Sacrificial Love: Christ-like Love

Paul commanded us to love one another as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. Jesus gave more than His life for us so we could be given eternal life in the Kingdom of God; He gave His life-giving blood that we may live.  Jesus was much more than talk when it came to manifesting the true meaning of God’s love.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Jesus left His exalted place in heaven and separated Himself from divinity that He might become one of us. Reflecting the Father’s sacrificial love wherever He went. Surely He gave no thought to being equal with God when humbling Himself to die the most brutal death, a man could die, on the cross. In word and deed the Lord was self-giving throughout His ministry on earth. Jesus was such an open vessel toward God that God was able to powerfully display His love through Jesus at all times.

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” Acts 10:38

God is looking for a people today that He can manifest His healing love through to a dying and broken world. He wants us to be living sacrifices; as Paul commanded us in Romans 12:1-2:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Let us renew our minds in the Word of Love and then we will be transformed into the nature of Christ. Jesus said we would do greater works than He did. Let the Holy Spirit shed His love abroad in our hearts today. Greater works of love in the body of Christ and the world will manifest in greater degree than ever before. The world will know we are Disciples of Christ by our greater works of sacrificial love.

How can you show the sacrificial love of Christ to the world today?