Live to Love

What is love?

I really don’t think it is what our society thinks that it is. Is love loving those who love you? Is it being fake to those you don’t like?

I have found out what real love is because of Jesus. Real love is caring about others because we are all a soul. We will all spend an eternity somewhere, heaven or hell. We love to share the Gospel. We love so that we can point others to Christ.

We love those who have wronged us and who are rude and mean to us, because everyone needs Jesus’ love. We can forgive those who have wronged us because Christ has forgiven us for way more than anyone has ever came close to wronging us. I have to remind myself of this on a regular basis. But, I can’t express to you how much it has changed my life. Totally changed how I treat people in my life.

I don’t fully understand this, but I continue understanding it more and more the more that I see my sin. The more I see just how sin filled I am (and I don’t even know all of my sin), the more I understand just how much I have been forgiven. Christ has showed me so much grace, so much mercy, and just and incredible amount of love that now I can live my life to show that to everyone I come in contact with.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:7

“Let all that you do be done in love.” 1 Corinthians 16:14

I use to believe that loving those you don’t like or who have wronged you meant to just be fake nice to them. I would do this out of pride. And, it worked I thought. But, over the past couple years the Lord has shown me what real love is. How to really love those who are just not the sweetest- I remind myself of the Gospel. Every time I catch myself not wanting to go out of my way to love someone, I have to remind myself just how much Christ went out of the way to come to Earth and live here just like we do and to be persecuted and killed because of our sin. If Christ can do that, which is truly amazing and I really do not think I will be able to truly understand the magnitude of it, then the least I can do is give my life to love others so that they can come to understand Christ’s love.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” Galatians 2:20

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” Psalm 115:1

I use to be kind to those I did not like to make myself look good, but now I have come to learn that we love to bring honor to Christ, not ourselves. Not only do we love to bring him glory, but we live to bring him glory. Our only purpose in life should be to glorify God and enjoy him forever. To me, this means going completely out of our way to love and serve every single person that we can. This is radical and I am still praying the Lord would make my desires his. But, it is the Gospel.

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” 1 John 4:16-21

1 Corinthians 13 gives us a beautiful picture of exactly what love is. My favorite verses from this chapter are verses 4-7.

“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.”

To me this screams selflessness. We don’t not love people because they are rude to us, those are normally the people who need love the most. We don’t wait for people to make an effort to love us before we love them. We love the mess out of every single person we come into contact with, without reservation. Love not just by saying the word, but with our actions – how we treat others.

I just love how many times Christ tells us that we should forgive someone. “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” Matthew 18:21-22

We are to forgive, forgive, and forgive some more. I started about a month ago praying that the Lord would give me the desire to forgive others so that they can see Jesus’ love. He has started doing this and I am so thankful. The more we truly forgive and truly love others, the more our lives will be a fragrance to others that points them to the only reason of that kindness- which is Christ!

“For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

True life, true living, is dying to one’s own desires and living for Christ. I have to do this every single day. I have to remind myself of the Gospel and of my purpose every single morning and throughout the day. I cannot love or forgive without the Gospel. I cannot do this at all. The only good in me is Christ, apart from that I am a wretched sinner who deserves nothing but eternity in hell.

““You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” Matthew 5:43-47

Even those who aren’t Christians can love those who love them. How easy is that? Sounds pretty simple to me. “People are nice to me, so I will be nice to them. People are mean to me or ignore me, so I will not be nice to them.” This is so easy, even unbelievers do this. We are called to love the unlovable. This is not easy or simple. This we cannot do on our own. This is Christ in us.

Living to love is glorious and freeing. It is how God intended us to live. God never intended for us to hold grudges or to dislike others. We were made to love. Live to love!

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  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.” Matthew 22:36-39

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” Romans 12:9

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:18

“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:10