A Life of Love: Look at the Cross

by David Chadwick As followers of Jesus, we are to be demonstrators of love because God is love. As we understand more and more who God is, our lives will emulate the characteristics of agape love. What helps you live a life of love? Look at the cross. Remember it. Stare at it. Remind yourself of its power. Jesus’s pain. His suffering. The price he paid all because he loves you. He took all that pain upon himself as a substitute for your sins. It was our cross. Our sins deserved that punishment. But Jesus went through it on our behalf. Read and reread 1 John 4:10. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Real love is that God loved us first! He initiated the love relationship. He made the first phone call, so to speak. There was nothing meritorious in us to make him love us, but he did! And he gave his life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins! Contemplate that! Wow! This is how Jesus wants us to love others. In John 13:34-35 he says, “...just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” Take a moment and think about all of the ways Jesus has loved you. Starting with the cross. Loving others as he has loved you. Yes, even difficult people. Even your enemies (Matthew 5:44). Maybe it’s a person in your family. Your spouse. Your kids. Someone in your workplace whom you are called to love. Remember a time when you know God expressed his love to you. A time he healed you. A moment where you felt alone and God comforted you. Once you start thinking about the list, it’s almost hard to stop. You’ll begin to see God in everything and the love in your heart for him and for others will increase. The cross is just the starting point for a life of love. Contemplate the cross! It’s there where you begin to learn a life of love.

A Life of Love: God is Love

by David Chadwick It takes intentionality to discipline ourselves in a life of faith, hope and love. This week we are learning how to live a life of love. Yesterday we talked about the many qualities of agape love found in 1 Corinthians 13. Do you pass what I like to call “the agape test”? Is your life patient, kind, not easily angered? Are you quick to forgive? If not, maybe today’s tip will help you learn to pass that test. In order to live a life of agape love, you must know that God is love. He is the only One who fully encompasses the definition of love found in 1 Corinthians 13. 1 John 4:8 says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Verse 16 goes on to say, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” Love is inherent in the Trinity. The Father loves the son. The Son loves the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit loves the Father. Love can only exist if there is a direct object of the love. That is why the Trinity, though mysterious and unexplainable this side of eternity, is a crucial part of understanding God as love. Do you know one of the major reasons God created you, me and the angels? To extend the love in the Trinity outward. To have more creatures that he could love and who would love him in return. Think about this for a second. You were created by perfect love to love! That is one of the major reasons why God made you and put you on this earth. As you understand God as love, it will spill out onto other people. Who can you love today? Make a point to love them somehow, some way, today. Then feel God’s love grow within you.

A Life of Love: Pass the Agape Test

by David Chadwick For the past two weeks we have looked at how to live a life of faith and hope. This week, we’re going to look at developing a life of love. In 1 Corinthians 13:13, Paul wrote that it's important to have faith and hope “but the greatest of these is love.” In fact, Paul makes an impressive list of the many attributes believers can attain, but goes on to say that without love, it's all just noise with nothing to be gained. Let’s look at the biblical definition of love. Agape love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Memorize these descriptions of real Christian love. Mirror your life against these verses. I like to call this “the agape test.” This is a test that followers of Jesus should take regularly to see if they are living as Jesus intended us to live. How are you doing at “the agape test?” Be honest. Is patience a normal expression in frustrating moments? Are you choosing to not get irritable when something goes wrong? Do you rejoice when great things happen? Are you selfless, not insisting on your own way? In your marriage? All relationships? And if you come up short? Remember 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” We don’t have to do this in our own strength. 1 John 4:19 goes on to remind us that “we love because he (God) first loved us.” After taking an honest look at your life against the biblical standard of love, and remembering God’s immeasurable love for you, decide today: I will be more patient. Kind. Not jealous. Not selfish or rude. I won’t store up the memory of past wrongs. And remember: Love is a choice. Not based on feelings nor circumstances. It’s to be practiced regularly. Daily. Agape love is the most powerful force in the universe. It’s a verb, something that needs to be done. Let’s abide in the Father’s perfect love. And see if the world around us doesn’t change.