Thursday: How to Live Like Jesus
Jesus’ teachings set such a high ideal of a selfless, loving life that most of us probably feel overwhelmed and discouraged. How can we, who are selfish by nature, love our neighbor unselfishly? Moreover, is it even possible for us to love our enemies? From a human point of view it is utterly impossible.
Image © Darrel Tank from GoodSalt.com
But the Lord would never ask us to love and serve those who are hateful and unlovable without providing us also with the means to accomplish it. This standard is not one to which we cannot attain. In every command or injunction that God gives there is a promise, the most positive, underlying the command. God has made provision that we may become like unto Him, and He will accomplish this for all who do not interpose a perverse will and thus frustrate His grace.
— Ellen G. White, Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 76.
What is the promise underlying the command to love our enemies? It is the assurance that God is kind and merciful to the unthankful and evil (Luke 6:35-36), which includes us. We can love our enemies because God loved us first, even though we were His enemies (Rom. 5:10). When we daily reaffirm our acceptance of His loving sacrifice for us on the cross, His self-denying love pervades our lives. The more we realize and experience the Lord’s love for us, the more His love will flow from us to others, even to our enemies.
What is the relationship between abiding in Christ and His love, and loving our neighbor? See John 15:4-12.
Our daily need is not only to accept Christ’s death for us again but to surrender our will to Him and abide in Him. In the way Jesus Himself did not seek His own will but the will of the Father (John 5:30), so we need to depend on Jesus and His will. For without Him, we can do nothing.
As we choose every day to submit ourselves to Jesus, He lives in us and through us. Then it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me
(Gal. 2:20, NKJV) and changes my egocentric attitudes into a selfless loving life.
Read again John 15:4-12. What is the joy that Jesus is talking about there? How can we experience for ourselves the joy that comes from serving him, even when we don’t necessarily feel happy about our immediate circumstances?
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God loved us so much that while we were yet sinners,He gave us His son to die in our place,now it's hard to give someone to die in ones place, it takes love to do such a thing and we humans it's hard to love one another if we don't show the love the Father showed when He gave heaven to die for sinners.I think to love our enemies we have to first let the love of Jesus be in us,let Him live in us and His teachings in us then shall we learn to love.
The world is lacking in love, unselfish love. Jesus gave us unselfish, unconditional, and undying love. May we show someone love today.
Today I am claiming this promise for all the people that I love. My prayer is for their salvation in Jesus.
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
unless we fully surrender ti Christ to live in us and us in him, loving enemies is just a myth.
Lord, I know that this is hard, loving those who offends us breaks the very core of our being. However, Philippians 4:13 always brings me back to reality...it states 'I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me'. Knowing therefore, that you will give me the strength I daily seek I am forever grateful for your mercies towards me. Thank you Jesus and while I am a work in progress I will continue to seek you daily so that my joy maybe full and those around me will continue to see you in me. I pray that we all will daily lift him up, so that His light will forever shine in our daily living.
This is a great lesson for me, especially given my recent situation. As I am a young man developing my career,I am inclined to be selfish and only focus on professional advancement over my girlfriend, my friends, and my family. But God reminds me that selfless love is crucial to my service to Him. Thank you father for putting me back on the right path!
What has troubled me is the fact that God gave us a brain to use. Some think that God will do everything for us and some even think that the best way to do Bible study is to plop a Bible down so that it opens randomly to some point in scripture as though God was manipulating how the book opened but I doubt that is how the Lord works. Nor do I see Jesus pleased when we toss coins or cast lots to make a decision.
He gives us the means to intelligently make choices and expects us to use that freedom rather than being told everything to do. It is for this reason that institutions such as slavery, dictatorships, Communism and the like are terribly destructive to the soul for it puts our brains in neutral. We are to be free moral agents dependent on God to make things happen – not make our decisions for us.
No one can be righteous apart from Christ; no one can be holy apart from Jesus and no one can have true love apart from Him. Our Lord Jesus Christ is righteousness, holiness and love. To have these attributes one must remain a branch to the Vine. John 15:5 says: ".... for without Me you can do nothing."
Living to love like Jesus, equals to dying to self for others, when the "self" in us dies, we can live to love others in Christ Jesus. The Agape love should be the driving force in our christian walk.Our lord Jesus Christ emptied all for us including His own life so that we can have eternal life though we did not deserve it, may we embrace this grace and love like Jesus.
The love that motivates our thoughts and feelings is the only love that will go forth from us to our enemies. This is a love that becomes a part of our character. It is not a love that we merely feel from God. It is a love that we choose to receive from God by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of relating properly with others. If it is not built into our character it must be contrived and fake. This is not the result of God's work in us but the sparks our own kindling.
I know by human nature to love our enemies seems to hard But if Jesus is in us we can't find it hard.