When Love Looks Like Jesus

Jesus LOVED his disciples by teaching, guiding, protecting, and sacrificially serving them. This wasn’t just to love them, but to set up a pattern for them to follow and share with others. We are called to do the same in our walks of life. This world that we live in has desperately cried out for love and perverted the idea to the point that it has little meaning behind it.

My heart breaks seeing people acting out in a way to gain superficial love just to make it through another day. This world is brutal and sin has corrupted it so greatly. If I didn’t have Jesus, I would surely crumble within this world. Seeing brokenhearted people around me craving a sustaining love makes me think back to when I was the most broken and lacking the sense of sustaining love that I know now.

Entering into high school, I felt so lost and the longer I went, the more broken I became. What was more confusing to me is that I had a good home, family, friends, yet felt empty. I would get told that I was loved, but that feeling would only spark and then fade out. This feeling grew as I fed it with more lies and sunk into depression. I knew God was supposed to love me, that’s what I was taught all my life. But I continued to hold God at arms length, scared of what He would call out in me. I was afraid of giving up a hold on my own life and letting people see the real inside, let alone God see. It’s funny now thinking about that, knowing that God sees it all no matter how far we try to hide, and yet, He still loves us. In the way that He loved His disciples, Jesus loves us. He made the ultimate sacrifice by dying on the cross, creating a bridge over the gap we had created between us and true life. He continues to speak and guide us, calling us away from our sinful nature that tugs at us. He acts in true love that changes our whole life if we stop holding Him away and let Him in.
The kind of love that you can experience through a life with Jesus is so surreal. 

I remember when I finally broke down to my lowest, crying out to the God I had run from, asking for change and to be filled with the love I had heard about. The feeling was kind of overwhelming, to let go of everything and let Him in. But then this hole that I felt that needed to be filled multiple times a day with superficial love, was filled. It changed how I started to view myself, not as someone that needed to earn Christ’s love, but as someone that was chosen despite my sin. I didn’t deserve it and I still don’t, but Christ came for me, to change my life here on earth and forever. 

I still experience doubts, days that are weary, and seasons that are hard. But my feet are rooted in this Jesus that has changed me over and over again. Renewing me daily, calling me His beloved, He doesn’t turn away from me, but calls me out of sin for my benefit. 

Some say that it is easy to love, but I would challenge you to think deeper. Is it easy to love others like Jesus? The simple answer is no. To truly love others with the kind of love that Jesus walked out on earth and calls us to isn’t easy. To sacrificially serve others even if they don’t acknowledge us, speak ill of us, or deserve it is hard. To speak the truth of Jesus to those that are broken and living without Jesus is hard. But this is what we are called to do, especially now in this world. We are called to be the light and salt of the earth.

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:13-16

We aren’t called to be sugar nor bland, but salt. Full of flavor and boldness in the name of Jesus. We aren’t called to be a mere lamp light for our own room, but for the world to see His glory. The culture will turn from this or say otherwise, but child remember HIS TRUTH for you in LOVE.

This world has taken love and made it surface level to fit in their own mold. If you don’t love them like they feel is right, then you are seen as a hater. But the love that they are craving deep down cannot be found in our acceptance of lifestyles or choices. The kind of love that they are craving can only be found in a life with Jesus. I don’t speak from my background as a pastor’s daughter, but from someone who has experienced life without Jesus and life with Him. My life is the most full than it has ever been with Jesus as my God and savior. When I see those who aren’t living a life with Christ, my heart breaks because I know there is full joy, security, peace, genuine love, and saving grace that is just before them. 

Let me ask you a few questions to think on: 

• Are there people that you know that have fallen to the world and need Jesus?

• Are you loving them like Jesus has called you to?

• Do you turn a blind eye and give them a superficial love to try to keep things comfortable?

• Or do you show them the genuine love of Christ with truth, grace, and service?
  

In the last post, I shared about my conviction about fear. This is a new conviction that I am walking through and learning from God.
To know that you cannot merely love with sweet words, but must love like Jesus with truth. I’m not saying to be mean and shame those around you, but I am saying to speak boldly in God’s truth and shine a light with a sacrificial heart. I say that I love all people as they are God’s creation, but hate the sin because it has evil’s name on it. 

In this culture that we have created, it’s easy for us to walk the line and not get involved. It’s also easy for us to just turn to hate towards those that are closed off to us. Likewise, it’s easy to not want to rock the boat and just speak sweetly in shallow words. But to share Jesus because He loves us so much that He died for us, that we would turn away and fight the worldly urges to life a full life with Him. That we would experience the greatness He has in store for us. To not live in a cycle of misery, sin, depression, and shame. But to experience His fulfilling love, unexplainable joy, and saving grace. This is where we should stand and how we should love. This is when our love starts to look like Jesus.

