Text: 1 John 3.16-20
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. – 1 John 3.16
In defining love, the Apostle John commands us to follow the example displayed by Jesus. But because we’re busy, driven people, we often don’t look up from our demanding schedules to even notice—much less engage—the significant needs right in front of us.
As followers of Jesus, he stands as our model and invites us to love with the same measure and intensity he demonstrated on the cross. When we “look up,” we’ll see the brokenness of those around us, especially those right in front of us at home or at church. We’ll enter into their pain with real and tangible acts of love—not in a “one-and-done” manner, but in a long-term and sustaining way.
This past weekend Pastor Jeff Manion, in the first week of the series Magnetic, took us to the Old Testament book of Ruth. Here we saw, in Ruth and Boaz, compelling examples—countercultural and inconvenient—of two people who “looked up” to see the needs in front of them.
Today, take a moment to listen to the song “Love Them Like Jesus” by Casting Crowns and pray for God’s direction as you “look up” and embrace the words of 1 John 3.18 to “not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”
