Raising the Bar
John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
Think of the most heroic tales you’ve ever read or heard; don’t they all have this element of self-sacrifice in common? Aren’t they stories of soldiers who take bullets for comrades, or mothers who give up their livelihood for children, or princes who leave their kingdoms for poor paupers? Truly, we give purple hearts and Nobel prizes and literary awards for this kind of heroic love because our measure doesn’t go any higher. But the apostle Paul writes that “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” No one else has ever gone to that extreme. To die for those who hate and reject and mock and kill you — that is divine Love without bounds.
Friend, don’t merely settle for heroic love today. Let Christ take you eternally higher.
Extra Refreshment
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. 1 John 3:1a