How to Love Like JesusSample

Love in full

Over the past five days, we’ve examined how the Bible defines love, particularly in contrast to the way it’s often understood in the larger culture. We’ve focused on how loving God and others well requires that we approach every situation as a unique opportunity to serve the Lord through the way we love. To that end, we looked at principles from the life of Christ to help us identify some of the core characteristics of how Jesus loved and, from his example, learn how we might apply those lessons in our lives today.

With that goal in mind, let’s spend the rest of today looking back on what God has taught us about how to love. The purpose of this reflection is less to remind you of what we’ve only recently discussed than to revisit those ideas in light of the ones that followed.

While each of the following characteristics is important in its own right, they build on one another to present a more cohesive look at what it means to love. If we do not have a solid understanding of the picture they present as a whole, then it will matter relatively little whether we master the individual parts.

The first characteristic we discussed is how Christ’s love is genuine.

Jesus loved without the slightest hint of falsehood or deception, and that was true of every interaction he had with people throughout the Gospels. He gave freely of his time and efforts as the Spirit led, and as a result, those who experienced his love often left those interactions with a renewed sense of their worth in the eyes of God.

The second characteristic we discussed is that Christ’s love is sacrificial.

While the cross is the ultimate example of that sacrifice, Jesus’s interactions with others demonstrated that such love was not limited to that single act. Each day he exhibited the same kind of selfless concern for others that led him to die in our place, and he calls us to do the same. From washing his disciples’ feet—including the feet of Judas—to the way he healed and taught even while exhausted, Christ gave us a clear example of what it looks like to love sacrificially.

The final characteristic of Christ’s love we discussed is the way he confronted people with their sin and called them to repentance. However, his life was so defined by grace and mercy that, even when calling people to go and sin no more, they understood that he did so to set them free rather than to condemn them. Such a balance is not possible unless our love for others is both genuine and sacrificial.

Because such accountability will often breed a sense of defensiveness on the part of those who are confronted with their mistakes, they have to trust that we really do have their ultimate well-being in mind. However, even when our motivations are genuine, it does not guarantee that others will accept that accountability well. The willingness to risk their wrath and ire to help them draw closer to God by choosing his mercy over their sin is an inherently sacrificial act. If we are not willing to suffer the consequences of rejected accountability, then we will never offer it well.

To this point, much of our conversation has centered on what it means to love other people, but the genuine, sacrificial, and accountable love we see Jesus display toward others is mirrored in his love for the Father. The same should be true of us as well.

If we want to consistently love our neighbor as ourselves, then that love must flow out of our love for God.

For more on what it means to love God and our neighbor well, I encourage you to check out Love the Lord Your God: A 30-Day Devotional on Denison Forum's store. But whether you continue with that resource or simply seek to practice the principles we’ve talked about here, make a point to start every day by asking the Lord to help you love him and to love others by the Bible’s standards rather than our culture’s. Let’s start right now.

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