Defining Love!

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

There are more than 14 different definitions of 'Love' in some English dictionaries, but it is difficult for English to truly define love from God's perspective. The world would see love as something felt, something touched or something experienced, but for God, it is first someone before we experience what he has done for us.

When you read passages that say 'God is Love'; 'Love is patient and kind'; 'The fruit of the Spirit is Love....', you get the clear picture that love is actually deeper than just the feeling and the emotion. Love is first an experience of a person and then what the person has done for us. From today's extract, we see this love defined: Christ  laid down his life for us. That is deeper than anything you could have ever imagined before. At the time he did it, we weren't good in any way. We didn't deserve it, we didn't even acknowledge him. Yet, he did it all the same, and today, we have been challenged to do the same.

You may think it is hard, but when I am fully aware of who I am and who I belong to, life becomes less complicated. When I know the sacrifice made so I could walk in this new life, it should encourage me to embrace God and seek to do what pleases him. As I live from day to day, I put other people's interests above my own. I seek to plant eternity in the hearts of men. I strive to deal with men with the same heart of love that I have received. What if all my efforts are rejected? What if I am put to death for the sake of who I know and hold on to? Would I still surrender? Can I lay down my life, allowing others to walk all over it, simply because of the sake of the love of Christ which I have received? Deep words. His time of favour is here.