When Jesus’ disciples asked Him about
the signs of His coming and the end of the world, He spoke of wars,
pestilences, famines, earthquakes, persecution, murders, betrayals and false
prophets who will deceive many. Then He
said this, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax
cold.” (Matthew 24:12)
There
is no doubt that iniquity abounds today, but what about Jesus’ statement that
“the love of many shall wax cold.”? How
has the abundance of wickedness in our world affected our love? How are we affected when someone betrays our
trust; we are lied to, stolen from and rejected; someone enacts a scheme to
ruin our character, our career or our ministry; we have bad experiences in
church situations from false brethren or false leaders? If you add to that list murders, wars,
persecution, famines and plagues, life becomes one of “survival of the
fittest”. Human nature builds a barrier around
“me and mine” to close out anyone who might be a threat physically or
emotionally. But as a Christian, what
happens to our love? Real love. Active love.
Selfless love. God’s Love.
Has
our love already been lost in the chaotic mix of life experiences? Have we guarded our hearts from actively
loving God and others because we have been abused, misused and rejected in the
past? If we could measure our love, how
would we measure up? All we have to do
is look at the life of Jesus to see what love looks like in action. Then we can do a little measuring of our own.
COMPASSION – “But when he [Jesus] saw
the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and
were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” (Matthew 9:35-36) Compassion is a stirring deep within that
causes us to truly care for others and moves us to help change their
circumstances. There were numerous times when Jesus had compassion on a group
of people or an individual and met their need.
He saw their sickness and healed them.
He saw their spiritual blindness and enlightened them. He saw their need for food and fed them. He saw their sin and died for them. That’s what compassion does. It sees a need and meets it, whether it is a
spiritual need, physical need or material need.
We are to have that kind of compassion, the kind that moves us to do
something.
1
John 3:17 asks us, “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother
have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the
love of God in him?” We can’t help them
all, but we can start right where we are.
(See Matthew 25:31-46.)
Acts
of love and compassion are not always accepted, but we cannot allow rejection
to cause us to get discouraged and let our love grow cold. Jesus mentioned Jerusalem’s history of rejecting
and murdering the prophets God sent to them.
He also knew they would do the same to Him there. Yet He wept over the blindness of the city
and said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest
them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would
not.” He still loved them enough to give
His life for them even while they were rejecting Him.
Do
we have that kind of compassionate love?
It seems to be missing. Even in
our churches, we lack the oneness in Christ that causes us to care for one
another out of genuine compassion. Showing
compassion is not acting out of a sense of duty. It is an overflow of the love of God within
us. Without love there is no compassion.
SACRIFICE - “But God
commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
Jesus
certainly counted the cost of redeeming us.
He looked ahead to the suffering and death He would endure, the constant
contention of the religious rulers against Him, the betrayal by one of His
disciples and the unbelief and desertion of even His closest followers. But because of His great love, He looked
farther than that, all the way to the end, and sacrificed Himself for us. “…who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and
is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)
In
John 15:12-13, Jesus told His disciples (that includes us today), “This
is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends.”
Whether
we are called to give our physical life or to be a living sacrifice to accomplish
the will of God, we are called to give up self.
We forfeit the honors, rights and possessions of this world to gain much
greater honor, rights and possessions - everlasting ones. Our culture puts
great emphasis on standing up for our rights and looking out for
ourselves. God’s Word puts great
emphasis on doing the will of the Father even when it means sacrifice, because
our work is an eternal work, not a temporary one. As Christians we will make those sacrifices
grudgingly unless we look beyond this life and its hardness and see all the way
to the end, to the eternal joy that is set before us, and to the souls who will
be in heaven because of our obedience. Look
beyond what you can see.
“Hereby
perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought
to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
(1 John 3:16)
FORGIVENESS
– “So let it be
clearly known and understood by you, brethren, that through this Man
[Jesus] forgiveness and removal of sins is now proclaimed to
you”. (Acts 13:38 AMP) Jesus knew all
too well the price of sin. He certainly
didn’t treat it lightly. Rather than leaving
us to be destroyed by sin, He paid its price so we can “go and sin no
more”. Sin is abolished forever in the
lives of those who come to Him, repent, receive His forgiveness and surrender
to His Spirit within them. We can have a
life of freedom in truth and godliness.
We are also told to forgive. When we do, we not only free others from
their debt to us, but we set ourselves free from bitterness. We are obligated to forgive, but we can only
do it sincerely when we forgive from the love of God in our hearts.
“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye
have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive
you your trespasses. But if ye do not
forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your
trespasses.” (Mark 11:25-26)
TRUTH
– This attribute of love seems to be misplaced. It may even seem negative, but
Jesus always spoke the truth because He knew it would set us free from sin,
legalism, tradition, death and hell. He
knew truth would break the chains of this life, and we would be free to live in
the Kingdom of God.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the
truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
He also said, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples
indeed: and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31-32) If hearing the truth is hard for us, it
simply means we have some areas where we have not fully lined up with it. The light of truth shines in areas where we
need to make changes. Understanding the
truth gives us the opportunity to choose freedom in that area or to stay in
bondage to a lie.
As we receive the truth of God’s
Word, we are to share it. It takes great
compassion to speak out when we know it will initially be misunderstood as
being unkind. But when we speak “the
truth in love” to others and ourselves, we will “grow up into him in all
things, which is the head, even Christ.”
(Ephesians 4:15)
Jesus often spoke against the
hypocrisy and covetousness of the religious rulers who totally missed the truth
of what God was doing. (Luke 12:1,
5) Once again, that may seem unkind, but
He knew He must lead His flock in the right direction, and that meant He had to
point out the wrong direction. Even a
few of the religious rulers realized He was speaking the truth and followed Him. Open hearts will hear and be set free.
The whole essence of love can be
seen in Jesus, and we are to follow His lead.
Jesus loves us, so we love others.
Jesus sacrificed for us, so we sacrifice for others. Jesus forgave us, so we forgive others. Jesus had courage to speak truth, so we must
speak truth. Jesus brought us the goods
news of the Gospel, so we take this good news to others.
There is no clearer place in the
Scripture than 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a for us to see how this love is to work out
in our daily lives. Let’s read it from
the Amplified Bible.
“Love endures long and is
patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is
not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated
with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly.
Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own
way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or
resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to
a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice
at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and
truth prevail. Love bears up under
anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of
every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures
everything [without weakening]. Love
never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].”
We should all ask ourselves, “Is
that a description of me?” How does our
love measure up?
“There are three
things that remain—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians
13:13 - TLB)
