Why We Must Seek to Love Like Jesus

Loving people with a heart like Jesus, has got to be one of the hardest things ever! It takes some special kind of grace, to be patient and loving, yet firm at every given moment. It’s as though this command was given specifically because it would be difficult.  We are all going through the process of learning how to love like Jesus. It is a necessary process. I know for a fact (a very strong fact) that I am still learning to be molded into the kind of love that God wants me to exemplify. However, upon reading a few scriptures one day, I took it even more seriously.

Why We Are Expected to Show Love Like Jesus?

Our ability to love stems from the love God shows to the ones He calls His sons/daughters. The only reason we can be called sons of God, is because of the love that God showed us by giving us His son. It is from this expression of love that we are given the moral grounding to also love one another. The proof of God’s discipleship over our lives is by our ability to love one another. In 1 John 3:23, the mandate was for disciples of Christ to show love to other disciples. In 1 Thessalonians 3:12, Paul tells the church of Thessalonica that their love should increase and abound to one another (the church) AND to all. John 13:34-35, show us that it is a command to love. A command is defined as an authoritative order. Love like Christ, my sister! Love like Jesus, my brother!

What Encompasses Showing Love Like Jesus?

1. Reflecting God’s Nature

Love is the nature of God, and we are called to love. Therefore, whatever love that we are supposed to exhibit, is meant to reflect the character of God. This is very important because if you’ve noticed, unbelievers love to tell believers that God is love when it comes to certain sins that are now more acceptable in society. You will also commonly hear that you should love your neighbor as yourself. The verses that they love to retort back to us about loving your neighbor, also quote this just before: ‘love the Lord God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’. This goes to show that the relationship and love we are meant to exude, is only as important as the love and relationship we also show to our Lord God.

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-10, there is a list of things that love represents. One of them is that ‘love doesn’t delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth’. If we are to love like Christ, it means our love must align to God’s ideals. God doesn’t accept sin but offers grace and life to the sinner. Therefore loving like Christ doesn’t mean accepting everything that modern society has now labelled as normal. Rather it is standing in truth. Love reflects the nature of God. Whether it is His holiness, His slowness to anger or His justice.

2. Bearing One Another

Apart from our love reflecting the nature of God, it is also meant to serve. In 1 John 3:16, it says  ‘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’. In the very next verse it talks about how if our brother or sister is in need of material things and we do not not offer it, how can we say we have the love of God. Material things can be in kind, money or even offering our time. Offering time to someone is as simple as sparing time to explain something to someone that you understood in class. I was always in awe of people in school, who were kind enough to explain things. I was always so appreciative of their time offering.

In Galatians 6:2, it tells us when we bear one another’s burdens, we fulfill the law of Christ. In James 2:8, we know fulfilling the law of Christ is in fact, loving your neighbor as yourself. One way we show love is through how we restore a brother in Christ who has fallen. It should be from a gentle place and by the leading of the Spirit. It should also be devoid of any form of self-righteousness, to avoid being tempted as well (Galatians 6:1).

What About Those Who Still Show Love and Are Not Christians?

Of course, there are unbelievers who love deeply. Some even more than believers! I don’t think it is impossible for an unbeliever to show genuine love or charity. But unfortunately, that isn’t enough. Love has a source, and His name is God. To only love your neighbor without acknowledging and loving God, is like accepting the fruit without the tree. You need the tree to produce even more good fruit. It is a commendable thing to love. However, when all is said and done, the one who didn’t love God, would have lost the privilege to know the source of it all.

Rewards and Consequences of Loving like Christ

1 John 3:10;14 tells us that when we don’t love our brother or sister, we are children of the devil and still remain in darkness. Bruh! Mercy, Lord. The call to being a Christian is synonymous to loving. Therefore, doing anything otherwise is indicative of another spirit working within us.

Chapter 4 verse 12 of the same book tells us something very beautiful though. ‘No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.’ When we avail ourselves to love one another, we receive even more of God’s love. God gives us the ability to love. When we love, He gives us more love, to love. Our ability to love is perfected when we abide more in God. And how do we do that? Through fellowship.

To stand in the day of judgement without any fear, out lives would need to resemble the life that Jesus Christ lived. When we love in the manner we were called to, we would have no fear of the day of judgment. Yes, the fear of judgment can arise when we are unrighteous. But even when we become righteous, our progression in love to another, removes all fear. What a joy to behold!

Pray this prayer with me: Lord, we are merely men. But we want to be used as your vessels of love. Teach us how to love like Jesus, with our Hands Lifted High.

Verses

Galatians 6:1 – 2 NLT – Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

James 2: 8 NLT – Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

1 John 3:10 NLT – So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.

1 John 3:14 NLT – If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.