Thinking about love, thoughts of emotions and feelings are the first things that come to mind. When you say I love you, you usually mean I have affection for you or care about my relationship with you. To truly show love, there needs to be a better definition first.
I’ve been going through a study by David Buehring with a couple groups of guys and as I was watching the video this week and reading through the study, I was struck by the definition that he gave for love: “Choosing the Highest Good for God, Others, and Yourself.” In the video, Buehring put it this way:
Whenever I am with you, by the grace of The LORD in my life, I’m going to always try to choose your highest good.
When thinking about love, I usually turn back the clock in the iPod of my mind to the DC Talk lyrics “Love is a Verb.” Thinking about acting out love is a far cry from actually doing it, and with this new definition it has become obvious to me that I fail miserably at it. I am a selfish jerk, caring only about myself and what everyone can do for me. Usually it doesn’t show because I’ve gotten good at making it look like I care about those around me, but the truth is that my attitude is towards benefiting myself.
Love in this fashion does not come easily, but it is achievable. Jesus would not command us to love if it were not possible. Some of the verses in this week’s study affirm that.
We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19
We were given an example of love in Christ. We are able to love because God first loved us.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35
Love is what sets us apart from the rest of the world. The world sees love in a selfish nature, so loving in the way God intends us to distinguishes us as His disciples.
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends
John 15:13
Sometimes we are called to give up our life in the literal sense, but usually it is a matter of giving up our selfishness. Love with an agenda is not really love at all. The greatest love is to drop selfish agenda and put the greatest good of others above yourself.
It’s going to be hard, but I am committing to choose to truly love.