Love For Jesus

Jesus said “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you.” - (John 14:15-16)

Love is shown by the actions that back up a person’s words.

We show our love for Jesus by what we do, especially by obeying what he has taught us.

Jesus, however, doesn’t expect this demonstrated love to be a one way street. He shows us his love for us by having the Father send another Friend like himself to us. This Friend is called the Advocate or Comforter or Helper in other translations. The Father sends this Friend so that we will never be alone. We can be confident that we will always have the presence of God in our lives!

Prayer : Father, words can’t express my thanks for the gift of the Holy Spirit. I know that even when I am by myself, that I am not alone. I know that when earthly friends forsake or those close to me betray me that your Presence is my Helper and my Friend. Thank you. Please forgive me for not seeking this Friend’s help and support in times of trouble. Please make the presence of this Friend very clear as I live my daily life. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

“Jesus when he summed up the whole law said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and strength and then love your neighbor, even real little ones. Love them the way you love yourself. And he says, I’ll help you do that all the time, my love is always available to you.

The Psalmist says: The earth is filled with your love, O LORD; teach me your decrees. (Psalm 119:64)

Everywhere I go, everywhere I turn, every room, every created piece of the universe, is an expression of God’s love; and it’s always there, it’s always available to me. Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

‘Romans 13:8 – Paul, here, is using kind of a financial metaphor to talk about love. He says to let every interaction in your life be governed by the law of love. It’s kind of an odd thing about us, we get very good at tracking finances in our life. In the newspaper everyday I read about how financial stuff is going. How your portfolio is doing. We`re not so good at tracking love.

You know the difference between a deposit and a withdrawal? When I make a deposit I am adding value. I’m building up reserves. Relationally and spiritually in God’s eyes, when I make a deposit in a life of a person then I am honoring love. In God’s eyes, a deposit is always honoring love. Might feel pleasant and joyful to that person, it might not. There might be a sting to it, but I am honoring the law of love. Withdrawal, on the other hand, is when I take away value – when I take value out, when the reserves go down. A withdrawal is always the violation of love. Withdrawal is always a violation of love. It might feel good to the other person.

Every relationship has kind of a running balance. Good or bad, big or small, red ink of black ink. Just as surely as you have a balance in your financial accounts, it is true in your relational life spiritually. That is why Paul writes: Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10) In other words, don’t try to get more out of a relationship than what it is that you are putting into it because if the balance is high – good things happen in a relationship and if the balance is high, you can confront somebody when they need it and they will probably trust you.

God says in the Old Testament, you know a mother always remembers her children. It’s the way a mother is. The way she is wired up. But even if she were to forget, I could never forget you my people. The LORD your God . . . will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17) If a little kid gets cranky or anxious, and a mom can quiet the child with love. “He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Have you ever had anybody rejoice over you with singing lately? Have somebody just walk up to you and be so happy to see you they`d just burst into song? The Bible says God loves you so much he will rejoice over you with singing in the way that a mom does to a little child.

Of course, the ultimate expression of this love was that when we had a moral debt to God that we could never pay, Jesus came to this earth and went to the cross to pay the debt that we could never pay. There’s an old song, some of you will know it.

Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be Everyday, everyday, everyday this debt of love. So, God asks us to repay that debt of love that, in a sense we owe him, by loving the people that He loves so much.

Also Read : What is Love

“Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him”- (John 14:21)

Love is at the center of Jesus’ farewell discourse: the love of the Father for the Son, our love for Jesus, which means keeping his commandments. Those who were listening to Jesus could easily recognize in his words an echo of Jewish wisdom literature such as, “Love of her [Wisdom] means the keeping of her laws” (Wis 6:18; see Prov 8:15-17; Sir 24:22-23) and, “She is readily perceived by those who love her” (Wis 6:12). In particular, revealing himself to those who love finds another parallel in Book of Wisdom 1:2, where it says that the Lord will manifest himself to those who believe in him.

The point of this Word is: the Father loves those who love the Son, and the Son in turn loves them and reveals himself to them. Such a revelation of Jesus, however, requires love. We cannot conceive of Christians who do not have this dynamism, this driving force of love in their hearts.

A clock doesn’t work, it doesn’t tell the time – we wouldn’t even call it a clock – if its batteries are dead. It’s the same with Christians. If they are not constantly striving to love, they don’t deserve the name of Christian. The reason for this is that all of Jesus’ commandments can be summed up in one: love of God and love of neighbor in whom we recognize and love Jesus.

Love is not just a matter of feelings. Love needs to be expressed in concrete terms, in serving our brothers and sisters, especially those who are near us, beginning with the little things, the most humble acts of service. When we love in this way, the light of Jesus makes its way into our hearts, just as he promised: “Whoever loves me … I will … reveal myself to him” (John 14:21).

Love is the source of light. By loving we have a greater understanding of God who is Love. This leads us to love even more and to deepen our relationship with our neighbor. This light, this loving knowledge of God is therefore the seal, the proof of true love. And we can experience it in different ways, because light takes on a particular color or shade in each one of us. But it also has some common characteristics: it helps us to understand the will of God, it gives us peace, serenity, and an ever-new understanding of the word of God. It is a heart-warming light that encourages us to walk along our way of life with growing confidence and determination.

When the shadows of life make our way uncertain, when darkness threatens to stop us, these words of the Gospel will remind us that a light is turned on by loving and that even one small gesture of concrete love (a prayer, a smile, a word) will give us enough light to go forward.

Some bicycles have headlights that work as long as the riders keep peddling. If they stop, they find themselves in darkness, but when they start peddling again, the dynamo will provide the light one needs to see the way to go. We can apply this to our lives: we only need to set love in motion again — our true love, a love that gives without expecting anything in return — in order to rekindle in us faith and hope.

What is Love