Love, Defined!

Love, Defined!

By this we know [and have come to understand the depth and essence of His precious] love: that He [willingly] laid down His life for us [because He loved us]. And we ought to lay down our lives for the believers. 1 JOHN 3:16 AMP

The world has definitions for life's concepts. The Word of God also has its own definitions of these concepts. It would appear that the world's definitions are easier to follow because they do not demand anything unusual or sacrificial from you. For example, the world's definition of love could relate to the filial and the erotic, both of them the regular outcome of family love and the outcome of man's fallen nature due to sin. Both of them demand reciprocal treatment or feelings out of a sense of duty, but none of these two can fully explain God's kind of love.

What stands God's love out is the foundation on which it is built: it did not demand anything from us before it was given to us. That's fully underlined in today's extract: Jesus willingly laid down his life for us. He wasn't forced to do it; we couldn't pay him to do it; we didn't even care then if he did it, as we didn't even appreciate the trouble we were in or the death that we were due. That's why his sacrifice is all the more weighty. Man would make all the noise, but when it came to a head, it is likely that man would not follow through.

One clear lesson: Jesus didn't do all he did, simply because he had nothing better to do, but to use his life as an example for us, so the world will see Him in and through us. If indeed I have tasted of God's great gift of love, it is only fitting that other people taste of that same love in and through me. How else will the world know and understand true love, if my life does not first show the fruits of that love? How does my life speak of love if there is no seed of grace in my life?

I am called to live by example, not just by word of mouth. Laying down my life may not mean letting myself be killed, but like the early church, can I see beyond my needs and seek to meet other people's needs? Can I place other people's priorities ahead of my own? Can I share what I have with people who don't have, not because I want to feel important, but because I realise I have received even greater things than what I could ever give? Can someone be grateful to God that I passed his/her way in life, and made an impact of love? Remember, the things that do count are the things of eternal value, and they are the things that can never be measured by currency. What are my priorities and pursuits? His time of favour is here.