Sacrificial Love

You will never become ‘… a sweet smelling savour’ in the nostrils of God without sacrifice, without paying the price to love others. Loving others does not mean much if we only love the people we choose to love, or love them on our own terms, at a convenient time, place, occasion, and in comfortable conditions. Loving those who are different from us in personality, culture, gender, race, background, likes, dislikes, etc., and loving them in spite of their faults; that is the challenge! Displaying the same kind of sacrificial love the Lord Jesus lavishes on us, calls for dying to self-interest; it goes against our grain!

We have a tendency to think that some people are ‘naturals’ when it comes to loving. We think they are just ‘nice;’ and we wish we could be like them. Those who follow this line of thinking use it as an excuse for not being loving. They feel absolved of any responsibility to change because they say, ‘That’s just the way I am, I don’t happen to be outgoing, loving others isn’t easy for me’. The Lord Jesus made it clear when it comes to the way we are to love others. ‘A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you’, John 13. 34. Notice the words ‘as I have loved you’. The Lord does not penalize us for our past, or label us so locking us into our past forever. Rather, knowing the worst about us, He still believes the best of us. And that is how He expects us to love one another!

Extract from Word for Today, a daily Reader available free on request from [email protected]