Why is the word love one of the most mis-defined words used by the body of Christ and their shepherds? Christ, here, said, – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16). Christ is saying God loves the world so much, He gave His son to be crucified so all people could have everlasting life. This is sacrificial love defined in the bible as agape love. Agape love is more than emotion, it is the nature of, or involving a deliberate choice to do for others what can include sacrifice, while performing or carrying out our duty to God. The Apostle John defined sacrificial love when he wrote, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins,” (1 John 4:10). John is saying the proof of God’s love is the atoning sacrifice of His son.
Biblical sacrificial love has a direct relationship between Christ’s cause, and keeping His commands, which is our duty to God. Jesus said, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth,” (John 18:37). Witnessing the truth of Christ is now our cause, so sacrificial love revolves around witnessing biblical truth through our actions and speech. A great example of sacrificial love is the Good Smartian who found the wounded man on the way to Jericho, (Luke 10:27, 30-37). The Good Smartian knew his duty was to love his neighbor as himself, (Luke 10:27). Therefore, his actions produced care, effort, and expenditure to save the man. This is the truth of biblical agape love; it is sacrificial and fulfilled through our righteous actions! On the other hand, the Priest and the Levite who saw the man and did nothing, are under judgement of Christ. Paul wrote, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law,” (Romans 13:10). The Priest and Levite left the man to die.
Could the Priest and Levite have believed love is emotional and defined by the individual rather than by God? Without honoring biblical love, love can and will be subjective and self-serving. The proof of sacrificial love is in the doing. The Priest and Levite did nothing to fulfill Christ’s command of the law of love, to “Do onto others as you would have them do to you,” (Luke 6:31). This is why the Apostle John wrote, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love,” (1 John 4:8). Therefore, he who does for God, loves God. Jesus revealed how we prove we love God, and when God loves us when He said, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them,” (John 14:21). He again confirmed this when he said, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love,” (John 15:10).
Paul describes what love does not, and what love does in One Corinthians 13. “Love does not delight in evil but (love) rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.” “And now abide (means to endure without yielding) faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is (agape) love. In other words, sacrificial love is our cause to bear to witness the truth that saves others, or love becomes a “resounding gong or a clanging cymbal,” (1 Corinthians 13:1, 4-8 &10).
The Apostle John warned Christians must have courage when carrying out sacrificial love. He wrote, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love (agape love) drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love,” (1 John 4:18). “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands,” (1 John 5:2). Everyone can be a child of God, but when fear keeps us silent, we are not carrying out Christ’s commands. Fear causes us to lose sight of our objective and retreat into doing nothing, like the Priest and Levite.
When Jesus gave us our commission to, “Go … and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19). He gave us the power we needed, “…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses …to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8). The definition of witness in this scripture means up to and including martyrdom. Therefore, to be Disciples of Christ we have to courageously honor our commission, through sacrificial love. Jesus defined this love when He said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” Then He said, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you,” (John 15:13-14). Jesus again confirmed this when He said, “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother,” (Matthew 12:50).
Disciples of Christ are commanded to do the will of our Father in heaven so the power of the Holy Spirit can save those in darkness, (Acts 26:18). However, when we take on Jesus’ character, He told His followers, “…you will be hated by all for My name’s sake,” (Luke 21:17). This means we must be willing to risk worldly scorn or persecution to perform sacrificial love with the knowledge of Christ’s blessing when we are persecuted. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake,” (Matthew 5:11). Therefore, to overcome fear we must, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage,” (Galatians 5:1). Christ’s liberty is the ability to think, act, and speak biblical truth freely. Bondage is the subjugation to a controlling force other than God, i.e. fear, religion, or government.
The Apostle Paul explains God’s sacrificial love extends to all Christians in our efforts to fulfill our calling as ministers of reconciliation. Paul explained, “…God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ gave us the ministry of reconciliation,” (2 Corinthians 5:18). Paul revealed, “…to be a minister of Christ Jesus…. He gave …the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that those living in darkness might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God,” (Romans 15:16-19). When we proclaim the truth of the gospel of Christ, we are sacrificially speaking into people who do not have everlasting life. The only way they can be saved is through Christ and this is accomplished through agape love, which is “proclaiming the gospel of God” so they can be “sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” (John 8:31-32).
Disciples are to love others by putting on the persona and bold character of Jesus to compassionately, and fearlessly, “…take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak, ” (Ephesians 6:17-20). This is done by doing! “…by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere (agape) love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; …yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; …and yet possessing all things.” (2 Corinthians 6:6-10). Amen!
David Howard, Foxhole Ministry, Billings Montana.