1 John 4:19 we learn that we love because God first loved us. Whitney says, “Then the more satisfaction and delight we find in His love, the more we delight in loving others.” The reason he can say this confidently is that the more we love others, the more enjoyment we find in God at work in us for that love reflects Him. As we love like Him we finder greater joy in Him because we are becoming like Him – sanctified towards our original image.
So if this be the case, our goal needs to be the demonstration of godly love, that love which distinguishes a follower of Jesus. In order to demonstrate this kind of love we must recognize that it is distinct for one great reason. When we love we do so believing it is the will of God and honoring to Him. The demonstration of true Christian love is more than the horizontal relationship between people. True Christian love considers and includes God and transcends the earthly realm by including a perspective of the vertical aspects of those relationships with God.
This means that love for other Christians will increase. There is nothing more disheartening than to experience the lack of love in the church. In 1 John 3:14 we read, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.” What a poignant way to evaluate our hearts toward health, maturity, and unity. Does our love show towards other believers. Too often petty differences prevent appropriate godly love from existing in the church. Galatians 6:10 emphasizes this priority for love of people in the church.
We ought also to love the lost. In Mark 10 we have an account of a young rich man who asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied in Mark 10:21. What is interesting is that this man who didn’t possess faith, was loved by Jesus in this very moment. We must show love to the lost. By engaging in their lives, we can invigorate them with the truth of the gospel, trusting the Holy Spirit to draw them to Christ.
We ought also to love our families differently as a demonstration of God’s love at work in us. This begins with the husband wife relationship as clearly defined in Ephesians 5:25. It extends to the roles and responses of children and parents as obedience is practiced (Ephesians 6:1) and encouragement is offered (Ephesians 6:4). Whitney concludes:
For many this will be the most brutal par of the evaluation. Nowhere are we more aware of our unloving words and ways than at home. And yet, who we really are, we are at home. . . Over time, those in your family – your spouse, your children, your parents, your siblings – should feel that you love them more than you used to. Maybe that will be expressed in more gratitude than previously, or less anger, or more physical affection, or more patience, responsibility, generosity, frugality, or simply by having more time for them.
As God’s children, let us delight in loving as God loves by imitating Jesus (Ephesians 5:1-2). Love in its essence, is likeness to God. Therefore we ought to delight in loving people in all times in ways that will thrill us at the awareness, “I am living as I was intended to live, like God as I do this!”