If you had to convince others that you are a follower of Jesus, which of the following would you do?
A. Talk about how your good stuff outweighs your bad stuff
B. Describe your record of church attendance
C. Pull out your checkbook to show how much you tithe
D. List the names of the people you’ve discipled
E. Show them love.
If you selected “E. Show them love,” you know what Jesus told his disciples:
“In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”
John 13:34-35
Does that almost seem too easy a response? “Of course, I love others,” you may say. You may also be thinking, “at least, most of time–as long as they don’t annoy me–if they don’t get in the way of what I want–and when I’m in a good mood.”
The “love” that seems easy is the world’s way of loving. It’s the kind of love rooted in our selfishness, the kind of love that feels good to us–and is withdrawn when it doesn’t.
But this is not the way Jesus loves, so it’s not the way he calls us to love.
Jesus Love vs. Self Love
Instead, we are called to a life of Jesus Love marked by total sacrifice and total surrender of self.
“But aren’t we supposed to love ourselves?” you may protest. After all, the cheer of our culture is, ‘I love me!’ Even Christians may join the celebration of self, adding, ‘I love me so I can be my best for God!'”
“So are you saying that I shouldn’t love myself?” you ask. What about ‘love your neighbor as yourself’? What about my self-image? What about my self-esteem? Don’t you know that I will lose myself if I don’t love myself first?”
Exactly. Jesus is not calling us to self-hate–he is calling us to lose ourselves in his love for us–a far better type of love than our own self-love.
But when we lose ourselves in his love, we must be ready for sacrifice: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
Sound impossible? After all, we are usually pretty attached to ourselves and what makes us feel good.
Love and Light
Therefore, Jesus Love isn’t possible without Jesus Power.
When you become a follower of Jesus, he gives you his power to lead a new life—a transformed life–and to love the way he loves. Because Jesus defeated evil and darkness on the cross, you are called out of that darkness into his light.
Therefore, we are to live and love in the light of Jesus. John put it this way: “If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim (1 John 1:6).
Even if you’re a new follower of Jesus, I can see you nodding your head. Yes, why would Jesus rescue us from the dark but leave us to live and love in it? And while following Jesus is a journey during which we do stumble at times, we don’t make stumbling a habit. Because we live and love in the light, we recognize when we’ve returned to the dark, and then we make an about-face.
The Seven Words
But what does it really mean to live and love in the light? When Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount, he said seven words that I’m still trying to wrap my head around:
“You are the light of the world.”
Matthew 5:14
What does that mean, Jesus? I know you want my life to shine with your love and light so that others see you in me, but how do I know if I’m truly being the light of the world? How do I know if I’m truly loving in your light?
As I look through scripture for answers, I see that that Paul reminds us that the evidence of light is always good, always right, always true.
Then in Isaiah, I read what I can do to cause God’s light to break forth like the dawn:
break the chains of injustice,
free those who are crushed and enslaved,
share my food with the hungry,
give shelter and clothes to those without it,
and take good care of my own family.
Notice that none of these examples are about being our best, finding ourselves, or feeling good about ourselves. What we read here is a mind-blowing challenge to deny ourselves so that we can give ourselves to others. And we’re to do it all in a way that is always good, always right, always true. In other words, we’re doing it for Jesus–and in the way that Jesus would do it–as we do it for others.
We live in a world desperate for that kind of love–the love that comes only in the light of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, therefore, let us shine as the stars and love in his light!