A husband on hearing a message on the love of Christ , came home and wanted to express his love to his wife and said “I love you I would lay down my life for you!” To which she responded, “Would you take out the trash for me?” Love is practical! Love is personal. Love is the choice to deny oneself in order to prefer another by serving them, for their good and God’s Glory ultimately.Love and self love are incompatible! Selfishness is self absorbed. Love is God and other orientated. What would Help this other person? Not notions of self grander where I do some great feat, recognized and lauded by others- ultimately for my sake , to place me in the center of attention, lauded and praised and adored by all around me! Something Grand, to place me firmly in the spotlight and maybe a tour of churches to tell how great I am… but not something as lowly and unseen or unheralded as taking out the trash! Often the simple thing may be a big thing for the other person in that moment who feels they are drowning with all that is going on and just want some HELP… LOVE DOES HELP! LOVE sees needs and meets them when it is within your power to do so! The attitude is not, ” how do I get out of taking the trash out, but would this be a help?” It seems such a simple thing, but as simple as it is, the amount of times we seek to make excuses why we cannot do the simple thing to benefit for another and then try to cover it up with a list of excuses to justify our lovelessness! We want to do some “great” thing for God, looking on the horizon wondering what could it be that would “define” our lives and give us meaning and miss His point ,Love defines us, It makes us different it testifies “By this all men will KNOW YOU ARE MY disciples Bu… YOUR…LOVE….FOR …ONE ANOTHER!” -{read john 13:34-35}.
The motive to make it what God calls love, is to be done for His sake ultimately! It is not merely looking out for one’s own interests but also the interest of others-{Phil 2:3-5}. “The greatest of these is…Love!” – {1 Cor 13:13}
LIVING TESTIMONIES READ BY ALL PEOPLE; What a great testimony to “all” people if we were to choose to love one another. from the “little thing” to the “big thing” as we tend to view things when in reality it is either “love for God and others” or it is not!” Love in and through us is the evidence that Jesus is real and He is at work on the earth today as we become Testimonies to His Transforming Power and Manifested in Love. “By this ALL men will KNOW YOU ARE My disciples… by YOUR LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER!”
Begin where you are and look to serve others through love for Jesus sake -{ Read 2 Cor 4:5}… and take the trash out as you go …Will you do that gladly, for Jesus Sake. Is He worth loving others for ?