Sunday: How Jesus Lived
In spite of being constantly under Satan’s fiercest attacks, Jesus lived an unselfish life of loving service. His priority was always centered on other people, not on Himself. From childhood to the cross, He showed a constant tender disposition to minister to others. His willing hands were ever ready to relieve every case of suffering He perceived. He lovingly cared for those who were considered by society to be of little value, such as children, women, foreigners, lepers, and tax collectors. He did not come to be served, but to serve
(Matt. 20:28, NKJV). Therefore, He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil
(Acts 10:38, NKJV). His sympathy and merciful interest for the well-being of others were more important for Him than satisfying His own physical need for food or shelter. Indeed, even at the cross He cared more for His mother than He did about His own sufferings (John 19:25-27).
Image © Darrel Tank from GoodSalt.com
What do Matthew 9:36, Matthew 14:14, and Matthew 15:32 teach us about how Jesus looked at people?
Jesus was sensitive to the needs of people, and He truly cared about them. His heart reached out with compassion to great multitudes that were weary and scattered. He was moved with compassion toward helpless individuals, such as the two blind men near Jericho (Matt. 20:34), a pleading leper (Mark 1:40-41), and a widow who had just lost her only son (Luke 7:12-13).
What principle of action guided Jesus as He related to different people? See Mark 10:21 and John 11:5.
Every act of mercy, every miracle, every word of Jesus was motivated by His infinite love, an unwavering and permanent love. At the end of His life, He vividly showed His disciples that, having loved them from the beginning, He loved them to the end
(John 13:1, NKJV). With His death on the cross, He demonstrated to the entire universe that selfless love triumphs over egoism. In the light of Calvary, it is clear that the principle of self-renouncing love is the only valid foundation of life for earth and heaven.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends
(John 15:13, NKJV). How do you understand what this means in daily, practical terms? How does one, day by day, do this?
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Love defined the life of Christ. It was not merely a topping on an ordinary life, but the essence of it. Corrupted by sin’s ingredients and sinful tendencies this may be hard for us to understand.
Sometimes we confuse godly love with nice feelings towards close family, friends, people we admire, those who agree with us, or those who seem to be ‘good’ but fall on hard times. Until circumstances change, and along with them our feelings, we may not realize the true character of what passed for the love of God.
The attitude of a husband whose wife is found unfaithful tells of the depth of his love. Christ’s love for his wayward bride tells of a depth beyond the ordinary (Hosea 3:1). In a sinful world love is tested not so much in the smooth times, but in the challenges which threaten to disturb the lover.
While the topping may fall away with a light scrape true love remains unchanged whatever the situation; for it is the main ingredient mixed in and throughout the life.
There's no scarce commodity among the contemporary Christians like the virtue of love, but if it's there, it's misplaced.Love is best understood when put into practice as manifested in the compassionate ministry of Christ.What the world deems love is diametrically opposite to the Biblical exposition of God's character and so,We're are not to be driven by ego and self -centredness but We're to extend love to the underpreviledged in the society
Love comes into our life as a result of God's choice to give us the Holy Spirit as our motivation for life and our choice to receive such an unselfish gift of such major importance and consequence. Jesus showed us how it works in this world in His human life. God lived through the life of Jesus as He would live through our life if we would give Him our permission to work in us His habits and character.
He cannot work in us without our permission in each and every situation. This is why we must "watch and pray" so that we can be aware and ready to let Him into the driver's seat in any and every situation and issue until this becomes the common practice continually in our life. Then we are walking with Jesus. We will be ready to live without a mediator after the close of probation. We will stop sinning and will not need an advocate any more. Our past sins will be covered and present sins will not be committed.
This lesson teaches us how to love everyone even in difficult times.Jesus loves us unconditionally and expect same from us. The question is,as adventists do we love everyone or we only show love to our fellow adventists?
I don't understand this love motivated lifestyle of our Lord Jesus Christ! I don't know if there's any human being who can describe it because it is beyond any description. How do you love those who hate you; love those who rejoice to persecute you; love the dirty, dispised and unlovable; love those who falsely accuse you. How could He love those who crucified Him after torturing Him. They whipped Him, spat on His face and verbally and physically abused Him!! His response? "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."
How can one understand such love? When we have loved Him with all our heart, mind and soul, we will love in our sphere as Jesus loved in His sphere.
Dear Jesus help us to imitate You.
How much are we willing to show 'compassion' to a person who is hurt? Sometimes as Christians we prefer to be passerbys, or just stand and look for fear of being involved. What would Jesus do, would He stand and helplessly look on as someone is being hurt...NO, a thousand times, therefore, we ought to do our best to help, show compassion, and leave the result to God.
It is amazing who easily we can describe Christ Love and still not exhibit it. We Adventist are information specialist but are retarded when it comes to application.IE: We are still divided by color and culture.. Just saying
“His sympathy and merciful interest for the well-being of others were more important for Him than satisfying His own physical need for food or shelter.” We most certainly don’t love others as much as He did. That is one of the ditches on the side of the road we all too often get into but there is another ditch that is not as well known and not as wide but just as destructive. We can interpret statements such as this in a way that we become masochistic and feel that we must punish ourselves in order to be accepted by God.
