“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”
Romans 15:7 (NIV) What God does for you, he wants you to do for other people. God accepts you unconditionally. That doesn’t mean he approves of everything you do, but he accepts you, no matter what you’ve done. And God says he wants you to act similarly toward everybody in your life. One of the ways you demonstrate acceptance to someone else is to look at them and listen to them. When you look someone in the eye, you’re declaring that they matter to you. The highest form of love is focused attention. Love looks, and love listens. What about you—do you look and listen? When someone at work drops something off at your desk, do you say anything to them? When somebody serves you at a restaurant or a clerk helps you in a grocery store, do you look them in the eye and say, “Thank you”? It may seem like a small thing. But when you give someone your attention, even for just a moment, you affirm their value as a person and show that you accept them. The Bible says in Romans 15:1, “We must bear the ‘burden’ of being considerate of the doubts and fears of others” (TLB). We all have fears and doubts. Acceptance means you listen to others’ fears and doubts. When people have doubts about God, you need to first listen and show that it doesn’t change your love or acceptance. Why? Because this is how God loves us. When we doubt, God’s love does not change. When we are fearful and unwilling to trust, God still accepts us. This is how he wants us to love other people. Loving like Jesus means you accept other people the way Jesus accepts you. And when his love flows through you, it’s possible for you to love others unconditionally.
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“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
1 Corinthians 13:1 (NIV) We were put here on Earth to learn to love God and others. Love is our greatest aim in life. In the first few verses of 1 Corinthians 13, the Bible makes it clear why love is the most important value: Without love, all that you say is ineffective. “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1 NIV). Words without love are just noise. People resent and reject unloving words. But they will listen and respond to words spoken in love. Without love, all that you know is incomplete. “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge . . . but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2 NIV). The world is exploding with information and knowledge, yet many of our most basic problems are not being solved. That’s because the world really is not looking for more knowledge; the world is looking for love. Without love, all that you believe is insufficient. “If I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2 NIV). Many people have the misconception that being a Christian is just about believing certain truths and doctrines. But do you love Jesus? Do you realize he loves you? Christianity is about experiencing the love Jesus has for you and learning how to love like him. Without love, all that you give is insignificant. “If I give all I possess to the poor . . . but do not have love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3 NIV). There are all kinds of motivations for giving, including obligation or prestige or guilt. Just because you give doesn’t mean you’re doing it in love. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. Without love, all that you accomplish is inadequate. “If I were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but didn’t love others, it would be of no value whatever” (1 Corinthians 13:3 TLB). You can have all kinds of great accomplishments. You can even sacrifice your life for the greatest cause in the world—the Kingdom of God—but without love, it’s wasted effort. You can have the eloquence of an orator, the knowledge of a genius, the faith of a miracle worker, the generosity of a philanthropist, and the dedication of a martyr. But if you don’t love, it doesn’t count. The good news is that you can love others because God first loved you. As you live within his love, Jesus says he will help you to love others. When you draw closer to him, your ability to love will increase—he makes it possible for you to live out the calling to love others. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:35 (NIV) The sign of a Christian is love. How many people know you’re a Christian because of your loving lifestyle? We sing about love, talk about love, pray about love, and study love. But do we show it? To develop love as your life principle and make it your greatest aim, you need to take action as soon as you finish reading this devotional—because love acts! Here’s what you need to do to develop a loving lifestyle. First, start acting lovingly in your relationships. Have you acted unlovingly toward someone? It’s time to seek reconciliation. Make things right with your kids, your spouse, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your parents, or someone at school or work. Then, start increasing the number of relationships you have. If the most important aim in life is to love, then we need to build as many relationships as possible. Why? Because the world will know about God’s love by the way Christians love each other—and by how Christians love other people around the world. You cannot live a loving lifestyle as a hermit. You spell love T-I-M-E. It takes time to love other people. If you love your friends, you’ve got to spend time with them. If you love your kids, you spend time with them. If you love Jesus, you have to spend time with him too. Love always costs time and energy. But it’s always worth it. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone in the church loved like this—if we all committed ourselves to acting in love and giving our time unselfishly so that people could get a taste of how much God loves them? It would change the world. It would grow God’s Kingdom. It would make God so happy. People are attracted to Christ more than they are persuaded to him. They’re attracted by the love of God shown through the people who claim to follow him. And they won’t care what we know until they first know that we care. “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”
1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT) Lasting love is persistent. It is determined. It is diligent. It is resolute. It endures the worst and doesn’t give up on a relationship. It’s stubborn! The purpose of a relationship is not just to make you happy but also to make you holy. Relationships—whether with a spouse or child or even a close friend—teach you to think of others more than you think of yourself. As you persevere with them through difficult times, you will learn certain things that you would never learn any other way. Maybe you need to hear this today: Don’t give up. Keep on. Persevere. Be stubborn. Don’t let go of God’s gift of lasting love because you have to work for it. It will always be worth the fight. Learning to love is the single greatest lesson in life. It is why God put you on this planet. But it’s not always easy—and it’s just plain hard to love some people. There really isn’t a “secret” to lasting love. The key, however, is to let God’s love flow through you. Philippians 2:5 says, “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had” (NLT). Human love wears out. But having Jesus’ love in you lets you offer lasting love to others. Open your life to him—and then let him love others through you. “Love . . . always looks for the best.”
