The Signature of Love
October 19, 2021
This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15:12-14 NLT
If marriage is to be defined as representing God, then the love we give our partner must be God-like love. When Jesus came He made clear that the old way of living by religious to-do lists and rules was over. Now we are to be living by the law of love. He reduced our responsibilities to one command because when we get that right, everything else that is essential is covered.
Jesus illustrates that love responsibility in two ways: First, He says that we are to love each other in the same way He has loved us. That sets me back a bit and makes me think. How has Jesus loved me? How does He continue to love me? He is completely forgiving and does not hold my sins against me as a tool to use later. He is understanding and patient and gives me time to process. When I am resistant, He kindly perseveres. When He needs to correct me, He does it with gentleness. He is the initiator. He always takes the first step, makes the first move toward me, even when I don’t deserve it. He believes in me and encourages the best in me. What could you add? How have you experienced the love of Jesus? That’s the kind of love He commands us to give to our partner.
Second, He says I demonstrate unsurpassed love when I lay down my life for the one I love. We tend to limit that to giving one of our own kidneys, running into a burning building, taking on an intruder, or other forms of risking our lives to save the life of the one we love. Few of us will ever have that responsibility or opportunity. But there’s a destiny-altering way that all of us can do. Laying down my life also means willingly putting aside my desires, plans, and wishes for the good of another. It means the willingness to interrupt my life to listen, care, act, and help. Laying down my life means that in ordinary moments I do as Paul told us in Philippians 2:3-4: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” I consider your interests above my own. This is the kind of life sacrifice everyone can make, and in every marriage that truly represents God accurately, it happens with regularity.
Loving like Jesus is not a casual undertaking. It will require everything from me. But it will reward me with a life that pleases God, more than satisfies me, and builds my relationships in ways that minister to the deepest heart needs. My life and relationships will carry the signature of God.
- Think of a time when someone “laid down their life” for you. How did it impact you? How could you do that for someone today?