“What’s love got to do, got to do with it?”
Great question Tina Turner!
If you are a follower of Jesus…Love is everything. The greatest and second greatest commandment according to Jesus are for us to “Love God,” and “Love Others (Matt. 22:36-40).
But why? Why am I called to love others? And how? How do I love others?
1 John 4:19 offers that “We love because He first loved us.” This is our WHY and this is our HOW! The love that we have to give is a direct result of the love that Christ has shown to His creation. In the ultimate act of love, God sent his Son to die on a cross so that we might have access to His love! Why do we love? Because He first loved us and our only natural response should be return that love to Him and to show it to others.
But How? We show love to others by emulating the love shown to us. God’s love was sacrificial. Ours should be also. Love in our culture today is selfish and self serving. People love, not in sacrifice or servitude, but in order receive love back.
Here is our opportunity! When we love with the sacrificial love of Christ we tell a very different story than the one being told by culture. When we serve without recognition and love those who will not reciprocate we point to the ultimate source of love…God himself (1 John 4:8).
May our plea each morning be Psalm 143:8, “Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk (why & how to love others), for I give myself to you.
Amen.
