Great Expressions of Love
As we come to the end of both a wonderful year, and a fantastic Bible Study (Crazy Love), I’d like to reflect on great expressions of love. What makes an expression of love great? How is extravagant love defined? What are the indicators that demonstrate powerful love is present? How can we build this kind of crazy love into our lives?
The Bible says that the greatest love is when one “lays down their life” for another. Jesus demonstrated this kind of love for us with both His death and His life. Sometimes great love asks us to physically surrender our lives and the expression of that love comes in the form of the expiring of our present bodies. Other times, however, laying down your life for another means “dying” to yourself by living contrary to your feelings.
In John 13, Jesus showed His disciples the full extent of His love when He washed their feet. In this story we see the greatest contrast in all of history. The infinite, eternal, powerful and glorious God, humbling Himself and becoming a servant, taking on the most disgusting task of cleaning feet that had walked the streets of cities with no sewer systems. And after He washed them, He said to His disciples, “Do you know what I’ve done for you? I’ve set an example for you. You will be blessed if you do this for one another.”
An alarming trend that I see often in the church is the redefining of love to mean “doing something good when I really feel like it” and “definitely not doing it if my heart isn’t in it—for that would be duty, not love.” I’ve heard a number of Christians say things like, “This has turned into a job for me” OR “If I did that, it would simply be out of obedience, not love” OR “I can’t do this for her, I have to do this for me.” My responses: Isn’t it possible to love your job? If we love Jesus, we’ll obey His commandments. Pursuing self is the activity most opposite to true love.
The common denominator to these poor applications of “love” is that they all assume that if the heart is not in the right place then the activity is not worth doing. This is a half-truth (which is how the Deceiver always speaks). It is true that we don’t want to do things void of heart, however I would say that instead of purposefully avoiding the things we don’t have a heart to do, we should ask God for a heart change. And, as we all know, often times the heart change happens during (or after) the loving thing- not before. You see, love is an act of faith where we say, “Yes, God, I believe You want me to do this and because I trust that it will glorify You, express Your grace to another and likely change my heart, I’m willing to do it, even if I don’t feel like doing it.”
We know that Jesus didn’t feel like dying on a cross, for three times He requested that His Father remove the opportunity. Yet His wholehearted commitment to loving His Father, by following His will, superceded His feelings to do otherwise. And not only did He do what His flesh opposed with drops of sweat-blood, He chose to do it with joy (Hebrews12). In addition to this, I’m sure Christ would have preferred to stay clean instead of washing his disciple’s feet, however He knew that, at some point, they would begin to understand what He had done for them and respond with similar acts of crazy love, thus altering history.
As I write this, my daughter Annika has been sick with the stomach flu for three days (some vacation, huh L). Throughout her struggles, I have watched my wife, Amy, selflessly lose sleep, subject herself to disgusting smells and dutifully clean up messes that she would much prefer to stay away from. Can you imagine if Amy were to look at Annika, and say, “I really do love you, but I don’t feel like helping you right now- you’re kinda gross- but when I feel differently- when my heart is into it- I’ll be sure to help you out. Please understand that if I help you right now, it wouldn’t really be love, just duty, and I don’t want to treat you like that.” Though this is a ridiculous scenario, we often play a similar card with God, but then try to cover up our pathetic attempts to avoid love by saying silly things like, “it wouldn’t really be love if I did that because my heart wouldn’t be in it.”
I guess the point I am trying to make here is that the greatest expressions of love happen when wholehearted, loving action is chosen in the presence of the feelings that would like to take us in the opposite direction. And this kind of love is powerful! Powerful enough to change the world one heart at a time. I still remember my mama’s tender care when I was sick as a child. Amy’s selfless love for Annika will make it’s mark on her life. And Jesus’ “delight” in saving me will have an eternal impact. So the next time your feelings are leading you away from doing what is right, rejoice—you have the opportunity to change the world by expressing great love!