Living a life of love that honours Jesus is living my life with Jesus at the centre. It means knowing how to love well, and before I can do that, I need to know who He is and who I am in Him.
When I know who the Lord is and who I am in Him, I accept that my identity is in Jesus alone. I’m able to detach from the opinions and affections of people and cleave to Jesus instead. Yes, I respect their opinions and value their affections, but I’m not defined or destroyed by them. Why? Because the Lord defines who I am; He pre-determined my days before I got here (Psalm 139:16; Ephesians 2:10).
The more I accept that my identity is in Jesus alone, the more I live out the truth that I am a child of God.
And what does the Word say about my identity?
I am chosen, royal, holy, peculiar, and precious to God (1 Peter 2:9).
Jesus loved me, washed me in His Blood, and made me a king and priest to His God and Father (Revelation 1:5-6).
I am the “elect of God, holy and beloved” (Colossians 3:12 NKJV).
These verses help me recognise that the heartbeat of my life is love.
The heartbeat of my life is love when I allow the heart of Jesus to power my heart, fill it, and transform it into a reflection of His own. Paul prayed, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17 NKJV). Jesus dwelling in my heart makes me stable and more like Him.
I’m able to love well when I’m stable because I’m not tossed about by my emotions or other people’s actions. Jesus Himself loves well and invites me to abide in His love just as He abides in the Father’s love (John 15:9-10). Accepting His love and obeying Him in response allows me to receive His character, His truth, and His grace in the hard places.
We live in a broken world. We hurt people. People hurt us. All those hurts create hard places that threaten the love in our hearts. The only way to live a life of love that honours Jesus is to allow His love to keep our hearts soft and willing to forgive what’s raging to harden them.
So, if the heartbeat of my life is love and I choose to love well, then I can’t have hatred in me. I can’t have bitterness, unforgiveness, or offence in me. Those are hard places that choke out the truth of God’s Word in my heart. And the Bible is very clear on how God sees hatred.
1 John 4:8 says, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (NKJV).
Also, 1 John 3:14-15 says, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (NKJV).
If I have the heart of Jesus alive in me, then I have eternal life in me. Hatred is death, and death has no place in me. Unforgiveness is death, and death has no place in me. Bitterness and offence are death and darkness, and neither of those things has a place in me. Yielding my heart to Jesus allows Him to live in me, which allows Him to direct me as His life powers me.
Eternal life reigning in me means I am compelled to love and to forgive as Jesus loves and forgives. Colossians 3:12-14 directs me to be humble and tenderhearted, to forgive as Christ has forgiven me, and to “put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (v. 14 NKJV).
How can I claim to have or demonstrate eternal life if I am unable to love or to forgive as Christ commands me to?
1 John 4:20-21 says, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also” (NKJV).
When I yield my heart to Jesus and choose to live as He commands me, eternal life in me conquers the sin of death assailing me.
My conscious, intentional choice is the difference between life or death reigning in me, and so it’s the key to constantly experiencing life flowing through me. Submitting to the Lord frees me to love and live like the Lord.
Submitting to the Lord frees me to love and live like the Lord.
In the end, living a life of love that honours Jesus is living like Jesus did when He walked the earth. He loved His disciples, forgave sinners and those who hurt him, and was perfectly obedient to the Father.
The Lord lived from love, and He invites us to do the same still.
How are you loving and living like the Lord today?
I love this message today 😀
Hi, Aimee! Thank you so much! 😁🤗
Such a great message!
Thank you, Kratika! I need to remember it every day, and writing it down helps. 🙂