Love may be a many-splendored thing, as the song says, but as we use it in English, it's also a very odd thing. We talk about loving our spouses and our children. Then, in the next sentence, we talk about loving pepperoni pizza or the cute cat picture on Facebook. If we’re not careful, love can get confusing really fast. To be sure, for many it has.
Though we often talk about love as a feeling that comes and goes, those feelings are probably better understood as affection. True love is an active choice. It may or may not have nice feelings associated with it.
True love is measured in units of sacrifice.
When my wife and I meet with a couple for premarital counseling we ask each person, “How willing are you to sacrifice for this love?” Frankly, I'm not willing to sacrifice more than about six seconds of my time for that cute cat picture on Facebook, so that's a whole different kind of love than the love I have for my wife and daughter. Units of sacrifice. Jesus says there's no greater love than this, than to lay down your life, the ultimate sacrifice. That's why there's no greater love. If you're willing to die, it’s off the charts. That's the most love you can show.
How do you show sacrificial love? What have you done in the last few days to love -- truly love -- your neighbor, your enemy, those you disagree with? What could happen if believers in Jesus started showing this kind of love on the regular?
The above is excerpted from my new book God Confidence: Cultivating Courageous Faith in Jesus Christ. You can order it here to help support Intersekt. Ordering it here will help support local bookstores. There is also a Kindle version available here and a Nook version here.
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