THURSDAY
Love is the other layer of meaning we talked about a few weeks ago. Again, love is not our ultimate purpose but it is a super important way of living in our ultimate purpose. As we’ve been doing all week, to live in our ultimate purpose, our day-to-day life should be lived in love. In fact, love is the supreme virtue of the Christian life.
Matthew 22:36–40 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
1 Corinthians 13:1–3 1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 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. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
John 15:12–13 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
As we saw a couple of weeks ago, love is defined by God (1 Jn. 4:8), exemplified supremely in Jesus (1 Jn. 4:9-10), and produced in us by the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22).
John 15:17 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
I think Pete Scazzero is right when he says we need to make love the measure of maturity in the Christian life. Jesus’ two greatest commandments are to love. He calls us to love God and people. When we love we make God look glorious.
John 13:35 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus even calls us to love our enemies. Who does that?
Matthew 5:44 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
If we are to find meaning in our daily life then we need to live in the framework of love. Love, as defined by Jesus, is laying down your life for the benefit of others. We demonstrate our love for God by giving ourselves as a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12:1). This means surrendering more and more of ourselves to him and his will, as we talked about yesterday. We demonstrate our love for others when we lay down our rights and privileges for their benefit.
We should regularly ask ourselves:
“What’s the loving thing to do?”
“What does love require of me?”
“Are my actions loving or selfish?”
“Are my thoughts about this person rooted in love?”
“Am I growing in love?”
“How can I demonstrate my love for God and others today?”
These are great questions that we should be asking ourselves and one another all the time. Love is too important for us to miss. Love is too central to the character of God for us to outsource it to ourselves or our culture’s definition of it. If we want to fulfill our ultimate purpose and make God look glorious we must know the love of God for us and live in this love together. We in the church need to recapture the glorious meaning to be found in living the Christian vision of love.
Reflection
Think through a challenging situation you experienced today or in the last couple of days. Ask yourself those questions that I asked earlier. How did you do? This isn’t to make you feel guilt or shame. If you do,
repent and know that God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. It is simply a reflective exercise to help you identify ways in which you can grow in love. Pray for the Spirit to produce more of the love of God in your life.