Greater Love

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them ~ 1 John 4:16 NIV

Love has its origin and source in God. He is love and His love towards us is unconditional. Everything that He does flows from His love for us. His love towards us is not triggered by our actions. It is unconditional, perfect, sacrificial, and selfless. He loves us whether we reciprocate it or not; whether we respond to Him or not – He loves us despite. His love for us is everlasting.

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 ~ 1 John 3:16 NIV

Jesus loves us not because we are special or have done something good, but because He is love. This is why He made the ultimate sacrifice, gave up everything–all His glory and life–to serve us. The Greek word for this sacrificial love is the Agape love. It devotes total commitment to seek the highest best no matter how anyone may respond. God does not expect anything in return from us–He loves us whether we mess up or not. This kind of love is a giving love–it gives without taking. It’s the kind of love that shows itself in action. Agape love has the good of the other at heart. It has a pure motivation to alleviate the suffering of others. It’s suffering love; love that requires involvement in the problems of this world; love that bears with the failings and weaknesses of others; love that is committed to helping others regardless of the cost.

God has loved and accepted us because we are His children. He calls us His own. He loves us with the same kind of love that He had towards Jesus Himself (See John 17:23). Jesus said that the greatest love a man can show for his friends is when he lays down his life for them. He laid his life down for us and that’s how valuable we are to God. As a matter of fact, if we do not realize who we are and the love of God towards us, we will not be filled with His fullness. In essence God tells us that we are His children.

Knowing the love of Christ towards us will enable us to act a lot more different than we do. God doesn’t love us out of our works, so we shouldn’t be working so hard to gain His love. As a matter of fact, even before we came to know Christ, He still loved us. We are already loved and accepted and we ought to love God as He has loved us. True service to God and humanity must be borne out of love. God comes first and so our love for Him must be a priority. Understanding who we are in Christ and His love for us will help us to do away with religion and perfection even as we serve Him. It will also keep us firm and confident in Him. We will be able to withstand whatever comes our way because we have been made perfect in His love.

That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day ~ 2 Timothy 1:12 NIV

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God ~ Ephesians 5:1-2 NIV

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends ~ John 15:13 NIV

Someone once said that the position of love can be established when one sacrifices oneself and gives oneself for others. Thus sacrifice accompanies love. The essence of agape love is self-sacrifice. Sacrificial love is not based on a feeling, but a determined act of the will; a joyful resolve to put the welfare of others above our own. This kind of love does not come naturally to us. Due to our fallen nature, we cannot give such love. It can only come from its true source –God Himself. This love is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us when we become His children (Romans 5:5). Because that love is now in our hearts, we can obey Jesus who said;

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 NIV

Our love for one another must be rooted on the fact that God loves us unconditionally, and if God loves us unconditionally, the number one thing we must do is to love Him back unconditionally, or rather sacrificially. We cannot love one another with the love of God if we do not love Him first. Watch this;

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31 NIV

Loving God is a sacrifice we all have to make. It is about giving yourself up for Him and to Him. It is about loving God with your whole being– all that you are and have. Your whole being must be dedicated to Him.

So then, my friends, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer ~ Romans 12:1 GNT

The sacrifice that is acceptable to God is a whole sacrifice. Agape love and sacrifice go together. The kind of love that God wants from us is sacrificial love. It must cost us something. We should be able to love Him in and out of season; whether we are blessed or not; whether we are mourning or celebrating. Our love for Him must be concrete, steadfast and unconditional. It shouldn’t be seasonal, but a lifestyle. It must be evident in our walk with Him. We cannot claim to love Him while living our lives like He does not exist. Our words, actions and lifestyle must be in line with the word of God. Our hearts must be totally sold out to Him. The heart is the core of our being and they must throb for God. Loving Him with all our hearts makes Him our treasured treasure.

We are expected to love God with all our souls by pursuing obedience in His word and one of the commands to obey is as given by Jesus–loving one another as He has loved us. According to the command in Mark, we are to love God first and then our neighbors as ourselves. Our love for one another therefore will stem out of our love for God. Thus, our service to God and one another must be borne out of love–love for God, oneself and others. This is a life of sacrifice; laying down your own life for the sake of others. This means ‘considering others better than yourself’ and serving them in either way whether they make themselves your enemies or not. It is one way of putting down our own selfish desires and putting other people’s needs first and willing to put our lives on the line for their sake.

Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love ~ 1 Corinthians 13:13 GNT