LOVE THE STRONGEST FORCE IN THE WORLD
When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing; there had been a miscount at the first check point. The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others! The incident had a profound effect; the men began to treat each other like brothers. When the victorious Allies swept in, the survivors, human skeletons, lined up in front of their captors and instead of attacking them they insisted: 'No more hatred. No more killing. Now what we need is forgiveness. (The Christian Leader)
Love is not a gray area in the Scriptures "for this is the message you have heard from the beginning: we should love one another" (1 John 3:11). Jesus gave love priority over all other Christian virtues. One day when asked what the greatest commandment is, he said "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.' This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matt. 22:37-39, Mark 12:28-30, Luke 10:27). He quoted Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:15.
Jesus explained that "all the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands" (Matt. 22:40). Paul said that whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command “Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:9-10). If we love God and others, all the others commandments will flow naturally. Jesus said, "Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another" (John 13:34). Jesus is the benchmark! So what kind of love did Jesus demonstrate?
Jesus’ love was costly; he paid the ultimate price to redeem man “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12, 13). There was no worse way to die than to be stripped naked, flogged and nailed to a cross to suffer a slow death as a public spectacle. His sacrificial love was glorious and it glorified God (John 13:31-32). Ephesians 5:2 tells us to “walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” Sacrificial love is a fragrant aroma to God to this day.
Jesus love was action oriented; he expressed it through actions not just words. In 1 John 3:16-18 we read “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possession and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children let us not love with words or speech but with actions and truth.” Jesus was not just talking about having nice thoughts toward others, which no one else can see. He was talking about love that stemmed from the heart and was seen in outward actions. Love performs acts that win the heart and are never forgotten.
Jesus empathized with the suffering. But, he did more than just empathize- he did what was within his power to help them. He healed the sick, delivered the demon-possessed, gave the hungry food and raised the dead. It’s surprising that the qualification to enter heaven will be “I was hungry you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me (Matt.25:34-36). These are not things Christians do only on Sunday in church; the daily life lived outside church matters to God. Why did Jesus not say “you never missed church service, prayer meetings or Bible study? Faith without deeds is dead (James 2:26). The love actions in the list can be done by anybody, so there will be no excuse.
Jesus loved those at the bottom of the social pyramid: poor, outcasts, lepers, prostitutes and tax collectors. He was not deterred by social stigma. One day he said to his host “when you give a luncheon or dinner do not invite your friends… brothers … relatives …rich neighbors…so you will be repaid...invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:12-14). Jesus assured his host that if he invited those who could not repay, he would be paid in full someday. Love gives without expecting something in return. We will never be losers when we love God’s way; we should also live with an eternal perspective.
Jesus’ love involved commitment (John 13:36-38). He was committed to his disciples in spite of their many weaknesses. Peter denied him and the others fled when Jesus was arrested. When Jesus died Peter led the group back to fishing (John 21:3). Jesus did not cast them off because of their failure. He even prepared breakfast for them to eat after the fruitless night toil (John 21:9). He restored them and loved them to the end (uttermost, John 13:1). He knew they were just clay and like the wind their sins occasionally swept them away. He never got angry with them beyond measure or remembered their sins forever (Isa. 64:6-9, I Cor. 4:7). They all made it to heaven (John 17:12, Rev. 21:14).
Jesus said love would be the identifying mark for his disciples (John 13:35). He gave the world the right to judge whether or not one is His follower simply on the basis of their love for others. Godly love will always be the best defense of Christian faith that the church has. God's plan is to develop a people that reflect his character. God is love and the one who remains in love remains in God. In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment; for we are as He is in this world (1 John 4:16-17). Christ has no hands, but our hands; no feet, but our feet. We are his ambassadors, representing him to the world. And when we love as he loved, people will notice. Everyone around us is of incredible value to God, His only Son died in their place. And therefore we need to love them as he loves them.
How can we practice the glorious virtue of love? In Colossians 3:12-14 we are told “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bear with each other and forgive one another …and over all these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity. The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Gal.2:22-23), Love comes first because the rest are only different facets of love. After talking about the different spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12) Paul wrote “And now I will show you the most excellent way” (v.31)-love. In the next chapter (1 Cor.13) Paul describes what love is, why we must have it and why many impressive things that we do “for God” will in the end be lost in flames (1 Cor.3:13-15). Love is indispensable!
God has placed you wherever you live and work to show forth love by your action. You are to love and serve each person around you as if the person were Jesus himself (Matt.25:34-40). It’s hard to love under difficult circumstances yet that is exactly where most live is lived. People who are unappreciative provide a real challenge to love, yet love is needed most by those who are hardest to love. Every Christians has the capacity to love; It is "the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit," (Romans 5:5). Paul’s prayer was “that you being rooted and established in love may have power…to grasp how wide and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph 3: 17-19).
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