Corona Devo 2099
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. ~I John 3:16
This love...this real love that the Bible calls us to is so...revolutionary compared to the (self) love that the world glorifies. Not only is the real love of Jesus revolutionary, it is revolting to most people, who have been trained to love and promote only themselves, rather than to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.
This real love that the Bible speaks of is contradictory and even contraband. As Believers in Christ, it's almost like we have to smuggle God's love (real love) to others, because this kind of love is so unknown in the me-first era in which we live.
But, as the Bible has done for over two thousand years: God's Word defines life and real love in stark contradiction to the accepted cultural versions of love, which are diluted and tainted because man has attempted to twist its focus onto us in meeting (only) our needs, while real love only transpires when we are blessing others with it.
How do we know?
(1) Jesus demonstrated it for us.
And
(2) We have all experienced the emptiness and lack-of-meaning in loving only ourselves. We weren't created for self-love, we were designed and designated by our Creator to love as He loves: with real love.
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. ~I John 3:16
Jesus demonstrated it for us. Jesus gave up his life for us...
He gave up his life and breath and body and blood for us on the cross in the most excruciating, inhumane, and humiliating way. This was real love in that it cost Him everything, and yet Jesus did it willingly to include us in His love. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us.
...We don't want to get up off the couch...
...We don't want to put in the effort...
...We don't want to spend the money or take the time to show real love to others.
But not Jesus. He gave up His throne in Heaven to come down as a man (and first as a newborn baby). Have we considered all that Jesus left in order to make things right for us to spend eternity with Him?
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: (6) Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; (7) rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (8) And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
(9) Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, (10) that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, (11) and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. ~Philippians 2:5-11
We have a choice each day as to what we will do with the knowledge, recognition, and appreciation of the real love that Jesus gives us.
Will we also give up our lives for our brothers and sisters?
Decide today what we will do today to show real love to others. We know what real love is...the question (that God asks) is whether we will get real about living it?
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. (17) If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?
(18) Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. (19) Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. (20) Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.
(21) Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. (22) And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.
(23) And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. (24) Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us. ~I John 3:16-24
It's all there...all of the details and Biblical Truths about what real love is. Not only did Jesus exemplify real love for us, but Scripture goes on to invite us in to that real love with our Savior and God, regardless of our guilty feelings.
God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything (I John 3:20), and He loves us still.
And so let's react to the real love of Jesus today by sharing the real love of Jesus today. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters (I John 3:16).
No if's, and's, or but's about it: if someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person (I John 3:17)? Jesus is getting real with us about our money and about our hearts in loving others. Take His comment here and apply it wherever the Holy Spirit says to in our lives.
God sees us. He sees our love. He sees our wallets. And He sees our hearts. Let real love be spent in whatever ways that God says to today.
~~~
We know what real love is because...Jesus. (I John 3:16)
Let the real love that Jesus lived be the way that we live and love. That's how we know he lives in us... because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters...
(24) ... And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us. ~I John 3:16, 24
Blessings,
sarah
Https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com
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