Harping about Loving
What can we do about this world’s craziness? Let it play out? Or, as Christians, demonstrate radical love so that hurting, misunderstood and broken people will know Jesus by OUR love.
Jesus reached His world in three short years. Those years ignited a flame that continues to spread to OUR world. Jesus “harped” on love. That love was perpetuated through His disciples AND continues through us.
How do we measure up to that kind of love? I am still working on it. The question is: “Do people recognize us as a disciple of Christ by the way we talk the “love talk” and walk the “love walk”?
Let’s take the Apostle Paul’s love test to see how we measure up: “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own way, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). That love is the mark of Christ’s disciples.
Yes, I am harping on loving like Jesus. Our hearts of love (or not) are being exposed. Let’s see which side we are on – “The thief’s side who comes only to steal, kill and destroy” or Jesus’ side – “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) The thief is Satan.
Jesus explained it in an easy-to-understand way. He said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. “(Matthew 22:37-38) Loving God is the heart of the matter.
Without love for God, it is easy to violate all the other commandments, the laws of the land, love and respect for our brothers and sisters, and ourselves. If we stuck to this one — we’d sail through the other ones!
Jesus loves us too much to see us wander and become isolated from a Father-Child, loving relationship that is about obedience, righteousness and a daily heart-check-up! If we aren’t purposefully loving God with all our hearts, it is easy to slide on keeping any of the others.
When we fall in love with the Lover of our Souls, then it is a natural by-product of Jesus’ second greatest commandment – to “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).
In 1st John the connection is explicit: “We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet HATES his brother (that means ANYONE), he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:19-21). Whew! How much clearer could it get?
So, how can we measure up to loving despite wrongs done to us? We can’t measure up, but there is One who does. Jesus loved us perfectly and gave Himself for us. And now, when we put our trust in Him, we are transformed and can imitate the pattern of His love and then we CAN love others. It’s a win-win. We love God with all our hearts. Then we live it out by loving others. Let’s harp about that kind-of-love!