Sacrifice

No Greater Love

Posted on by Justice

When you consider love, what do you think about? Do you think about a person that you love, or do you think about that restaurant you just couldn’t live without? I absolutely love eating at Canes. All of these things tend to make love look like it’s simply a feeling. I feel love when I am around my family, or I feel love when I am with my favorite food. Our culture has defined love as a feeling or an emotion. However, the biblical view of love is something far more than that.

In the Bible, love is not described as only a feeling. Love is described as an action. In John 15:13 Jesus says: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” In this verse, Jesus is explaining that the greatest form of love is that one lay down his life for his friends. From what Jesus says, we can learn that love is not simply an emotion or a feeling. Love is sacrifice.

John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life.” God loves us so much that He gave up His Son to save us from our sins. Jesus gave up His life because He loved us.

Love is not just a feeling we get when we are around someone we enjoy being with. True love requires sacrifice. Sometimes it can be something simple, like spending time with a family member even though you are busy. Other times it can be hard, like giving up your life to save someone else. Jesus is the perfect example of love. While we were still sinners He died for us to save us from our sins. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, and love our enemies. This doesn’t mean conjuring up a warm and fuzzy feeling for them. Love means a willingness to sacrifice.

Verse of The Week 8/3/22

Posted on by Justice

1 Peter 1:20

“He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.” This verse is talking about Jesus’s sacrifice for us. The verse before this one says. “Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” It is saying that before God created the world He had chosen Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. God wasn’t surprised by Adam and Eve sinning. He knew they would turn against Him, and He knew every mistake we would make before He made us. So why did He? Why would God make us when He knew His Son would have to die for us? I find this verse to be a great reminder of how much God loves us. It reminds me that God knows everything we do, every mistake we would make before we make it, and yet He loved us so much that He saw us as worth the sacrifice. Remember to be thankful for the great gift God has given us, and don’t waste it.