Yesterday I asked you to define love. One common way people today define love is to be as tolerant and permissive as possible, as long as the other person does not to hurt others.
See what a low standard that is? Jesus defines love to a much higher degree, he says to love one another as oneself. He knows we are self-centered…and Jesus uses that to teach us love for others.
Between loving God with everything, and loving neighbours as ourselves, Jesus has declared self-salvation to be impossible. We may love God to one degree or another. But with everything? We can and should try, but we reach our limits since we are only human, and separated ourselves from God in sin. We need help.
Equally true, we may make ourselves harmless and never say a word to anyone who isn’t harming another, but we can’t make ourselves completely love others as ourselves – we always want more for ourselves than to be tolerated and put up with. We can and should try to love others as ourselves, but we need the help of another to do this.
Jesus made himself harmless, and willingly sacrificed himself on a cross in the ultimate action of love for God and others. He led the way, and did what would be impossible for humans, so we could follow him in love for God and love for others, rather than trying to trailblaze ourselves.
We’ll look at this more in this upcoming series on neighbours.
Challenge: How do your actions “hang’ under love of God or love of neighbour? Is there anything you’ve done in the last week that doesn’t fit one of those loves?
Loading Content...
Share a Link to this Message
The link has been copied to your clipboard; paste it anywhere you would like to share it.
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14 ESV)
Which way will you go? Follow the law to keep in a right position, watching what you do? People will try to tell you their way to please God, go to heaven, to be a good person, etc.
Or will you go the hard way, relying on God’s grace alone? We can’t take anything with us through the narrow gate.
Only a few make it through, it's true enough. Everyone can avoid hurting others. But can you love others? That's hard.
Thankfully Jesus has gone ahead. He is the door. The way. He doesn't just avoid sin, he loves sacrificially, to the death.
He uses death to destroy death. He uses self-love to teach us to love others. His power and genius!
Others will tell you, “here’s what not to do, and do, to reach God.”
Jesus says God reaches us…and he is the door, the gate, who lays down everything to love sacrificially.
He gave us his love, rather than what we deserved, death.
How? You start with God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is this: Love your neighbour as yourself.
God helps us see ourselves clearly, destroys our self-centeredness, then teaches us to love others.
Challenge: Make a list of the ways you like to be treated. Not just favourite flavours and colours, but what helps you relate well with people. Now consider, who will you see today, whom you do not treat in this way? Pick one of those list items, and change that today.
