Unconditional and Sacrificial Love!

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. John 13:34, ESV

We are commanded by Jesus to love one another in the same manner that He loved. How did Jesus love us? How did he show us? The biggest way that He showed that He loved us was when He left the comforts of His majesty and throne of Heaven. His sole purpose/mission was to come to Earth and die a pretty gruesome death. He sacrificed himself in order to take on our punishment for our sins that we were unable to pay. This leads us into a conversation about sacrifice. The key to loving people well is often found in sacrifice, when we lay aside what we want for others. 

 Recently I met a man, I can’t give all the details for security reasons, that over the course of almost 4 years was placed into an overseas prison over 10 times and beaten because he was loving people, serving people, and introducing them to Jesus. He was asked why did he keep going to this particular country if all he was going to do was get arrested and beat. His answer was love! He loved the people enough that he would gladly sacrifice himself so they could know Jesus. What an amazing story! Jesus is not going to tell us all to go over seas and get arrested and beaten for love. However, He is calling us to love others and to serve others where we are at. He is calling us to love people in our work places, schools, and neighborhoods.

It is so easy for us to love people that look like us, act like us and believe like us. But God doesn’t give us the choice of who to love. He tells us to love one another. We are called to love even the ones that we don’t like or even consider enemies. God did! God didn’t put conditions on His love! His love is unconditional and sacrificial.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16, ESV

Are you willing to sacrifice your schedule for someone who needs to chat with you? Are you willing to sacrifice your own desires to align them with God’s? Honestly, the list of sacrificial love opportunities is endless.

How can you show your love this week? Who needs you love this week? Who needs your sacrifice this week?

The Attitude of Christ

The Attitude of Christ

There are times that when I’m so busy that I’m oblivious to my surroundings or people around me. How many times have we been on our phones and just walk up to a door and open it for ourselves not realizing that there is someone behind us? We just open the door, walk through, and allow the door to slam into the person behind us. Or maybe we do notice but we are thinking of ourselves and the inconvenience that it would cause us to wait to the other person gets through the door.  Or how many times we are in such a rush that we get to a grocery store and we don’t notice the mom struggling to get her kids in the car and her groceries?

We, humans, have a natural tendency to look out for “number one.” We don’t need to be reminded to look after our own interests. It comes naturally. However, how would the world look if every Christian took this challenge to heart:

            Paul tells us in Philippians 2:3-5, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interest, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ had.” (NLT)

Looking out for the interests of others involves always keeping our eyes wide open and looking for opportunities that we can serve someone else or help them with their burdens. Jesus looked out for the interests of others by taking the very nature of a servant.

Also to look at the interests of others requires us to be humble, not to think too highly of ourselves. We need to be humble and not think that we are better than the other person because of their life choices or circumstances. We need to be humble so that we can see the opportunity to serve them and to love them.

So, this week, let’s keep our eyes wide open and look for opportunities to put others first, serve them, and make them feel loved and cared for! Let’s slow down and look for opportunities that normally pass us by!

Love like Jesus!

1 John 4:7-8 states, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." (ESV).

As I have been dwelling on this passage, I'm reminded that we are to love one another. Who are we called to love? As Christians, we cannot choose who to love and who not to love. We are called to love one another. Jesus even calls us to love our enemies. He gave us a great example of this type of love. The night that he was going to be betrayed, he washed the feet of the disciples. He could have easily waited until Judas left to betray him. However, he didn't wait. Matter of fact, he washed the feet of Judas. Even then, Jesus was showing love toward Judas.

Why is it hard for Christians to love others? We're good at showing love to people that look like us, act like us, and believe like us. It is hard for us to love others that don't look like us, act like us, or believe like us. All one has to do is scroll through their Facebook feed or Twitter feed and see the hate toward people on the other political side than us or people who have different worldviews. Or seeing posts that are dealing with illegal immigration or the LGBTQ community. Each side has their opinions and are very loud about it. This is just not coming from non-believers but from people who identify as Christian. Honestly, it is many non-believers that are calling out the Christians for their perceived hatred!

God has called us to love not hate! Remember John 3:16 tells us that For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will have eternal life. Jesus died for us, that includes people who we don't agree with, so that we can be reconciled to God.

As Christians, we need to show the love of God. We need to show people that they matter to God and that He loves them! We need to let the Holy Spirit transform the lives of people and allow the Holy Spirit to meet them where they are.

While on Earth, Jesus didn't wait for people to clean themselves up before he allowed them to come to him. Matter of fact, he met them in their unclean sin filled lives. It wasn't until after their encounters with Jesus that their lives were transformed.

Another interesting thing about Jesus was that he drew large crowds of people. People flocked to him.  Jesus didn't waiver from His beliefs. He knew what was sin and what wasn't sin. When he had the encounter with the woman caught in adultery, he told her that she was forgiven and to stop with her sinful ways. So, Jesus didn't compromise his beliefs. Yet, people still flocked to him. Why? Because People could see that he genuinely loved them and cared for them. I remember that one of my previous pastors taught on this. He taught that one must put relationship before rules. We need to build relationships with people first. We must show them that God loves them and we do too. We must show them that they matter to God and therefore us. After we build relationships and they know we care then we can pour into their lives and allow the Holy Spirit to transform their lives. We have to stop telling people, even the ones committing sins we do not like, that they have to get cleaned up first before they can come to church! If church is for perfect people then why are you there? Why am I there? None of us are perfect. If we were, there wouldn't be any need for a savior. We must show them love! God loves them and sent Jesus to die on a cross for them! Let's go out and love the world as Jesus. Let's look at people with the eyes of Jesus and not our own! Let's love, even the ones that are not like us!