Love is the self-sacrificing giving to others.
To love is to GIVE:
- Gratitude
- Often we focus on finding the right people and juding other people's relationship with Christ, but we should focus on being the right people.
- We must love God before we can truly love others.
- Luke 7:36-47
- We must recognize and be grateful what God has done for us and show that same love to others.
- 1 John 4:17
- Independent of merit
- Our love should not be based on people's actions.
- Romans 5:8
- We are not saved by our own merits, and we do not live by our merits.
- We should make the first move. We should show unmerited love without any expectation of return.
- We should not just gauge how warm relationships are. We should actively work to improve them.
- Voluntary
- We should love willingly.
- True love is volitional.
- John 13:34; 10:18
- Jesus willingly gave up His life and chose to love us while we were yet sinners.
- Even if it's inconvenient for us and and we don't want to, we do it without complaining.
- Exchanging
- Love is putting others first.
- Love isn't about what we get out a relationship, but what we give.
- Sacrifice is an act of worshipping God. If we make it solely about you and the other person, it will inherently become transactional.
- We need to give up the desire of always being right.
- Love is the crucified life.
- If our relationships with others are cold, we should first examine how our relationship with God is and how grateful we are for His love and sacrifice for us.
- Second, we should evaluate when the last time we did something for someone who didn't deserve it with no expecation of return.
- When did we last do somethign for others willingly without being asked?
Tags: love