There is no benefit to wearing ourselves out prematurely to the point that we become useless to the kingdom of God past that point. Our bodies can only take so much abuse before it collapses. I have said before that if we give all of our money away to the point that we ourselves become poor and dependant then we have gained nothing. We are called to be good stewards of the gifts we are given and that means proper management. It means being wise in the use of the gifts so that we can produce the most production possible.
Even Jesus took time away from His daily activities to recharge. Even though there are times when He didn’t get much sleep He made sure He didn’t become a victim of sleep deprivation. He kept Himself in good shape and alert but never selfishly abused His personal care. He was balanced in all that He did and because of that was able to serve as no other human has ever served. He practiced good personal management which is something we need to learn.
We all tend to eat too much, sleep too much, play too much, waste time and money and end up in need ourselves because of it. While we take care of those kinds of abuses of God’s gifts we should all be aware of the other ditch that some have fallen into. There is a balance in the center of the road where efficiency lies where we can be most effective for our Lord let’s be there instead of being in one of the ditches that the devil would dearly love for us to be in.
So true, Brother Hugh. And sometimes the center of the road is so narrow, it's like traversing a tightrope, suspended over a great chasm, where it is necessary to step carefully and take stock of things and make adjustments to stay balanced. Lest we "fall off into the ditch together." The changes that need to be made only bring about good for me, so why am I still wasting my two most valuable resources, my time and my money...when I need to "be about my Father's Business."
Hello Sheila, this thing about balance is quite often difficult to determine with any precision. I constantly wrestle with it. Perhaps it is best to understand that Jesus rarely used miracles to produce food for His disciples and Himself; only when it was absolutely necessary and then it was usually more of a spiritual lesson. Like the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, His disciples went into the town to buy food like we all have to (Jn 4:8). So money was necessary for both Himself and His disciples but it never became a god that controlled His life.
Another thing to see is that even though Jesus had a mission that included healing and preaching when He was traveling between towns He couldn’t minister to everyone on the way otherwise He would have never gotten far in His journey. I am also quite sure that was one of the points the devil used in an attempt to persuade Jesus that He failed His mission and therefore couldn’t be resurrected after the cross. Jesus was physically limited just like we are and couldn’t do everything but He did make the best use of the resources He had.
I believe that all of this is an example of proper balanced management. Fanaticism is something to be avoided not just for our sakes but also because doing so gives a rather odious witness to Jesus and His kingdom. We are to have an attraction to those in the world and we can’t do that by hanging from a tree limb like a fool.
Amen and Amen.
My comments should have been addressed to Brother Tyler, however, Brother Hugh also made points that still resonate with me. Thank you both.
Jesus showed great love even to those who were considered to have less value in the society. The same should apply to us as adventist we shouldnot choose who to love but show love to everyone and have compassion to everyone around you by doing so you would have spread the goodnews about christ to the society hence ending up living like Jesus did.
If only we (I ) modeled the examples of Jesus' love this world would be so much more peaceful and beautiful. Not once have I read where Jesus told somebody that He loved them and did nothing. Jesus showed compassion and always thought about others. Today the word love is used without understanding. We say we love a person but there's no action that follows. Jesus constantly showed his love by doing something and we should display the same unwavering love towards each other as well.
Thank you brethren for your interesting and relevant comments at large. i have blessed with them.. hence iam eager to read more and share with my sarounding neighbors ..be bles'd
God's love for the fallen world is a litmus test for all of us called christian. Love for others does not consist in possessions and or wealth but also in the way we meet others on their daily needs.
We can only live like Jesus live in we give Him our will so that He work in us to will and do His good pleasure. In Isaiah 61:1-3 God tells us why Christ can to this earth. This is what we ought to do. We need not to go to Capernaun, Nazareth or Bethany to see the footsteps of Christ. His footprints are by the sickbeds, by the orphans and widows, by the starving, mourning. every place where are human hearts in need of consolation.
If I could only express how the following line has encouraged my heart:
"He lovingly cared for those who were considered by society to be of little value, such as children, women, foreigners, lepers, and tax collectors."
That's so reassuring in a society/world that worships power.
What a compasionate loving friend is Jesus. He lived each and every day on earth for me a sinner. If God wills let me live daily for others.
after my fiance spent a night at his ex boyfriend's place, no matter how well she had put it as reasons for that, how genuine the motive was, she apologized to me a thousand times, yet still all fell on deaf ears..
i was so bitter, very disturbed the whole month with imaginations of what could have happened there that night, until finally i had to let go off her, labeled her unfaithful.
now when God uses the phenomenal of A loving Husband forgiving an ADULTEROUS WIFE, it breaks my heart to know how deeply God stooped to save me.
love is far from what we do , and those who are to experience TRUE LOVE are ones whose connection is with MOST HIGH (YAHWEH)
Loving unconditionally is the remedy needed by today's society to heal it from the epidemic of sin...