dev 192 - Selfless Love

“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”

John 15:13

Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, uttered these words in description of the command that was given. The command to his followers was simple enough; love one another, as I have loved you. In this Jesus was repeating a command that he had already taught, probably numerous times, and he now uses the platform of his last night to bring this command even more into the spotlight. Jesus wanted to make this clear: if you want to follow him, you must love is a sacrificial way- in a way where the good of the beloved is esteemed higher than personal good.

I understand what Jesus is teaching with my brain. Furthermore, my intellect concludes that the logic behind love is flawless. Love is the most important philosophy to build one’s life around. The only way to overcome the corruption of selfishness and the scourge of our pride is to get to the point where we consider others as more important than ourselves. I have observed the contentment in those people who I consider to be champions of loving others, who seem to never care about their own interests if they can be laid aside to help someone.

There have been moments where I too have experienced this. The most blissful times in my life have been when I have totally abandoned my wants and needs and found joy in bringing the wants and needs of others to pass. Yet, even with this being the case, I find the command to love an extremely difficult one to obey.

It is on this battlefield that I find my old sinful nature still rising to combat my life in Christ. It is essentially here where the war for sanctification is fought. Your sin ought to be laid aside, not for the sake of your pride or for any desire that you seek for yourself, but rather out of love for God and for people. And your love, according to Jesus, should be carried out even to the laying down of your life. This is the ideal. This is why you are created

God has established this world on this law. Things work right when love is the center of our philosophy and our actions. When love is absent, chaos ensues. Do not be surprised if your heart hardens and shrivels if you live your life only for yourself. You were not made to live that way. Your heart was not built to operate correctly in such a drought. Your heart was made to be given away.

George MacDonald said, ““It is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest the soul of another; yea, that, where two love, it is the loving of each other, that originates and perfects and assures their blessedness. I knew that love gives to him that loveth, power over any soul be loved, even if that soul know him not, bringing him inwardly close to that spirit; a power that cannot be but for good; for in proportion as selfishness intrudes, the love ceases, and the power which springs there from dies. Yet all love will, one day, meet with its return.”

It is a great joy, as we grow in Christ when we realize that our love will not go unreturned. Yet the greater joy, for us, is in the loving of God, for it is here where we become like God and participate in a glorious relationship with Him.