1 Corinthians 13:7 (MSG) When you have high expectations of someone, you don’t tell it like it is. You tell it like it could be. What does that mean? It’s means you believe in what God wants to do in and through that person, and you affirm God’s purpose for them. An excellent example of how this works is a story from Bruce Wilkinson, an author and teacher. Years ago, he was a new professor at Multnomah University, and at the first faculty meeting, he received his class assignments. Another professor saw his sheet and said, “Bruce, you’ve been given two of the section A classes. They’re the brightest students in the university. They’re really engaged and a joy to teach. You’re fortunate to have section A students in your first year.” Bruce discovered that to be true—he absolutely loved teaching those kids. They were so much more fun to teach than the other classes. They were smarter and asked better questions. At the end of the year, Bruce told his department supervisor, “Man, I sure hope I get the section A classes again next year!” The supervisor told him, “Bruce, there is no section A. We canceled that program six years ago.” When Bruce went back and checked his grade books, he found that those “section A” classes may not have been advanced placement, but they received higher grades and wrote more thoughtful term papers than his other classes. Bruce realized—because he expected them to be better students—they rose to the challenge. Throughout your life, you will shape the people around you by your expectations of them. When you expect the best from others, you are reflecting the lasting love of Jesus. The Bible says that love does not nag or perpetually bring up past mistakes. The apostle Paul said it this way: “Love . . . always looks for the best” (1 Corinthians 13:7 MSG). Lasting love is forward-looking. It’s optimistic. Lasting love is full of hope. “A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”
Proverbs 19:11 (NIV) Some people always want their own way. They’ve got a right way and a wrong way to do something, and your way is always the wrong way. When you don’t meet their standards, they’re going to let you know about it. And it always seems you can never quite please them. So how do you respond in love to demanding people? The Bible tells us that patience comes from perspective: “A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense” (Proverbs 19:11 NIV). The more you understand a person—their background, battles, and burdens—the more patient you’re going to be with them. We often look at people and think, “Look how far they have to go.” But we don’t stop and say, “I wonder how far they’ve come?” Maybe they were raised in a family where they had no model of kindness or courtesy. Maybe they grew up in a very dysfunctional home, and it’s a miracle, really, that they made it this far. What are the burdens they’re carrying? They may be sick. They may have a family issue. They may have just lost their job. There are all kinds of battles and burdens people carry that you and I don’t know about. Proverbs 19:11 tells us to overlook offenses. Do you overlook offenses, or are you offended by offenses? Are you so touchy and irritable that you’re offended by anybody who looks at you funny or forgets to say something or doesn’t see you? Love lets it go. The Bible says, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31 NIV). Love is understanding, not demanding—and it’s what you would want others to do to you when you’re having a bad day or don’t feel well or are carrying heavy burdens. Does that mean you’re just supposed to let people run over you? Do you just let them push you around? Do you act like a doormat, cave in, and let them say whatever they want? No. Here’s the key: Be tender without surrender. Jesus never caved in to manipulators—the religious leaders and Pharisees who were extremely demanding and legalistic. They had all kinds of demands that they themselves couldn’t even keep. But Jesus did not let demanding people push him into a corner. He was tender without surrender. That’s what you call love in action. “Treat everyone you meet with dignity.”
1 Peter 2:17 (MSG) Loving like Jesus means you must value others the way Jesus values you. You are a child of the king. God created you, and Christ gave his life for you. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1:18-19, “God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ” (NLT). How much are you worth? Look at the cross. Jesus was willing to die for you. God was willing to give his Son for you. That’s how valuable you are! Jesus wants you to give that kind of value to everybody else—even the people you can’t stand. When Jesus spread his arms wide on the cross, it’s like he said, “I love them this much, so I expect you, my child, to love these people the same way I love them—because I died for them, not just you. Treat them the same way I treat them. Value them the way I value them.” The Bible says it very simply in 1 Peter 2:17: “Treat everyone you meet with dignity” (MSG). How do you do that? One way you treat others with dignity is by looking at them, giving them your attention, and listening to them. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Mark 10:21. Jesus was walking down the street, and a young entrepreneur came up to him and asked him a question. Jesus’ response was that he “looked at him and loved him” (NIV). Jesus looked, and he loved. You can’t love without looking! Think about the people you come across every day—like the restaurant server, grocery store cashier, or coworker you pass in the hallway. When those people try to speak with you and you don’t give them your attention, you’re not being very loving. Love looks, and love listens. When you look and listen in love, you remind people of their value to you—and, ultimately, of their value to God. “The Father gives me the people who are mine. Every one of them will come to me, and I will always accept them.”
