John 13:31–35, John 15:12–17, Ephesians 4:25–5:2, James 3:13–4:6 (read online ⧉)
Love like Jesus. That’s a pretty tall order, so it seems. Part of the problem is that we are often so focused on the big things. We become overwhelmed. There are those that think they need to die like Jesus to love like Jesus. Some people believe that they have to heal like Jesus to love like Jesus. Some people believe they have to speak like Jesus to love like Jesus. Some people believe they have to feed others like Jesus to love like Jesus. Some people believe they have to act or sound like anything but Jesus to love like Jesus. Some people believe they have the lecture or condemn or condone to love like Jesus.
We are each guilty of some of that (unless you’re very rare).
The reality is that love came down from Heaven as an infant boy. As the boy grew up, he loved. He loved his parents. He loved his brothers (an aside: do you think he always liked and liked being around his brothers?). He loved each where he was in life. We have a skewed version of Jesus’ love because we only get 3 years of Jesus. Jesus didn’t love for only 3 years.
We get so caught up in sweet baby Jesus, then awesome Messiah Jesus. We miss the in-between. That’s where love happens. It is between the highs and the lows that love becomes firmly established. When the highs and the lows happen, we have love to keep us together.
When Paul and James talk about love and loving each other, it is really living life together (the in-between) that creates the bonds of love. Barring most parental love, love doesn’t just happen. It grows. Sometimes it grows fast, sometimes it grows slow. We cannot rush love. When we rush love, it often isn’t love.
1) Have you ever rushed “love” or a relationship? What happened?
2) Why are the in-betweens almost more important than the highs and lows when it comes to love?
3) How can you love like Jesus in-between?