Love hates evil and rebellion. Love shows appreciation and honour for others. It compels us to give to others who are in need, even if it means sacrifice on our part. Love is not selective but extends to people we find unlovable and showscompassion, commemorates and celebrates others.
You may ask what does love look like practically? Raking upleaves for an elderly neighbour, babysitting for a single mother, cooking meals for a bereaved family, taking time to share the Gospel with a non-believer, praying with an anxious friend, or encouraging a disheartened neighbour. At times helping others will be inconvenient. The timing will be wrong for our busy schedules. The effort will seem too great for our tired bodies. The cost will be more than we can afford. But true love involves sacrifice, and there is no better example of this than our Saviour. Jesus said, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:12-13).
Today as we think about love, this kind of altruistic other-based love, may sound impossible to maintain. And in our human strength, it is. We could never pay our “continuing debt to love one another” but God gives us the resources we need to make our payments. Through His unconditional agape love.
“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18).
Let’s Pray
Yahweh, help me to follow Your example of sacrificial love. Father, help me demonstrate my love for others in a tangible, sacrificial way. God, I love you and I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
