#DailyDevotion True Love Is Made Real By Sacrifice Of Self
1 John 3:16–18 16This is how we learned what love is: He gave His life for us. We, too, should give our lives for our fellow Christians. 17If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his fellow Christian is in need but shuts his heart against him, how can he still be loving God? 18Children, let us not love only in words or in talk, but let us put our love into action and make it real.
We had to learn what love is. If we are in Christ we have learned this. What is love? “He gave his life for us.” First there is the love of God the Father. He loved us so that he gave his only begotten son into death so that we might though his name be given unto life. We may think, “Well the Father is God, how would that really effect him? He knew he was going to raise Jesus from the dead.” But this thinking is wrong headed. God the Father gave us an example when he commanded Abraham to sacrifice is son Isaac to the LORD. Certainly Abraham was moved by this even though he still believed God could and would raise Isaac from the dead since the LORD promised man descendents through Isaac. No, this was a sacrifice on the Father’s part to offer up his son for the sin of the world.
Jesus shows us his great love for us at Calvary. He suffered much so that we might have the gift of eternal life. If anyone thinks this was a breeze for Jesus because Jesus is God they are far mistaken. Jesus is also truly man like you and I. He did not make use of his divine majesty to not suffer. No, he must feel the full brunt of the rejection of the Father because the sins of the world were laid upon him. In every aspect of his human nature did Jesus feel the spiritual impact of having our sins laid on him and the physical impact of the same. This is so much so Jesus in the garden when great tears, sweating drops of blood, asked the Father if there was another way to make it so, but not his will but the Father’s will be done. The Father’s will was Jesus should suffer and die for our sins. Jesus assented to the Father’s will out of his love for us by giving up his life for us.
If this is how God loves us, then we should share this love with every Christian brother and sister. We too should share our lives with our Christian family. So John says, 17“If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his fellow Christian is in need but shuts his heart against him, how can he still be loving God?” Time is money. Time is life. Life is money/wealth. When we give of our wealth to help our fellow Christians in need we are giving up part of our life for them. We should worship the LORD, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and not Mammon (worldly wealth). To worship them, to believe they love us, is to give of our loves to those who are joined to us in the spirit of Christ, who participate in the life of Jesus. If we will not give of our lives/wealth with those fellow Christians in need then the life of God is not in us and we worship Mammon and not the LORD.
We often hear, “Our thoughts and prayers are with you.” This should not be dismissed but appreciated. However, if we have the ability to help, to give of our time and wealth to assist a fellow Christian in need, we need to put our love in action and make it real, i.e. manifest to them and to our God. If we don’t then those are just empty words. When we sacrifice our time and wealth for others then God’s love for us is complete and perfected.
Oh all loving God and Father, you gave your only begotten son into death for our life in your great love. May we do the same with our lives towards our fellows. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.