What loving father lets his son be tortured and bear the penalty of every person’s sin so every person can have the opportunity to be saved. How could this be love? If we love God and choose to be a disciple of Christ, why don’t we instantly understand God’s definition and design of love?
God Gives Us an Illustration of His Love
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NIV)
Even though God knew that Jesus would come back to the heavenly realms with him, God still had to send Jesus to earth to save us. Jesus came to live among us as an infant. He endured all the challenges of the imperfect human condition to teach us and be our example. Although Christ’s body was imperfect, his spirit remained fully God. Christ revealed God’s unconditional love for everyone when he chose to die on the cross for all our sins.
We must also remember that Jesus was God in the beginning. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” . . . “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-2, 14, NIV)
Only God could see past the pain, sin, and corruption that our human condition would bring to His son, from the purity of His love. God showed us his exceptional unconditional love because He created us from His love. Jesus tells us. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13, NIV) These prophetic words of Jesus show us how much he trusted His Father God’s love and salvation plan through his obedience and surrender.
How Christians are Confused, Blind, and Unaware
Before GPS, we had to use road maps on a road trip to get from one place to another. If you didn’t have the right maps or know how to navigate them, you got lost. The same is true when you don’t have Christ’s love design, or you don’t know how to live in it. The fulfillment of the prophecies throughout the Bible shows us God’s and Jesus’ unconditional love.
However, with our imperfect love experiences, desires, and the sinful interpretations of love from the world, it’s hard for us to fathom God’s pure love could exist. To add to our confusion, we are often blind or unaware that our definition and understanding of love is skewed and broken compared to Christ’s. Even if we love Jesus and want to serve him, we all start off using our imperfect and broken definition and love design.
How Can We Love like Christ?
When you are lost, you need to ask for directions and follow their instructions. If you are operating from your broken love design, you must ask Jesus to help you uncover what you don’t know and what keeps you from seeing his pure love. Living out your faith is active, and you must learn to work with Jesus to love like him. To make any change in your life with Jesus, you must walk through these four steps.
- We must recognize that we are missing some of God’s truth and understanding from the Bible, and we need Christ’s help.
- We must surrender ourselves and trust God as we commit to studying and obeying His word.
- We must be willing to look at ourselves through the eyes of God and discover what we don’t know, how we have been deceived, and what we have gained while living in our blindness.
- We must use God’s word and the example of Christ’s life to see his clear definition and design of love. Until we learn to love like Jesus, we will continue to use our imperfect love design by default.
I have known Christ since age seven. I have gone to church most of my life, and I grew up in a Christian home. But I still ended up in three abusive marriages with men proclaiming to be Christians. Halfway through my third abusive marriage, I realized that I did not know how to recognize or live in God’s definition of love. As I surrendered to him, he sparked a new hunger and thirst for his truth.
While studying God’s word, he opened my eyes to see his love through Christ’s life. As I read through the stories of Jesus and saw how he loved people, I saw myself in their lives. Like the woman at the well, who had been married several times, I had been looking to imperfect men for God’s perfect love.
I began to see how my unawareness of God’s word, the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships, and the types of abuse had left me vulnerable to becoming a victim of abuse. Although I prayed and knew God was there for most of my life, I walked around with a blindfold while I hoped and prayed for God to change my circumstances and path.
Live in Christ’s Exceptional Love Design and Thrive
No matter how much I thought I loved God and Jesus, I never knew the depth of their love until I found Christ’s love design and began living in it. God’s greatest desire is for everyone to choose to love and follow Jesus Christ on earth and for all eternity. If you are a disciple of Christ, it’s time to learn his definition and design of love and start living in it.
Only you can choose to work with him and let him transform your broken love design into his pure love design. You don’t have to stumble around in the dark and keep choosing the wrong paths or relationships while you try to find Christ’s love. Walk with Jesus and learn to love like him!
Begin your journey to love like Christ by studying God’s word and ordering your copy of Quest for Exceptional love now!
