Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends.
—John 15:13
God’s kind of love is different from the world’s kind of love. The world's kind of love is selfish. It seeks someone to fulfill its needs. That is not God’s kind of love, which lays its life down for another.
“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3).
What matters is the reason behind an act of love. You can give everything you have to help those in need, but it means nothing if you are helping them because it gratifies you. If your reason is not love, it profits you nothing.
God is love. Love is the reason God gives. Love is the reason He corrects us. Paul describes God’s kind of love:
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8a).
What many people consider “love” is void of the qualities listed in 1 Corinthians. God’s love is humble. Theirs is self-seeking and easily angered. It keeps a record of offenses. It is envious and arrogant. This is not God’s kind of love at all. If we love with God’s kind of love, we place others ahead of ourselves, and they don’t easily upset or provoke us (1 Corinthians 13:5).
Proverbs 13:10 says that “by pride comes nothing but strife.” The only reason a person gives in to anger is pride. Strife doesn’t come because of what others do to us. It is the pride inside of us that makes us angry. You may be praying for God to remove someone who upsets you from your life, but God wants you to be salt and light in this world (Matthew 5:13-14). We must connect with others and unselfishly love like God.
God has given each person an intuitive knowledge of his Creator (Romans 1:18-20. He draws each person with His love. Since creation, Satan has tried to keep man from God’s goodness. He has caused some people to deny God’s existence and harden their hearts until they no longer recognize His goodness or His reprimand (Romans 1:28). Those who do acknowledge God, Satan tries to corrupt them with selfishness and pride.
This is what Satan did with Eve when he tempted her to eat the fruit of the tree in the garden. First, he told her a lie, “You will not surely die’” (Genesis 3:4). Then he got Eve to question God’s reason to keep her from eating the fruit of the tree. “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).
“You can be like God,” Satan tempted. Scripture says Eve looked at the tree and saw it was “pleasant to the eye and a tree desirable to make one wise” so she surrendered and ate the fruit (Genesis 3:6). In a way, Eve’s desire was to be God, which is the ultimate pride.
God’s love keeps Him from forcing His will upon us. He gave Adam and Eve the free will to choose Him, and we have the same choice. We can either humbly surrender to God’s love or live without Him. But if we remain independent of God, we forfeit the security of His blessings and grace.
Pride controls the lives of those who believe God’s Word and standards have no merit. One day everyone who has upheld values opposed to God’s Word will stand before God and realize their folly. Those who have pridefully ridiculed the Word of God and His grace will be humiliated, admitting their wrong and realizing He is the Lord.
All of us will come before God one day. If we respond humbly now to God’s love, we won’t face shame when that day arrives. Instead of disgrace, God will pour out His grace. We will hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21)! We won’t receive God’s grace because of what we have done. God doesn’t bestow grace because of our holiness. He gives grace in proportion to our humility. If we have humbled ourselves and put our faith in Jesus, we will enter into the joy of the Lord.
God loves humility and hates pride (Proverbs 6:16-19). Humility submits to God’s standard and depends on Him. And God’s standard is love.
“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets’” (Matthew 22:37-40).
When you love God and others, you do as Jesus commanded. But “loving your neighbor as yourself” does not mean overlooking their sin. You care enough about yourself to take care of yourself. You are to care for others in the same way. When you know that the Word of God is truth, and you don’t share it with others, they will receive the consequences of their sin. That is not love.
Never beat someone up with the Word of God! God’s love does not demand obedience. It offers a new life. When you have God’s love, you hate what evil does to people so much that you are willing to experience discomfort and speak God’s truth. If I don’t alert someone to danger I know is coming, I love myself more than I love them. I am more concerned about being at ease with them than their life.
Love “does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:6-7).
God’s kind of love speaks the truth, protects, endures, and goes the second mile. There is no greater love than to lay down our lives for others.
“The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations” (Psalm 33:11).
The Word of God stands forever. The plans of His heart are for everyone. They just have to believe in Him. We are Jesus’ hands and feet. When I lay me down—when I humble myself to share God’s love in word and deed, His love never fails.
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