The greatest love of all has been demonstrated by God through Jesus. How did Jesus love? What were the practical ways He communicated love to other people? How did they KNOW He loved them? Let’s take a look at four ways Jesus loved people and how that impacted them.
- When Jesus loves burdens are eased.
When people experience the love of Christ, they gain access to a new quality of life. Even though the trials of life remain, when you encounter the love of God personally, you receive supernatural strength and perspective to walk through them with confidence and hope. There is a “life-lift” that you receive. There is an elevated status. There is freedom to rejoice. God comes to those who are in a love-relationship with Him in practical ways to ease the burdens we have to carry. This is the essence of the ministry of Jesus.
In practical ways, Jesus went about meeting needs which eased the burdens they were facing. Whether He fed them or took time to teach them a better way, He eased their burden. In love, He lightened people’s burdens. He didn’t wait for people to say, “I have a burden, can you help me?” He invited people to bring their burdens to Him. He said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Jesus didn’t isolate Himself. Jesus didn’t insulate Himself from other people’s problems. He inserted Himself into them. It didn’t matter if it was a despised tax collector, thief, prostitute or shady religious leader, His heart was open to them. He went to their houses. He sat and talked outside in the heat. He walked miles and miles to teach and encourage people. He didn’t care about their reputation or limitation. If there was a burden to ease, He moved in.
Can you love like Jesus? Check on your neighbors. Reach out to the lonely. Sit with the grieving. Ask to help the single parent. Share your resources. Drop off food to someone who needs encouraged. Send a card. Lend a hand. Love like Jesus and say to someone this week, “Let me help you carry that.”
- When Jesus loves shame is eliminated.
Jesus knew the guilty hearts of the religious leaders who exposed the sin of the woman caught in adultery in John 8. He knew they were the ones in the wrong. Even though the woman was guilty of what they said she was guilty of…She didn’t deny it…Jesus didn’t deny it nor did He overlook it…Even though she was guilty, the religious leaders were the ones in the wrong in this situation with Jesus and Jesus isn’t about shame. It’s not His agenda. Jesus came to cover our sin, not to embarrass us and shame us. I John 4:8 says, “Love covers a multitude of sins.” John 3:17, the verse that follows the greatest LOVE verse in the Bible, the one that says God so LOVED the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish and have everlasting life, that next verse, John 3:17 says Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him.
This poor woman had been publicly shamed. Jesus, wanting to take the spotlight off of her, placed it where it rightly belonged, on the religious leaders. And when He did, they dropped their stones and left. And Jesus lovingly engaged the woman. If someone did have a right to stone her because they were without sin, it was Jesus. He was without sin. He did have a perfect record. But there was no stone in His hand. He told her He wouldn’t condemn her. He didn’t tell her she should go and be ashamed of herself. No. He told her to go and sin no more. He pointed her in the direction of a brand-new start, a new way of life, a life without sin.
Romans 8:1-Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
- When Jesus loves people are elevated.
Jesus always treated people with grace and respect. Jesus elevated those He met.
Philippians 2 tells us if we have been comforted by the love of Christ, then in humility we should live in such a way that communicates to others we consider them to be better than ourselves. People who left Jesus’ presence all left with courage, encouragement, and better off than they were before they encountered Him.
In order to elevate others, we have to place ourselves below them. Serving others is the way to elevate them and to demonstrate the love of Christ. Jesus demonstrated this aspect of love profoundly when He washed the disciples’ feet. Jesus willingly placed Himself beneath the disciples in that moment. He, their Lord and Master, became their servant. He did the job of a servant to show just how much He loved them, how much He valued them. It was so stunning of a display of love that it was difficult for some of the disciples to even accept His kindness.
- When Jesus loves forgiveness is extended.
The crucifixion of Christ is another astonishing moment where the love of God was displayed without reservation. It is one thing to love your enemy, it is another to want them to be off the hook for crimes against YOU. That is next-level. That is other-worldly. When Jesus, from the cross, prayed that the Father would forgive those who had driven nails into His hands and feet, those who had mocked Him and humiliated Him, those who had beaten Him and falsely accused Him, those who had gambled for His clothes and jeered as if His crucifixion was some kind of perverted entertainment, He was helping us understand that love has no limits. It is unconditional.
Jesus doesn’t love us because of what we do or don’t do for Him. He just loves us.
Jesus’s love is a “no matter what” love and a “just because” love.
So much happens to people when Jesus loves them. Perhaps I should say it this way, “Wonderful things happen to people when they allow Jesus to love them.” Have you experienced the love of God for yourself? Have you accepted God’s love and forgiveness personally? God wants us to be the beneficiary of all the love of God offers. He wants to ease our burdens. He wants to remove our shame. He wants to elevate us to live according to the value and worth He has placed on us. He wants us to live forgiven so that we can fully experience His love and correctly love ourselves and others. And He wants all of His followers to love like that in an effort to point unbelivers to the greatest love of all.
