As Christ Loves Us

Some people are hard to love. Past hurts, personality clashes, and the brokenness of our humanity might convince us that loving others is impossible. But love is not an elusive or mysterious concept. The Bible gives clear guidelines, examples, and encouragement to live out the kind of love God lavishes on us and expects us to extend to others. The 66 books of the Bible have often been called “a love letter from God,” and I cannot think of a more fitting description. From the creation account in Genesis to Christ’s triumphant return and final judgment in Revelation, love is the tie that binds it all together.

Loving well is a spiritual discipline. Like any other, it requires time, attention, and practice to develop. How love is expressed in our lives depends on our definition. Biblical love is contrary to our human understanding of it. The world treats love like a commodity — a thing that can be bought or sold for a price. It’s abused, misused, and exploited. Even believers can be ensnared by this thinking and begin to view love as a weapon to wield or a tool for coercion.

True love, the kind with which God loves us, is a beautiful, transcendent mystery beyond human understanding. In the simplicity of God, that is, the unity of His character in all fullness, God is the essence of love.
Some argue that “God is love” to justify sin, but this misrepresents God’s love as self-serving. God is loving, holy, sovereign, and just. Everything that took place in biblical times, in our world today, and in the future is rooted in God’s great love for His people. It is a truth we can find immeasurable comfort in.

How can we practice this love and cultivate a life reflecting it? To answer this question, we must recognize our duty to love is first to God and then to one another. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15, ESV). It is a continual act of obedience — submitting to His authority and surrendering what amounts to our feeble bid to take control. It’s something no one can accomplish without His help. John writes, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Thus, it is only by His love and grace that we can desire to love as He does. And only by this love will unbelievers know whom we worship. “A new commandment I give to you,” Jesus says in John 13:34-35, “that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Scripture makes clear that love is the foundation of a faith-filled life. When the Apostle Paul writes about the fruit of the Spirit to the church in Galatia, he lists love first. This isn’t coincidental. The fruit of the Spirit — joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control — are outward evidence of a believer’s maturing faith (Galatians 5:22-23). It can only be fully realized in the context of love. Without love, it is meaningless. Without love, we are meaningless. Paul says of himself, “If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2). If we fail to extend God’s love to those around us, we have also failed to grasp the power of His love in our own lives.

Christ’s sacrifice for sin is the ultimate act of love. Through it, He offered a way to reconcile humanity to Himself for all eternity. Christians are called to extend this same love, even to the point of death: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). We are called to a sacrificial love, and Scripture is rife with examples for us to emulate. Many are seemingly small, ordinary acts with a more significant potential impact than we realize.

Even as a maturing Christian, I’m surprised by how direct Scripture is regarding how we should live. Here are a few examples of how to extend God’s biblical love.
In Matthew 5:44, Jesus tells us how to respond to our adversaries: “I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Love and prayer are intertwined. Prayer is the outward expression of that love. Paul instructs us to extend grace. “Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Colossians 3:13). Showing kindness and encouragement by building up one another, having a spirit of hospitality, and speaking the truth demonstrate the love of Christ in tangible ways to a world urgently needing it.

I’ve encountered a widespread misconception alleging that telling the truth isn’t loving. This is a blatantly unbiblical idea. Paul instructs in Ephesians 4:15, “Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ.” As prayer is an outward expression of love, truth is the epitome of love. There is no greater privilege or responsibility than sharing the truth of God’s Word with unbelievers or coming alongside a struggling brother or sister. Nor is there any more essential aspect of communing with fellow believers than allowing yourself to receive this truth.

Nonetheless, speaking the truth, even lovingly, is uncomfortable and can be painful. Confronting the gravity of one’s sin is humbling and should grieve our hearts. However, our natural tendency is self-preservation. We deflect and express anger or hurt or become defensive, which can lead to tension in our relationships. When conflicts arise, we must face them with grace and truth. Although love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), we might need to employ tough love, which may lead to having difficult conversations, setting healthy boundaries, or, in some cases, stepping away for a time to make space for healing and growth.

It should be comforting that the record of Jesus’ ministry includes His lived example of that tough love. He knew as the Son of God that He also had human limitations. Thus, Jesus frequently withdrew from the crowds to pray, rest, restore, and prepare Himself to continue His work (Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35). Jesus scolded His disciples for their ignorance and lack of faith (Mark 8:17; 10:14). He was downright aggressive with the Pharisees (Matthew 23:27; John 8:44). Yet, everything Jesus said and did was out of love for the people He came to Earth to save, even suffering death on a cross. Crucifixion was a brutal way to die, and not many of us today risk feeling uncomfortable, let alone physical harm, for our faith. But Jesus came, died, rose, and now extends the gift of salvation to anyone who believes. His love paved the way for us to show others the kind of love we’ve received from Him.

God’s love has a clear purpose: to draw us into a deeper relationship with Him, to grow in love and obedience, and ultimately, to live with Him for eternity. This eternal perspective should fuel our love for those around us. Perhaps one of the most beloved verses in Scripture, John 3:16, proclaims the good news of Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” What an incredible joy to be chosen as the instruments through which God’s overwhelming, undeserving, life-changing love transforms the world.



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