willing to look beyond faults
and we must be willing to love unconditionally. A lot of times we tend to love
people that love us back, but the bible says “while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us…” We are being called to love more than just our family
member and people we get along with, we are to love every person we come in
contact with, we are to extend a kind hand to our enemies and speak words of
comfort to our adversaries… Often times we will speak the words “I love you,”
but never demonstrate our feelings to showcase what we have spoken… Jesus tells
us in these verses that the greatest love of all is the ability to sacrifice one’s
life for his friends… Jesus is speaking directly to the death that He will
endure, but notice that He says, “His friends…” Jesus is not drawing a
distinction between who He is dying for, but rather informing us that He
considers everyone on this earth His friends… Remember when He was praying in
the Garden and the mob came to take Him away, all His disciples fled; when
Jesus was on the cross, John was the only disciple remaining by His side, yet Jesus
said, “That a man lay down his life for his friends…” Understand that
the love of Christ means that we go above and beyond; we go out of our way and
sacrifice for others… We demonstrate love toward the one that doesn’t know how
to love, we show love to the one who can’t show it back and we lift each other
instead of tearing one another down… Realizing that Christ is the only one that
could die for all mankind; we are being asked to be able to sacrifice our
desires and seek the exaltation of God’s kingdom through our life… To sacrifice
and demonstrate our love on this earth, let us focus on lifting up one another,
let us refuse to engage in gossip, let us exercise humility and compassion and
focus on lifting God daily… Love is an action word, in order for it to be felt
something must be done! Jesus said I love you and then died on the cross… Let
us speak the words of love to each other and follow them up with actions… Show your neighbor love today and you will
demonstrate the love of Christ that resides within you…
BE BLESSED!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment