Becoming Like Christ: Love
Fall in the south is engrossed with football. There is a fanatical following both on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. Real fans mark themselves with team colors. I love the wonderful and bright UT ORANGE. I wear it proudly on good days and bad (there seems to be more loosing days than wining days these days!). It marks me. You do not have wonder where I stand. My colors are out there for the world to see.
What is the mark of a real Christian? How can an unbelieving world know what it means to authentically follow Jesus Christ?
Sacrificial love. It's not a fish on the back of a car or a cross worn around the neck. It is love. A giving love. A love that values others more than oneself. A love that is humble and serving. The same love Jesus showed as he voluntarily gave Himself on the cross. The kind of unconditional, graceful love that is so strange in the world people must take notice.
Jesus told the disciple, "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father" (John 10:17-18).
His love was not a philosophy or principle. It was practiced. He demonstrated His love while we were undeserving sinners by dying in our place (Rom 5:8). Your growth in becoming like Christ is to imitate His love. This is to be your mark. By sacrificial love all will know that you are a disciple of Jesus (John 13:34-35)
So…
When others are dirty; wash their feet (John 13:5-11).
When others attack you and your family; smile and encourage them (Rom 12:13-21).
When others push, brag, provoke or persecution; be patience and kind (1 Cor 13). Love does not act unbecomingly. Love acts as Christ.
Matt Emerson
Taken from Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden
What is the mark of a real Christian? How can an unbelieving world know what it means to authentically follow Jesus Christ?
Sacrificial love. It's not a fish on the back of a car or a cross worn around the neck. It is love. A giving love. A love that values others more than oneself. A love that is humble and serving. The same love Jesus showed as he voluntarily gave Himself on the cross. The kind of unconditional, graceful love that is so strange in the world people must take notice.
Jesus told the disciple, "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father" (John 10:17-18).
His love was not a philosophy or principle. It was practiced. He demonstrated His love while we were undeserving sinners by dying in our place (Rom 5:8). Your growth in becoming like Christ is to imitate His love. This is to be your mark. By sacrificial love all will know that you are a disciple of Jesus (John 13:34-35)
So…
When others are dirty; wash their feet (John 13:5-11).
When others attack you and your family; smile and encourage them (Rom 12:13-21).
When others push, brag, provoke or persecution; be patience and kind (1 Cor 13). Love does not act unbecomingly. Love acts as Christ.
Matt Emerson
Taken from Discipleship Essentials by Greg Ogden