This might seem like a rough thing to accept, but we weren’t called to be Christ on this earth to be comfortable. God didn’t send His son to die for you to be comfortable in Christianity. While we find comfort in Christ, we won’t always be comfortable in this world. We were called to not be OF the world and to conform to it, but to live against the current of the main stream. You will face rejection from the culture, but not your God. We are all sinners, from the beginning. Each and every one of us have entered the world as sinners. Through Jesus Christ, who came to this Earth to die for your sins, you are saved. If you have accepted salvation, then your eternity is secure in Him. The world is not, so shake the world! Live against the main stream. Bring Jesus to the people who are broken so that they would experience the hope that you have been given. Look around you; people are crying out for a long lasting hope and love. Have you experienced that through your relationship with God? Then beloved one, share that!

Speak boldly in the name of Jesus!

Know that because I want to live in God’s calling and see others experience Him,  I will love you so much to speak the truth into your life. This isn’t me condemning you or hating you, but wanting you to have a long lasting love that fills you up and doesn’t leave with my words. As a fellow sinner, I want others to see there is something greater than this life; that there is one way to be saved from the life you were born into and live.

While on this topic, I want to share the following:

For those that I personally know and see in the LGBTQ+ community, I love each human created in the image of God. But I do not support the sin they are walking in. For those that I personally know and see supporting pro choice, I love each human created in the image of God. But I do not support the sin they are walking in. Especially at the cost of other lives that God created. The reason I feel to speak clearly about those topics in particular, isn’t to set those apart from everyone else. But I see the Church + Christians tiptoeing around these topics regularly. If we are called to speak boldly the truth of Christ and love like Him, we have to do it in all areas. We can’t pick and choose based on how comfortable we want to be, or to avoid uncomfortable conversations with others created in the image of God. This is where it’s important to remember that we are all sinners and all need Jesus. It doesn’t matter what sins you are living in, they all lead you to a broken life and eternal turmoil. 

For anyone walking the streets, in the workplace, at church, in my friendships, my family, I love each human created in the image of God. But I do not support the sin they are walking in. I wouldn’t want any other Christian to be silent if they saw me walking in sin either. I want to do everything I can to be a light for the sake of God in the lives I have the blessing of being a part of. I will embrace anyone with the love that Jesus exhibited on earth, including standing firm in the life-giving truth of Christ.
I want my actions and words to bring glory to God first and foremost. 

This may cause me to lose followers on social media or friendships in life, and it has. But I continue to pursue people with this love, knowing that Jesus did the same.  Knowing the saving freedom + grace of Jesus, I want everyone to have this opportunity.

I want to encourage you with the encouragement placed on my heart for this personal conviction. You may go and show Christ’s love and be rejected or see no fruit. But do not let this discourage or hinder you from sharing. You do not have the power to change a heart inwardly, but to plant seeds and obey God’s personal calling. Go forward and plant the seeds. We cannot be lukewarm Christians anymore as much as the culture says we can. We have to live fully for the God that we serve and that saved us.

He didn’t kind of save us, but sent His son to die a painful death so that we could live. We must live like it and love others with the love of Jesus. While it might be uncomfortable at times to share in the face of hostility or disagreements, it would be eternally uncomfortable if those around you didn’t know the gospel. Jesus didn’t die for comfortable christianity. He died for our eternal life to be secured.

It’s about the bigger and eternal picture, not just the here and now. 

Let us as Christians grow in the genuine love of Christ, so that we may walk it out with others and see Christ save more for His glory and goodness. This is our purpose on this earth, in the here and now. Go be bold, having spirit-fueled confidence in our Lord. Praise Jesus for this gift! May it be accepted by many. Let our love look like Jesus.

Love,
Alayna Joy

P.S. I want to encourage you to read in John 15. I’ve been spending time reading about what Jesus had to say about love and how He loved. It has opened my eyes more to the depth and authenticity of His love. I will leave you with this snip-it of it, but encourage you read it all!

“Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love.  If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. My commandment is this—to love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.  This I command you—to love one another. If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you do not belong to the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. Remember what I told you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours too. But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. But they no longer have any excuse for their sin. The one who hates me hates my Father too.  If I had not performed among them the miraculous deeds that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen the deeds and have hated both me and my Father.”

John 15:9-24