But do we really? It's scary when we don't love. It's even scarier when we only think we love.
This month, God convicted me of my impure love towards others. He challenged me with questions like:
"Do I love others or do I only think I love others?"
"When I open that door, say those words, clean that mess, or correct that mistake, who am I loving more, God or myself?"
"What does living out 1 Corinthians 13 (Love is patient, kind ect) truly look like?"
Love is the foundation of every good work. Love is the key ingredient for glorifying God. You can have all the other ingredients...a perfect word, a sacrificial act, and a strong faith. But if you don't add love to the mix, the end result will be bland and useless. It will have no nutritional value and do nothing to advance the kingdom.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
Love starts from the inside in our hearts and then flows out into action. We love because Christ first loved us. In order to love well, we must first fill our hearts with Jesus' love. Soak it up, study it, meditate on it, find joy, comfort, and satisfaction in it. This is a reoccurring process that takes God-given grace, desire, and discipline.
...that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:18
Know that God loves to pour His love on us. He wants us to know its height and depth. We love best by experiencing God's love. When our hearts are full of His love, out of the abundance of that love, our mouths will speak and our bodies will act.
So what does love done right, look like? The answer can't be found in tradition, knowledge, morals, rules, or abstract concepts. We can test the authenticity of love by looking at the heart.
This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. Isaiah 29:13
Love doesn't exalt ourselves. We can't truly love others when we serve them with selfish ambition. Love considers the needs of others above our own. When we serve so that we get the recognition or benefit, we do not love. When we say words to make us feel better about ourselves, we do not love.
By putting the spotlight on ourselves, we distract people from what they need the most. We can improve their situation (making us feel all warm and fuzzy inside) while at the same time make them content with a temporary, unsatisfying emotion.
We may think people need us or benefit from our good deeds but the truth is, people need and benefit from God SO much more. Love is not about us. Love is all about the very essence of love...God.
Love doesn't exalt others. Yes, love isn't even about exalting other people. When we love other people to make them feel better about themselves, we do not love. Love is not about self-esteem, self-satisfaction, or self-betterment.
Love rescues people from self.
Love helps others forget themselves long enough to remember God. When we love others to exalt their worth, we keep them from what is best for their lives. We lead them to believe that their happiness is somehow found within themselves.
In reality, their best is found in Jesus. If we truly want what is best for others, we will give them what is best (Jesus).
Love points to God. True love doesn't say "Look at who I am" or "Look at who you are."
True love says "Look at who God is."
Our love can't add to God's greatness (God is worthy whether we realize it or not). Our love lets everyone see and enjoy God for who He already is.
Because God is our only source for all-satisfying, filled-to-the-brim joy (not to mention eternal salvation), true love gives people their best option...God.
So when we change that diaper, hold that hand, or relay that message, we do it so that God and His Son are made known. We verbally give God the credit. We turn their thoughts toward Christ. We bid them to die to themselves and live by the blood of Christ. We rescue their attention from the darkness of temporary pleasures and place it on the light of God's glory. We remind them that Christ loves them, delights in them, and blesses them.
Not to aim to show God is not to love, because God is what we need most deeply...If you don't point people to God for everlasting joy, you don't love. John Piper
We were made to make much of Christ! The pressure is off! It's not up to us to make others feel better. It's up to God to satisfy their cravings. Nothing we say or do or feel or possess will ever matter if it does not draw people to their source of joy and contentment. It's not about us or about others. Loving people is about pushing them toward God's greater love.
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