Greater Love
Lay Down Your Life
"There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13
The greatest act of love that we can show to someone is to lay down our life. Laying down one's life is not just the ultimate sacrifice of death. How you die is important, but how you live is also important.
In order to lay down your life for a friend, stop what you are doing and totally focus on what concerns them. Have a conversation that totally focuses on what they are focused on. Don’t bounce back with your experience, every time they try to tell you what happened to them. Ask them questions about how they’re experiencing what they are going through. Lay down your life, even if for a moment. Show genuine love and concern for their life.
The born-again life is meant to be a life of love. This life was made available to us by the greatest act of love; Jesus laying down his life at Calvary. If we want to honor His sacrifice, we need to live this life the way it was intended to be lived; loving others.
Does Love come from the Heart?
Just as the natural heart requires blood to work, so our spiritual hearts requires love. In other words, if you are not loving you are dying. But where does it start? Do you have to feel love for a person before you do an act of love for them? I have learned that it can go either way. Just as the cardiovascular system of our natural bodies flows in a cycle so does our spiritual. Sometimes my heart goes out to a person before I have ever had a conversation with them. Other times I love a person because I loved the person. When you help someone, it causes you to begin to love him. As a parent, I loved my children since before they were born. That love, however, has grown significantly as time has gone by. The more time I spend caring for them, the more I love them. Don’t wait on your heart to tell you to love someone, love them because they are there. Your heart will catch up later. "If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? " 1 John 4:20
Build Your Muscle
Some people are easier to love than others. Babies have to drink milk for a while after they are born. Once they are older, however, they can chew and digest solid foods. Loving people who are easy for you to love is like drinking milk. It’s good to get you started in your new life.
Stretch your muscle
Once you build your heart muscle, you need to stretch it. Stretch your heart by reaching out to those to who you do not easily relate. Give to those who do not look like you or did not grow up in the neighborhood that you grew up in. Love people who the only thing they have in common with you is that they are fellow human beings living on planet Earth. When you can love those that you do not automatically feel a connection to, you will reflect the beauty of God on a whole other level. In The Elder Son, I get a little more scientific to explain how God’s light can reflect off of us at different frequencies. For now let me just say that if you have been only loving easy, it’s time to level up!
Love as a Fruit
In Galatians 5, the first of nine fruits of the Spirit is love. The best way I can describe the fruit of the Spirit is that it is the behavior that comes out of us, to show who is in us. The first way people will see that you are filled with the Holy Spirit is that you are more loving. When I see a young healthy individual park in the best parking spot just because it is available, they fail my fruit inspection. When I see someone tipping less than generously, they fail my fruit inspection. When I notice a friend who always chooses to go to his favorite place or do his favorite activities, he has failed my fruit inspection.
Conclusion
Some say, “The heart wants what the heart wants.” I say the heart wants what you tell it to want. Be in charge of your heart. Love is not something that just happens at first sight. Love people on purpose. “By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples: if ye have love one for another.” John 13:35
Written by - Mike Verdin
