Jesus Shows Us What Real Love Is | Why Did Jesus Die? | Week 1

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
Romans 5:6-11 NIV

I think most of us want to be kind and loving people. But if our kindness and love doesn’t lead to the real love of Christ, I’m not sure that it’s true kindness and love. So how do we live a life devoted to the real love of Christ?

Theologian and author, Marva J. Dawn, when writing about 1 John 4:8 once wrote, “Can we grow in love by trying to love more? No, our attempts to love will only end in more frustration and less love. The solution, John implies, is to know God better. This is so simple that we miss it all the time: our means for becoming more loving is to know God better.”

Our attempts, outside of Christ, to love others will end in frustration. Our attempts, outside of Christ, to express kindness will just end with less love. As we know God better and as we experience his love more intimately, we can begin to live out of that overflow and extend his real love to those around us. So this week, love others by knowing God a little better each day.

Blessings,
Lydia Long

This week, try practicing a prayer of self-examination. You can do this as you’re beginning your day or ending your day. As you begin, ask God to search you (Psalm 139). Here are some questions you can ask God and bring to a time of prayer:

• Where was I most aware of God’s presence today?
• When did I experience the most joy today?
• Where did it feel like God was absent?
• When was I the most drained?
• When did I experience God’s real love? When did I love someone out of the outpour of that real love?

Grab a couple of friends and spend some time in 1 John 4, specifically verses 7-21. Maybe commit to memorizing 4:9-10 together. Ask, pray, and journal about these questions:

• Who is speaking? Who is being talked about? Who loved first? Who is “we” in verse 14?
• What keywords or phrases are being repeated? What example shows us God’s love in action?
• When is this taking place? Is there a significance of time or pattern of events here?
• Where is this taking place? 
• Why are these instructions being given? Why do we love God?
• How can we love others when it’s so hard? How does God abide in us?