For centuries, theologians have debated the best way to describe God. Personally, I think one great option is to take 1 John 4:8 at face value: God is love. And, since none of us has ever seen God face to face, we can look to His Son, Jesus.
We can learn to love like Jesus loved.
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“And walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
Ephesians 5:2
True Meaning of Love
More than a half-century ago, the Beatles told us that “all you need is love.” Well, in a sense, they were right. Love is incredibly important—as long as it’s the right kind of love.
You’ve probably noticed that the world often confuses love with sex. And, to be honest, we don’t really need a greater emphasis on sex in our culture. It’s already been cheapened and distorted from God’s intended purpose.
Other folks think love means agreeing with everyone, tolerating them and never offending them. Honestly, that’s not love either. At best, that’s sentimentality taken to unhealthy extremes. At worst, it’s a mentality driven by fear, insincerity, and hypocrisy.
So, what are the types of love? Let’s go back to loving like Jesus. When we learn to love like Jesus did, we are imitating the very Author of love. In addition, we’re looking to the best example of genuine love to ever walk the earth. To love like Jesus loved is to plug into the men God created us to be.
How You Can Love like Jesus
For centuries, writers have filled books about Jesus. But one work remains the ultimate source of all we really need to know about the Messiah and Savior of the world. If you want to know what Jesus is like, spend time in His Word.
The Bible teaches us how to act like Jesus. And that includes learning how to love like Jesus. While we will never exhaust all the Scriptures have to say about Him, we will never find a better guide for living—and loving—like Jesus.
To whet your appetite (and, hopefully, encourage you to dig deeper for yourself), here are five basic things the Bible tells us about how Jesus loved others during His time on earth. It also reminds us of how He loves us, along with how we can love others like He did.
Jesus sacrificed for others.
On the night before He was crucified, Jesus told His disciples that “No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Then, He demonstrated that love on the cross.
We may not be called to lay down our lives literally, but loving like Jesus does require sacrifice at times. We have to put the needs of others above our own desires.
Jesus invested in others.
Jesus demonstrated His love by pouring into the lives of other people. Sometimes, it was an individual, like Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). Other times, it was a large crowd, like when He fed the multitude (Mark 6:30-44). Most notably, Jesus invested in the lives of His disciples. For example, while He shared parables with crowds, He explained them to His disciples in private (Mark 4:33-34).
You can show love by serving as a mentor or by simply being available to others. You can pour into the lives of your wife and kids through family devotions and into the lives of other men with small, trusted friend groups. You can invest in your church by serving God well. You love like Jesus when you make an intentional effort to be His hands and feet for someone else.
Jesus shared hard truths.
During His time on earth, Jesus never parsed words. To quote Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, He was all about “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). That’s why He could correct James and John when they demonstrated a proud spirit (Mark 10:35-45) and warn Peter about his upcoming denials (John 13:37-38). In fact, in his Gospel, Matthew mentions more than one occasion when Jesus confronted the disciples’ “little faith” (Matthew 6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8; 17:20)
I once had a boss who liked to say that “to be unclear is to be unkind.” In other words, sometimes you’ve got to spell out what’s wrong, even if it’s uncomfortable. If you want to love like Jesus, you’ve got to share hard truths. Letting someone go their own way without trying to help them course correct is not loving. Jesus never shirked the tough conversations. He just peppered them with love.
Jesus broke through barriers.
If you’ve ever tried to establish yourself in a new club or group, you understand the power of unwritten rules. Whether it’s a group at work or visiting a new church, you know there are certain things that “everybody knows.” Well, Jewish religion in the first century worked the same way. You had the written rules (the law of Moses), but you also had the unwritten rules (what the leaders said).
Jesus showed love by respecting the first and ignoring the second. He broke through common barriers related to gender and ethnicity when He talked to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:1-42). He freely ministered to outcasts and “sinners” (Matthew 9:9-13). And He felt no obligation to manmade restrictions for the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-8). Jesus’s love never let rules get in the way of relationships. We shouldn’t either if we’re going to love like Jesus loved.
Jesus kept His promises.
So neither should your prayer cease. The anonymous writer of Hebrews noted that it’s impossible for God to lie (Hebrews 6:18). So, since Jesus is God, it’s also impossible for Him to lie. In the Gospels, He demonstrated His love by keeping His promises, most notably when He said He would rise from the dead (Mark 8:31; 9:30-32; 10:33) and when He promised to send the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17; Luke 24:49).
Of course, Jesus also promised that He would return; and, as Christ followers, we are still waiting for that promise to be fulfilled. But Jesus’s love ensures us that He will come through. To love like Jesus loved, you must be a man of your word. Whether it’s at home, at work, at church, or with friends, you love like Jesus loved when you keep Your promises.
Jesus’ Love Never Ceases
Since we were primarily looking at examples from the Gospels (stuff that’s already happened), the bullet points above appear in past tense. They emphasize how Jesus demonstrated His love during His time on earth—and how we can learn to love like Jesus.
But make no mistake, Jesus is still in the loving business. He’s loving others today through His people as His agents on earth. He calls us to be His hands and feet as we love like He loved. We sacrifice for others. We invest, and we share the truth in love. We break down walls, and we keep promises.
When we live the way Jesus lived, we naturally love the way Jesus loved.
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