Sacrificial Love

If you want to be more like Jesus, immerse yourself in Christian community. It’s only in the context of real relationships with other Christians that you can truly understand the depth of God’s love for you. Paul writes, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). Because Jesus was kind to you when you deserved wrath, you show kindness to those who don’t deserve it. Because Jesus has been tender to you when you stumbled, you are tender with struggling brothers and sisters. Because Jesus forgave your immeasurable debt against him, you forgive those who sin against you. Practicing sacrificial love in community gives you a taste of the love Jesus demonstrated on the cross.

Since Jesus loved us with sacrificial action, love for your community will likelycost something – your time, your energy, your comfort, to name a few. That’s why the apostle John writes, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). Jesus says this kind of love is how the world will know that we belong to him. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

Apart from the gospel, Christian community is impossible. You can only sacrificially love your community because Jesus first sacrificially loved you: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). You can only encourage one another with hope because Jesus has given us hope in his resurrection from the dead (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18). Christian community can’t be earned through your good works. Like your salvation, Christian community is a gift of God’s grace.

Since Christian community is a gift of God’s grace, it needs to be stewarded well. Following Jesus means that we reject individualism and give ourselves to regular gathering. We reject spending our time together foolishly and focus on encouragement through shared devotion. We reject a selfish approach to community and give ourselves to sacrificial love.