1 John 3:16-18

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 and sisters. 17 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? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

We all know what John 3:16 says about love, but do we know what 1 John 3:16 says? When it comes to Love we must

• Know Love

Mankind in an attempt to define love has filled volumes and volumes of books and over the centuries love has been the major theme of our music.  When you think about all the classic plays, novels and movies, many have been based on the theme of love and yet if you ask ten people to define love, you get ten different definitions.  John in contrast says “We know love by this…” he gives us the briefest yet deepest definition of love when he says we cannot know love apart from God. He reminds us that God is love, and if we don’t know Him then we don’t know love. Knowing love is knowing God and we can only know love if we believe that Jesus laid down His life for us. The eternal Creator of all things the one who gave life also gave up His life. This is God’s love in action and this is the love our world needs to know not the staged Hollywood love that is here today and gone tomorrow but a sacrificial serving love. It was love that caused Jesus to leave Heaven for earth and become our Savior!  Real love is rare in this world, we worry about running out of oil but the truth is we don’t run on oil, our vehicles do, we, on the other hand, run on love. Love is our greatest resource and yet it seems to runs in short supply while hate dominates our world. So where in the world can we find a good model to follow? Is there such a workable model? How can we come to know what true love is? The best thing we can do is to look at love that came to us, an out of this world love that can into our world. John reminds us that it is Jesus who shows us and teaches us what real love is.

• Share Love

John tells us that we first need to know what love is but that is not where love stops but where it starts. We must share what we know for love is not a knowledge based understanding of Jesus it is knowledge based sharing of Jesus. Even a shallow understanding of God’s love which was demonstrated on Calvary’s cross should inspire us to give of ourselves completely to others. Love here is defined by what we do because what you do defines you. It is not what you feel, what you think, your good intentions, or even your ideals that count, it is what you do. It is the outcome of your life that speaks about who you are. What Jesus did was He came to us, he could’ve stayed in heaven, He could’ve just press control alt delete and rebooted His whole creation, He could’ve just traded us in for some new and improved model. Instead He chose to come personally and live as a human being, to suffer the effects of hatred, to be nailed to a rough wooden cross. What did He do? He identified with our hurts, our pain, our suffering, love is so intensely action based that it hurts with others. Love compels us to act, to do, to demonstrate, to show, to give of oneself. Love is not measured with unseen heartbeats or great intentions, Jesus says He loves but He did not just say it, He showed it! Jesus put His love on display for the whole world when He laid down His life for us. How are you showing your love? John asks the question “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?”  He says that we should lay down our lives for others and if you are willing to die for others then why would we hold back when it comes to material possession? Being willing to give it all is more than just money or material possessions, the  Good Samaritan was willing not only to sacrifice his time, but all his resources. It is the need of others that should provoke the love of God in us.

• Live Love

So we know it and we show it but John said that it should become a life style that we must live love. When Christ laid down his life for us, He chose to forgive, to love with action by coming to die in our place. Love has as its goal looking after another’s welfare, doing something tangible in action not just words. Love is more than just talking it is walking, it is more than just singing but also bringing. In the sacrifice of Christ love made itself known in every breath and every drop of blood. Jesus gained nothing by laying down his life for us and true love needs no reward. His love was not poured out because we earned it or over some self-merit but undeserved. We are not called to talk about love but to take love to others. Loving others requires that we grow up because it takes maturity to live with the tension of what people can be and what they are. Love is what you do because of what He has done.

Matthew 22:34-40

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” 37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

What we learned in the devotion on “our first love devotion” was that there are three aspects of our being, Heart, Soul, Mind but there are also three small but key words that we need to observe:

ALL – Love God with all means that we are not to hold back in any area of life. It is easy to give all in the area that we enjoy or reflects our personality, but are you giving All in All areas of your being?

YOUR – We are not all the same and we need to be careful comparing experiences, knowledge, service or even our holy living it can lead to arrogance or insecurity. Don’t base and compare your love of God solely on what others are saying and what they are or are not doing. This is your heart, your soul and your mind. What does “your” relationship of love with God look like?

AND – Again don’t limit love to one area, seek a balance in your relationship with God as you walk with Him.

Now in the same breath as we are told to love God, Jesus says “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The first command to love along with the second direct us who to love and remind us that love’s direction is outward.  Jesus also shows us that loving others is in the same realm of activity as loving God. He tied the two together, revealing that we cannot have one without the other. We’re not meant to just go off and love God to the exclusion of people, but neither are we to love people to the exclusion of God and today, sadly, we see both extremes. Yet loving God comes first because we will never properly love people until we learn to love God. People can love other people but not as much as when they first love God for He is the author of true love. In order to be in touch with others we must be in touch with God. This second command is also built on the foundation that it is about relationships not rules, so what is your life reflecting, love or legalism, relationship or rules? The world says that all’s well that ends well, but the Word teaches us that it’s also about how we start not just end. We also need to have an inclusive love because yesterday, today and tomorrow all impact our love relationships. Our yesterdays and our past decisions about people and how we loved them determine who and what we become in life. Our today counts now and how we treat people today builds on the past but it also prepares us for the future. Our tomorrow incorporates our future plans about people and planning how and who we will love in the future is what drives our present with power and energy. What Jesus teaches us is that Love is not a suggestion it is a choice made at the request of a loving God and since God has commanded it we can do it.  Jesus didn’t just know about God’s commands, He made a choice to obey and live them out and when we follow His example to love others we become like Jesus. So why does God command us to love? Because Love is a way of life that we intrinsically need, it impacts the health of our mind, body and soul. Our world teaches us many wrong attitudes and choices about love like:

• Only love those who love you, this leads to an ego fulfillment.
• Only love those who are worthy, this leads to exploitation.
• Only love those who need you, this leads to co-dependent relationships.

We all want to receive love in this life, we even demand it but have you stopped and made the choice to love others or are you just going to demand? We are not just called to love others but it is in the how we are to love them that is revealing. We are to love others in the way we love ourselves and in a self-centered society surely we should know what it looks like to love self. We have become experts in self-love but love is not getting instead it is giving to a significant-other. Jesus said “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for another” (John 15:13). Self-love sees self as significant and if we are to love others with a sincere love we must see others as significant. Lust has its focus in getting, it is the essence of self-love where true love is focused on giving. So how do we make today count when it comes to God’s command to love? We must DAM up today.

DAM :

Don’t – The first part of the DAM deals with the don’ts.  First we must stop demanding and putting ourselves first, instead we need to putting others first. We must get rid of our emotional luggage which hinders our love, such as bitterness, grudges and revenge.

Add – This second part is what we add to replace what has been taken away.  Life is not just about the don’ts but also the do’s, it’s not just about the removal but the replacing. Add blessing to others by adding value to their life with the use of your time and words. Do you need to make time for someone today? Is there someone that you need to express appreciation for or compliment?

More- This third part says that adding is not enough there needs to be more. What unexpected thing can you gift to those around you? Will you choose to give more by managing your attitudes and actions toward others? Will you choose to be friendly to dig down and give over and above?

The truth is that our loving relationships with others are the collection of choices made and tied together by time. Will you choose to obey the command to love others and who will you choose to love today?