To Encourage You

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.”

Sometimes the dictionary is not the best place to go for a definition.  This morning I looked up the word “love.”  This is how the dictionary defines it: “noun: 1.  An intense feeling of deep affection. 2.  A great and intense pleasure in something; verb: feel a deep and romantic sexual attraction to someone.” That’s it.  That’s all it had to say for this word that is perhaps one of the most important words in our entire vocabulary.    

Unfortunately, if that is where we turn to learn about the definition of this word, we are woefully missing the mark. At least that’s what the message of the Bible would tell us.  You see, the verse above was written to us about the God Who is love (1 John 4:8), by a person who called himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21:7).  Sounds like a good source to consult when it comes to the meaning of the word “love.” 

So, what does John say about it?  He says “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.”  You see, he doesn’t try to define this word the way the dictionary does. No, what John does is to define love by an action.  He tells us that the definition of the love that Jesus has for us is not described in words.  It is shown by actions, for there is absolutely no better way to define it. And how was it shown to us?  It was shown to us at the cross.  Here Jesus demonstrated love like nothing else will ever do as He sacrificed His life for ours. 

In 1 Corinthians 13, a chapter that has come to be known as “the love chapter,” we see exactly the same thing.  There “love”  is defined for us with a description of the actions that demonstrate it rather than by words to describe it.  Here Paul tells us that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

You see, here again the Bible defines “love” by a list of actions, and the attitudes behind those actions.  In a way, it’s such an obvious thing, for we know this type of love when we see it.  If someone has sacrificed their own comfort, interests, and resources to do something that serves and benefits us, we are deeply aware that that person has loved us.  Likewise, if we want to show love to others, it will be by our own sacrificial actions towards them. 

As the apostle Paul exhorts the church at Philippi to love each other, he does it with the following words: “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:3-8). 

It’s always the same, everywhere we look.  Love is demonstrated by self-sacrificial acts of service.  Humble acts. Kind acts.  Isn’t it interesting that the book of the Bible that lays out the history of the early church is called the book of Acts, sometimes further entitled either “the Acts of the Holy Spirit,” or “the Acts of the Apostles,” for the God Who is Love, always shows that love to us through acts.  Likewise, we can only ever do so in the same way.

May the God Who has loved us enable us to show that love to others by laying down our lives for them with acts of love.