Love Like Jesus

Pastor Gary Oser

Over the last couple of months, I have been sharing with you some questions to help diagnose your spiritual health from a book entitled, Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health by Donald Whitney.

The first two questions were: “Are you thirsty for God?” and “Are you increasingly governed by God’s Word?” A third question, which we will consider this month, is, “Are you more loving?”

According to Jesus, one of the identifying marks of a genuine believer is love. He said in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you should also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.”

The apostle John adds in his first letter, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8 NASB).

I have often shared from 1 Corinthians 13—known as the great love chapter. A few verses from this chapter give a vivid description of the love which should be more evident in our lives as believers.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things…. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NASB).

When we talk about love, we most often think about those who are easy to love—like those who show love to us. However, Jesus doesn’t want us to be loving just to those who are nice to us. He wants us to be loving even to our enemies and those who aren’t loving towards us.

We will never be as loving as we should be as long as we live in our earthly bodies. However, an indication of spiritual health is that we are becoming more loving, we are progressing in seeing the characteristics of love found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 becoming more a part of our lives.

Love is a fruit of the Spirit. The more we yield to the Holy Spirit in our lives, the more loving we will become.