1 John 3:16
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.
I am a selfish person. Most everything I do is out of an effort to get what I want to make me happy. The cold hard fact is we are all like that. I have heard that every argument ever started in the history of the world was because someone wanted their way.
It is easy for us to be selfish. We do not need a teacher, a conference, or a manual. In our sinful state, it comes as natural as breathing. Adam had a lot to do with that, but much of the blame lies within us. We choose to be selfish.
It is easy to love those who love us, but it’s difficult to love the unlovely, the less than, the dirty, the sinners, the drug addicts, the homeless. Yet, these are the very people Jesus spent most of His time with. Loving them, sharing Himself with them, healing them, sacrificing for them.
We do need examples of what love is, and Scripture is full of words and actions that explain it. Jesus. We know what love is because the Bible tells us what love is. In the verse mentioned above, the realization of true love is birthed in complete sacrifice. Jesus laid down His life for us, we need to do the same for our brothers, our friends, our “near ones.”
There is so much misunderstanding about love, especially in the church. The bottom line for us is this…Love is sacrifice. Sacrifice for the benefit of another. Because our culture is all about self, sacrifice is not a popular word. Jesus reminds us that love is more than a word. It is an act, an attitude, part of the will. We have to decide to sacrifice and not to compromise.