[No Greater] No Greater PursuitSample

The Look of Love

Lucian of Samosa, a critic of Christianity, had this to say about Christians: “The earnestness with which the people of this religion help one another in their needs is incredible. They spare themselves nothing for this end. Their first lawgiver put it into their heads that they were all brethren!”

There are three things we must do as Christians: love God, abide in Christ; love our near neighbors, believers; and love our far neighbors, unbelievers. However, unless we love God first, abiding in the vine who is Christ, we will not have any supernatural love to offer our neighbors. The kind of love that we are to give, “agape” love, is a love that is God-produced, God-glorifying, and God-stained. It is so centered on others that it can only be produced by God.  

We are never called to manufacture this kind of love. We are called to be filled with it, to overflow, and to let it spill over into other people’s lives. We are called to distribute this kind of love so deeply and widely that it can only be drawn from the storehouse of heaven through the Holy Spirit. Before we begin to give this love away, we must be overwhelmed by it ourselves. We cannot give what we do not have. We need to be filled up to overflowing. This is why it is so important to abide in Christ, to be filled with His Wonderful God-stained love.

The kind of love Jesus wants to dispense through us, this God–stained love, is modeled through His days on earth. It is a template of how He loved. His love was unsparingly sacrificial. He died for us. Nothing proves our love for someone more than being willing to sacrifice for them. Jesus’ love was profoundly respectful. No one had more right to speak from a pedestal of superiority, yet no one treated people with greater dignity and respect than the One on the pedestal of a cross. His love was purposely pursuant: He took the first step. We love because God first loved us. Christ calls us to the epic purpose of bearing fruit that remains for all of eternity. This is our great opportunity, our great commission—to make disciples.