I think this will be a consistent title from me: "Defining Moments". If any of you are regular readers of my blog, you know that I defined BELIEVE the other day, and I often have moments in my mind of redefining words and verbs that maybe our society has watered down or has just plain screwed up the definition. Today, my heart and my mind want to define love. But, not just any kind of love: Jesus' love. I would say this is a tough one to tackle, but I would also say that it is very important to know just HOW Jesus loved when he was on earth.
Recently I heard someone say: Love them like Jesus.
So I went on a hunt to figure out exactly how Jesus loved the people closest to him. If we are talking about Jesus, we have to go to the book that recorded the most history about Jesus: the Bible. So we will start there.
In the Old Testament, God's greatest commandment was to "Love Thy Neighbor". And then Jesus came along in the New Testament and deepened that definition of Love by teaching the disciples what it truly meant to love. Jesus said to his disciples, "A new commandment that I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another." John 13:34
The "new" part of his commandment from the old testament was the deepening of the definition of love that he had showed them while he was on earth.
So, the BIG question. How did Jesus love his disciples (the ones closest to him)? This is important because it is how we are to love each other (see verse above).
I started listening to the Gospels on CD.... go ahead, call me a nerd, actually call my boyfriend a nerd who got them for me. But anyway, it was a good way to focus on what Jesus actually did when he was here on earth. I noticed a trend of teaching and healing from Him. There wasn't a whole lot of "I accept you for who you are" phrases, but there was a lot of "I forgive your sin, but come follow me and be free of your sin" phrases.
If we are to follow Jesus' way of loving, I believe that He loved by speaking the Truth in love. When he encountered sinners, he did not speak hatefully to them, but he did give them Truth, because he knew that was the best way to love them and because he knew that would give them the most fulfilling life. Sometimes Jesus was not even "nice" about it. He was harsh with his disciples, calling them out on things that they were doing wrong so that they could live a more fruitful life... But it was still love.
Jesus is giving his disciples advice before his death when he says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed the Father's commands and remained in His love." John 15:9-10 This is evidence that another part of Jesus' love was obeying the Lord's commandments.
This definition of Love that Jesus' demonstrates for us throughout his life, is very different from our world's definition of love. Our world's definition is to accept everyone as they are, be kind, smile at everyone, be at peace with everyone, be selfless, etc. These are not bad things to do, but the world's definition of Love often does not include the type of Love that Jesus showed the world when he was here. I am not exaggerating when I say that for the majority of Jesus' time on earth, he performed miracles and taught Truth to the world. I am sure he was a kind person, but what we know about Jesus was that he loved by making sure everyone that he knew, knew the truth.
So when I hear people say, "Love them like Jesus", I will now know that they mean: "speak the truth to them." This is not my own definition of Jesus' Love, but rather the Bibles. Please find out for yourself and read about Jesus' time on earth.
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13
If we are to follow Jesus' way of loving, I believe that He loved by speaking the Truth in love. When he encountered sinners, he did not speak hatefully to them, but he did give them Truth, because he knew that was the best way to love them and because he knew that would give them the most fulfilling life. Sometimes Jesus was not even "nice" about it. He was harsh with his disciples, calling them out on things that they were doing wrong so that they could live a more fruitful life... But it was still love.
Jesus is giving his disciples advice before his death when he says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed the Father's commands and remained in His love." John 15:9-10 This is evidence that another part of Jesus' love was obeying the Lord's commandments.
This definition of Love that Jesus' demonstrates for us throughout his life, is very different from our world's definition of love. Our world's definition is to accept everyone as they are, be kind, smile at everyone, be at peace with everyone, be selfless, etc. These are not bad things to do, but the world's definition of Love often does not include the type of Love that Jesus showed the world when he was here. I am not exaggerating when I say that for the majority of Jesus' time on earth, he performed miracles and taught Truth to the world. I am sure he was a kind person, but what we know about Jesus was that he loved by making sure everyone that he knew, knew the truth.
So when I hear people say, "Love them like Jesus", I will now know that they mean: "speak the truth to them." This is not my own definition of Jesus' Love, but rather the Bibles. Please find out for yourself and read about Jesus' time on earth.
"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13
No comments:
Post a Comment