Understanding the power of his perfect love
Welcome to my study. If you look
around you, you’ll see my piano and a music stand. My Bible rests on the desk next
to my computer. The bookcases are full of novels, Bible commentaries, CDs and music,
and a variety of pictures line the walls. You’ve probably decided I’m a
Christian, a music lover, and an avid reader. The Bible has played an important role
all my life, but the New Testament stories about Jesus have always resonated with
me. He is so perfect that I wish I could be as perfect as he is.
So, why do I love Jesus? What characteristics about him are appealing ? His most outstanding quality
is love. When he walked the roads of the Holy Land, his love governed his
actions and guided his relationships.
Jesus loved
his mother. As a baby,
he experienced his mother’s love when she wrapped him in swaddling clothes and gently laid him in a feeding trough. She loved him, raised him and watched him as he ministered to people.
During the agony of his crucifixion, he appreciated
how much she loved him. Despite overwhelming pain, he entrusted her protection
and care to his beloved disciple, John, who stood beside her as she watched her firstborn son slowly die.
Imagine her broken heart, her sense of loss and her misgivings about the future.
Jesus’ last act of love on her behalf her offered assurance and comfort. Although
he no longer undertook earthly responsibilities as her son, he transformed the relationship to be her
Savior and Lord.
Jesus also loved
his Father.
Love is the language of intimacy. Jesus
lived among us because he loved his Father in heaven. He retreated to quiet mountaintops
to pray. He was of one mind with the Father, knowing the Father’s plans, in
complete agreement with them and ever ready to put them into action. He is Emmanuel, God with us.
His love
fuelled his compassion.
Mary,
Martha and Lazarus always welcomed Jesus to their Bethany home. When Lazarus died, Jesus wept, and the mourners
realized how much Jesus loved him. In an act of pure love and compassion toward two defenceless women, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
He wept
over Jerusalem because he loved the city. He knew her
leaders were about to crucify him, but he never stopped loving the people within its
walls. He taught his disciples to do good to their abusers, not only by his words,
but by his selfless actions.
What did
Jesus actually say about love?
He loved
his disciples just as his Father loved him. God sent angels to herald his
birth, proclaiming his beloved Son at his baptism and covering him with
glory at his transfiguration.
Jesus encouraged his disciples to keep loving
him and to show their devotion by obeying his commands. When they served Jesus,
their work could be difficult or even dangerous, but never drudgery. They were his friends, and the
challenges were steps on the journey to the mansions Jesus had gone to prepare for them.
Perhaps the most famous words Jesus spoke about
love are these:
Greater love has no man than this, that he lays
down his life for his friends. John 15:14
Jesus’
supreme act of love was to give up his life in obedience to the Father by
suffering crucifixion and God’s wrath. Holy God, his Heavenly Father, forsook him
while the judgment I deserved descended on Jesus.
Why do I
love Jesus? I love him because he loved me and rescued me from the fires of
hell. I can't appease God’s just wrath against my evil intentions and actions.
Often, my desire to please myself overwhelms my desire to please God. But when
I think about Jesus, his love compels me to love him and to live by his
example.
Human love
is conditional, often motivated by selfish desire. God’s love is
patient, kind, forgiving and sacrificial. Jesus rejoices in the truth, and
through it, he teaches me right from wrong, good from evil. He perseveres with me when I fail, offering me forgiveness, fresh hope and purpose to live another day. Jesus is faithful. He
promises to be with me, an assurance he’s maintained all my life. He is my
strength and my song.
Does Jesus’
love resonate with you? How may you emulate him?
His life
and ministry may challenge you to consider the needs of others, to serve them even
when they have wronged you. He can teach you to love truth, to spend time with
him, so that you know him as a friend, your Savior, Lord, and a brother. This is my
prayer for everyone who reads their Bible with an open heart.
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are
convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that
those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died
for them and was raised again.
2 Corinthians 5:14.
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