When you want the greater kind of love

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13 ESV)

Love Is All Around Us

We hear countless songs about love. Movies, books, and poems are filled with stories about love. With so much said and written about it, you would think we would all be experts on the subject—but we are not.

Perhaps that is because the word love can mean so many different things.

Jesus showed us what the greatest kind of love looks like: being willing to lay down your life for another. And that is exactly what He did for us on the cross.

Jesus not only demonstrated this kind of love; He commanded us to follow His example:

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12 ESV)

We can love others this way because Jesus loved us first.

“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19 ESV)

Therefore

“Let all that you do be done in love.” (1 Cor. 16:14 ESV)

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7 ESV)

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8 ESV)

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:13 ESV)

Quotes

“Love is the doorway through which the human soul passes from selfishness to service.” — Jack Hyles

“In the New Testament, love is more of a verb than a noun. It has more to do with acting than with feeling. The call to love is not so much a call to a certain state of feeling as it is to a quality of action.” — R. C. Sproul