I am dying.
“The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:25
I am dying. The road of self-serving and gratification is one that leads to death, while the road of selfless service leads to life.
What is love? This is the question I found myself truly questioning and seeking the answer to this month. I was asked to give a message on this to a group of teachers and pastors and thought it would be no problem. But, when it came down to it, I found myself questioning the actual definition of love. The English language has it all wrong in the sense that we only have one word for love. “I love you” gets thrown around like our life depended on it. While expressing these three little words is extremely vital, the “love sluts” of this world have caused this phrase to lose value and depth. After studying the Greek language for the words of love (phileo, storge, eros, and agape), I learned there are many different ways to express love. It can be brotherly love as between two friends, one between a parent and child, a passionate love as between a couple, and a godly love which is unconditional.
Then it got me thinking about agape love…unconditional love. That doesn’t mean the kind that does something for a friend, expecting they’ll return the favor one day. That doesn’t mean holding a grudge and hoping that person who did you wrong will get there’s one day. That doesn’t mean stealing the credit from someone else even when you really deserve it. That doesn’t mean becoming quick-tempered when someone is truly annoying you. Love, true love, is actually the exact opposite of all of those.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Now this seems a bit impossible right? Within the first hour of my day, I’ve usually failed at almost all of these. But the thing is is that we have the key. The key is the love of God. We love because He first loved us. Love is not an option, it’s a command.
“Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40
Once we are IN LOVE with Christ, we will begin to see the evidence of LOVE IN our lives. The love of Christ surpasses all understanding. Dang, do we serve a good God! One who gave up His one and only son to die for us, one whose love is so long and so high and so deep that we can’t even fathom it! When we allow our hearts to be filled with this love, we won’t be able to stop it from overflowing onto others. Sure our flesh will crave the opposite, but we have a choice. We have the Holy Spirit living inside of us and all we have to do is choose love. We must die to ourselves and prefer others. We must love our neighbors as ourselves, because love never fails.
Sure this isn’t easy, but once we make it a habit, it can become a lifestyle. So try it out, I dare you. Love someone today, and I mean truly love them. Die to yourself and give life to someone around you. Once you start loving, it becomes contagious to those around you. Life turns from keeping tabs on who did something nice last to instead continuously loving one another more and more. There’s a reason there is so many songs, books, and movies about love. It’s what we were made for, it’s how we’re designed. Just remember that where there’s death, there’s life. I choose love, so therefore…
I am dying.
