"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. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us." 3:16 - 24
Real love is an action, not a feeling. It produces selfless, sacrificial giving. The greatest act of love is giving yourself for another - Jesus. We can give up our lives for others by.....serving another with no expectation of receiving anything in return. Sometimes it is easier to say we will die for someone, than to say we will live for them.
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other." John 15:9-17
Loving like Jesus loved, is HARD! In my 4 years living in downtown, I have had many days where I wanted to just walk away, go back to my own little world and do my own selfish things. I have been screamed at, cussed out, lied to, taken advantage of, manipulated, interrupted constantly, woken up in the middle of the night, stolen from, spit in the face, had cans of vienna sausages and packs of crackers thrown at me, even had a big clay flower pot thrown at me! Hard is good, but it is still hard.
In the middle of every hard thing I have walked through, Jesus has taught me so much from it. Many nights I would lay in my little bed on Cohea Street and talk to the Lord, saying, "Jesus, how do I do this!" And Jesus would always sit on the side of my bed and say to me, "You just keep loving them, just like I keep loving you."
My motive to keep loving? Jesus keeps loving me when I treat him like others have treated me, and I can't live my life without that.
Your hard may look different than mine, but our motive to love should be the same.
My brother Mario. He is loved by so many, and he is so loved by Jesus. He is going to walk in the light of Lord, and even though it is so hard, it is so good to keep loving him into that. (and he might be one of those that has screamed at me and thrown a few flower pots at me....)
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