LIVING LIKE JESUS: Loving Others

We use the word love in a variety of ways in everyday language. Someone might say, for example, something like: “I love my wife,” “I love pizza,” or “I love my dog.” Each of these expressions uses the same word, but the meaning is quite different. Love for a husband or wife is markedly different from how a person feels about a favorite food or the family pet. It all depends on the context in which the word was used. We see something similar to this in the Bible. The word love in our English translations corresponds to several different words, each with slightly different meanings. The context in which the word was used also tells us much about the intended meaning.

The apostle John wrote, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another,” (NASB, 1 John 4:10-11). We love others not because we are so good but because God loved us first. Even when we were unlovable, God sent His Son to die for our sins and to show us the real meaning of love. When we fully realize that He did this for us, then we can begin to live like Jesus and love others as He did.

Jeff