Over the last year as life has sometimes seemed crazy in light of Covid and the political climate in America, my wife, Traci, and I have often talked about just wanting to get away from it all. We want to buy some isolated tract of land in the mountain west, build our tiny home, and get away from all of the problems of the current world.
While this solution seems like it might work for us personally, when we examine what God really wants us to do with our lives, we discover that one of the enduring truths about life is that we are not supposed to live just for ourselves. In this series of articles, I have examined some truths that endure even when things get tough. The truth of God’s sovereignty and goodness. The truth of our sinful nature and need for a savior. The truth that Jesus loves us in and through all circumstances. In this article, I want to focus on the truth that God created us to love Him and to love others, and that particularly when life is hard we are called to show His love to the world.
When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus responded that we are supposed to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and second to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). So if we are going to follow in Jesus’s footsteps, we are going to need to learn to love God and love others in all situations. In fact, one of the ways that Jesus’s type of love is different than our modern transactional view of love is that He loved people even when they did not love Him (Romans 5:8).
True godly love is the type that is revealed in the worst of times. Can you love by serving your family after a hard day of work when your body is sore and your mind is tired? Can you care about a person even when they treat you unjustly and say mean things about you that are not true? Can you show love when you are sick? Can you show love when you are grieving and someone says something inconsiderate?
All of these times are when we want to run away and have some “me time.” Our world tells us that we deserve a break, and that we should ask the question “who cares about me?” The truth is that in this world, perhaps we will not find justice, love, rest, and care from others. Jesus, the best man to ever live, was abandoned by His friend and tortured and killed by His enemies, but He still loved them and died to make His enemies into His friends.
In these bad times we can only find the strength to sacrificially love others by experiencing His supernatural love for us. When we fill up on His love, we then become the instruments of His love. When we see someone in distress, we will sacrifice our time to stop and comfort them. We will sacrifice our money to help those in need, even when we know that their own behavior led to some of their problems. We will choose to listen and respond gently when someone brings a criticism that we think is unfair. We will fight to restore relationships that are broken by sin, even if it means we have to admit and ask forgiveness for our own sins.
When we build our lives on the solid foundation of a loving relationship with our Lord and Savior, we do not have to run away from the brokenness in the world. Instead, we are called to enter into the brokenness and show others the love that Jesus has for them, so that more people will desire to build their lives on a relationship with Him. The truth is that people need the Lord and we have the exciting job to run into the crisis where people are desperate for help and show them that Jesus is their ultimate hope. If we really know and understand these enduring truths about God, our world, and ourselves then our lives will continue to change to become more like Jesus, and others will see and feel His love coming through us.
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