August 15, 2023

I John 3: 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. (NIV)

. . . love so profound, so utterly magnificent, that it cannot be defined, only demonstrated.*

“Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Remember that line from the 1970 movie, Love Story? Love means a lot of things in the English language but I’m pretty sure this isn’t one of them. We love our children and we love pizza. We love it when a plan comes together. With so many meanings, both deep and shallow, how do we know what love really is?

Paul gives us some great examples of what love is and is not in I Corinthians, chapter 13. But John reveals the ultimate meaning of love, as demonstrated by Jesus Christ. Jesus laid down his life for us. Then John adds that we ought to lay down our lives as well. Seriously? What good would it do for me to die for my brothers? Maybe none. But dying isn’t the same as laying down your life. Laying down your life is what you do while you’re living.

Of course, it is because Jesus died that we can live eternally, but his death would have been meaningless without his life of selfless service for the sake of others and the glory of God. Dying is easy compared to the daily grind of sacrificing what you want on the altar of love. Sometimes love means that you do have to say you’re sorry! But love always means doing what Jesus would do.

It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out.*