John 6:37 (NCV) Followers of Jesus ought to be the most accepting people in the world—because they are the most accepted. John 6:37 says, “The Father gives me the people who are mine. Every one of them will come to me, and I will always accept them” (NCV). You may have accepted Christ into your life, but do you understand that he’s accepted you? He doesn’t love you because of who you are or what you’ve done but because of who he is. Titus 3:7 says, “Jesus treated us much better than we deserve. He made us acceptable to God and gave us the hope of eternal life” (CEV). How does Jesus make you acceptable? It’s not that you changed or got any better. It’s not that you never sin. It’s by his grace alone. God wants you to show grace and acceptance to other people, but the problem is most people don’t know the difference between acceptance and approval. They are very, very different. Jesus Christ accepts you completely, but that doesn’t mean he approves of everything you do. One day Jesus was walking down the street when some religious leaders who were trying to trap him brought a woman to him who had been caught in adultery. Jesus looked at all of the accusers and said, “Anyone here who has never sinned can throw the first stone at her” (John 8:7 NCV). And, of course, they all walked away. What did Jesus do? He gave acceptance, not approval. He didn’t approve of what she had done, but he accepted the woman and restored her dignity. That’s what you need to do with the people around you. You don’t have to go around approving of everything everybody does. But you do have to accept them—because that is a mark of love. The Bible says in Romans 15:7, “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you” (NIV). How do you do that? One of the ways you can show acceptance to other people is to listen to them. Love pays attention. Love listens to the fears and the doubts of others and treats them with respect. Love accepts others the way Jesus accepts you. “You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.”
Revelation 2:4-5 (ESV) Love is an action, not just an emotion. Love is something you do. It’s easy to love somebody who loves you, isn’t it? It takes nothing at all. But real love acts and does the loving thing when people don’t deserve it, when they don’t respond to it, or when you don’t feel it. In fact, acting in love when you don’t feel it is the highest form of love. It’s a more mature love when you act loving toward a person who does not respond the same way. Have you noticed that it’s easier to act your way into a feeling than it is to feel your way into an action? Some of you have been married for a long time, and the truth is, the flame has gone out. The thrill is gone. You’re living separate lives in the same house. How do you rekindle that romance? How do you rekindle the feeling of love? You act your way into a feeling. You may say, “I don’t feel like acting loving toward my spouse.” So what? If you start acting in love, I guarantee you the feelings will follow—because feelings follow behavior. In Revelation 2:4-5, Jesus says to the church, “You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first” (ESV). What Jesus told the church is the same principle for renewing the love in a marriage or any other relationship. You remember, you repent, and you do the things you did at first. The reason the love went away is you stopped doing the things that created the love in the early days. God doesn’t want you living by your feelings. He wants you living by faith. So you know what he does? Sometimes he lets the feelings go away. Then you have to live by faith and love by faith. When you love somebody and do the loving thing, even when they’re not responding and even maybe when they’re retaliating, you are loving by faith. That is an action. “You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him.”
Deuteronomy 30:20 (NLT) The Bible teaches this about love: Love is a choice and a commitment. You choose to love—and you choose not to love. Today we’ve bought into this myth that love is uncontrollable, that it just kind of happens to you. In fact, even the language we use implies that we can’t control how we love. We say, “I fell in love”—like it was a ditch! “I was just walking along one day and—bam!—I fell in love. I just couldn’t help myself.” But is that really love? No, what someone really means when they say they “fell in love” is that they were attracted to someone. Attraction and arousal are uncontrollable—no doubt about it. But attraction and arousal are not love. They can lead to love, but they are not love. Love is a choice. During a wedding ceremony, a man and a woman stand before each other and say their vows. They say to the other person, “I choose you above everybody else in the world, and I choose you for the rest of my life.” They make a public statement of their choice—that’s a commitment. You can’t force somebody to fall in love with you, and you can’t force him or her to stay in love with you. Why? Because love is a choice. Love cannot be forced. This is true of all relationships, including your relationship with God. Deuteronomy 30:20 says, “You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him” (NLT). Just like in any other relationship, you must choose to love God. God isn’t going to force you to love him. You can thumb your nose at God and go a totally different way. You can destroy your life if you want to. God won’t force you to love him—because love can’t be forced. Love is a choice. In what relationships do you need to choose love today? |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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