What am I called to do?
This is a question that every human has wondered or tried to figure out for themselves at some point in time. Although the details of each person’s calling and course of action looks different from everyone else’s, there are some universal concepts we can all apply to our lives. One of those concepts is to love. However, in order to be people who show love, we have to first know what love is.
“If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” 1 John 4:15-16
We see from that verse that God is love. Love from God is both reliable and unconditional. It is never changing and will never lessen based off of anything we do. When God lives in us, we have His strength and the capability to love just as He loves us. Who are we supposed to show this love to?
Matthew 22:37-39 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Everyone.
Though we like to typically think as our neighbors being those people who live by us, the word “neighbor” in this context isn’t quite as specific. Our “neighbors” are simply those people who are around us, wherever we are. That means the grocery store, at work, the coffee shop, anywhere. We are called to love everyone. Now this can seem like a lofty task, especially when all of us who are human are constantly looking to be loved ourselves as well. Loving others can be pretty hard when we forget just how much we are loved too.
The good news for us is, that God will never stop loving us. We are able to love others because God loved us first. God will stop at nothing to show us how much He loves us, and because of this He sacrificed His one and only Son, whose death on the cross represented the greatest act of love in paying the price for our sins.
Now obviously, God isn’t calling each of us to die on a cross as a display of love too, so in what ways are we to show love to others?
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Romans 12:10
Showing love to one another means putting them first. Jesus demonstrated God’s love for us by putting our needs above his own – his death on the cross in place of our sins enables us to have a relationship with God and allows us to better understand God’s love for us.
How can we be the people who put others needs above our own and be examples of God’s love?