Love First

My dad has always been my hero. He was always willing to do the hard thing even when it wasn’t popular or it could cost him. I really wish many of you reading this could have the chance to meet him, but, as you may have read in a past devotion, he passed away in November of 2009. One thing about my dad that always stood out was his passion for reaching the lost. He would spend time at local gas stations, coffee shops, and restaurants chatting it up with everyone he could. Many just thought he was hanging out, but there was a lot more to that. Dad believed that relationship led to evangelism and discipleship. I couldn’t tell you all the people that my dad baptized over the years whom he met on a golf course or local gathering spot. I remember the tears of joy as he brought those people up out of the water. This was Heaven for him.

At the same time, I remember the pain in his voice as he would share with me how worried he was about my sister’s salvation. As my sister went off to college, she partied it up, flunked out of school, and stopped attending church, unless Dad and Mom specifically asked her to go. I won’t say that my sister walked away from her faith, but the fruit of her life had definitely made my father question it. When he realized that he had less than a year to live, Dad made it his mission to get my sister back in church. I remember being upstairs as my father pleaded with my sister to get back into Church, and I remember him calling me downstairs after she left to tell me how the conversation went. He knew that he had a limited time on this earth, and even if it made his own daughter resent him, he wasn’t going to stop talking to her about Jesus. He and I shared times of prayer specifically over my sister. She may have been in her late 20s, but she was still his princess, and her eternal salvation meant more to him than whether or not she was angry with him.

When Dad passed away, not much changed. Over the years, however, I’ve personally seen a massive change in my sister. She attends church every week now with my mother. She has open conversations about faith and God. I don’t doubt my sister’s faith anymore, and I have to think that Dad would be so happy to know that his prayers and conversations never fell on deaf ears. God heard my father and put the right people in her path, and she listened. For me personally, my pillow is a little softer at night knowing I get to spend eternity with my little sister.

“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 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 13:31–35

 Love is a HUGE word. It gets thrown around a lot these days, but in its truest form, it carries a great weight. I have a neon sign in my office that says, “Love Like Jesus.” At first glance, most would think, “Well, isn’t that nice!” Truthfully though, it’s much heavier than that. Whenever Jesus loved someone, He didn’t let them stay the way they were. When He healed people, He told them to “Go and sin no more.” Jesus loved people enough to tell them the hard things, because salvation only comes when we change. This is why it’s so hard to do what Jesus commands is vs. 34. “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.”

How do we look at people? What do we see when someone crosses our path? When we see the homeless, do our hearts break for them? When we hear of someone falling into the trap of sexual depravity, do we mourn for them? When we cross the path of someone who denies that there is a God, do we feel compassion for them? Do we see them as Christ sees them, or do we turn our noses up at them? Do we place immediate judgment and write them off? Do we see them as beloved creations of God or do we make them enemies? 

“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Luke 6:32–36

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.
Proverbs 10:12

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
John 14:15

It’s not a suggestion to love. It’s a command. If we are to love like Jesus did, we will find ourselves in some very unenviable situations. There will be times of discomfort. Awkwardness will happen often. Yet, despite all of that, when we learn to love like Christ, we see people differently. Suddenly eternity means a lot more. We realize that the hope we have can’t be kept to ourselves. We HAVE to share it. There’s just too much at stake. We stop worrying about whether or not someone is offended by us. We quit worrying about our relationships falling apart because we are sharing eternal hope with someone who doesn’t want to hear about it. We need to love first

If you were on a ship and someone fell overboard, you wouldn’t think twice about throwing them a life preserver. In the same way, how should we react when we see someone drowning in sin and despair? I think we need to have that life preserver ready. More importantly, we need to use it.