Love Like Jesus Loved - Carla D Burnette

As Easter approaches, let’s consider Jesus’ love for humanity. How would you describe His love? Extravagant, perfect, sacrificial, endless.  

Absolutely nothing compares to Jesus’ love. Only His love fully satisfies our deepest longings to be loved and accepted. Do you remember what your life was like before Jesus and how it is now? Maybe you felt lonely, empty, and insignificant like I did. But now I feel welcomed, cherished, and treasured. Don’t you feel the same way?

Since we have found such love in Jesus, wouldn’t we want others to discover this love as well? How will they, unless we love them like Jesus loved us? 

As a matter of fact, Jesus commands us to love like Him in John 15:12 (ESV): “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

How Jesus Loved

While on earth, Jesus showed us how to love others. He noticed people and expressed compassion for them. 

Merriam-Webster defines compassion as “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for someone struck by misfortune, hurt, or pain, accompanied by a desire to alleviate the suffering.”

Jesus demonstrated compassion by 

• Miraculously feeding the hungry multitudes by multiplying loaves of bread and fish. He performed such a miracle due to concern for their welfare in traveling while weak and hungry. (Matthew 14:14; 15:32)
• Eating meals and fellowshipping with sinners and tax collectors who were looked down upon in His day. Despite this, Jesus chose to spend time with them because He loved them. (Matthew 9:10-11)
• Healing sickness and disease. Jesus reached out, touched a leper and healed him of his skin disease. Instead of just speaking the word for healing to occur, He also conveyed love by touching the leper as well. (Mark 1:41)
• Raising people from the dead. A widow’s only son was being carried in a funeral procession for burial. When Jesus saw the mourning widow, He resurrected her son back to life. (Luke 7:13)
• Dying on a cross for the sins of mankind. (Matthew 27, John 3:16) What suffering Jesus faced, yet He willingly laid down His life for us.

These acts of compassionate love prove His genuine concern for people and how highly He values us.  

How We Love Like Jesus

When we truly grasp the depth of God’s love for us, we desire to please Him and no longer live for ourselves (2 Corinthians 5:15). We also begin to understand the value of each person, for we view people as created in His image. As a result, we want to obey His command to love others. 

Our ability to love like Jesus is only possible through the love of God. Romans 5:5b says, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us”.

May we allow God’s love to pour out of us through the Holy Spirit. When we do, we reflect Christ to those around us.

Another important factor in loving others is spending time with God. During Jesus’ time on earth, He often went to a remote place to pray (Luke 5:16). He needed time alone with the Father just like we need time in His presence.

John Belt of Belt Ministries explains our necessity of time with God. He informs us, “We continually need to receive a ‘refreshing and refilling’ of the Holy Spirit daily. We are told to be ‘filled with the Spirit’ (Ephesians 5:18). This clearly shows our need to continually pursue the Lord that we may be overflowing with His presence in our lives. We need time alone with God, having communion with His Spirit…”

Let’s pursue God by spending time in His presence. Then we will be refilled with the Spirit and empowered to love others.

Amid Jesus’ time alone with the Father, I wonder if He asked, “Who am I going to minister to today?” or “What do You want Me to do today?” Similarly, may we ask the Father to show us whom to love today. Let’s also ask for attentiveness to those around us, along with a willingness to obey the Holy Spirit’s promptings.

Ways to Show Love

Some practical ways to illustrate Jesus’ love to others are found in Romans 12:14-18, 21. This passage tells us, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. ¹⁷Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. ¹⁸If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ²¹Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.”

1. Pray for those who persecute you. Express kindness instead of repaying with evil. Merriam Webster defines persecute as “to pursue with harassing or oppressive treatment, especially because of religious or political beliefs; to annoy or trouble persistently.” (NOTE: If you are experiencing physical abuse, please seek help.)
2. Identify with people in their situation. Imagine how you would want someone to treat you. Be truly happy, instead of getting jealous. Sit and listen during times of difficulty.
3. Welcome those who seem less important. Consider volunteering at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. Start a conversation with a store clerk or restaurant server, and offer to pray for them.
4. Pursue peace with others. Think to yourself, will this action or word choice benefit the other person, or will it tear them down?

As image bearers of God, let’s love like Jesus. Yes, it requires intentionality, effort and time, but we do so out of love for our Lord. People will notice how much we care and that they matter to us. Not that we expect something in return, but that we genuinely love them as a person of value. For those who don’t have a relationship with Jesus, showing love may lead them to seek Christ. 

Father, thank you for Jesus who is the perfect example of how to love. Help us to see people through Your eyes. May we be attentive and aware of those around us. Give us a willingness and intentionality to love others. We desire to love like you and bring you glory. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. 

Comment below how you love others like Jesus.

Additional Scripture References:

I John 3:16-18, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

John 5:2-3a, ”By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.”

Ephesians 5:1-2, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Romans 15:2-3a (CSB) tells us, “Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please Himself.”