The Love of Jesus

As a pastor, I think about this very thing quite often. As I ponder back on my pastoral training, I recall being taught that programs were necessary and that a “successful” pastor was one who could “grow” the church and make it big and thus meaningful.

God has taught me many things, I am thankful that I have learned that when I think about what I am “to do” as the pastor here, I must think first of how whatever I am thinking of shows the love of God? How does what I am thinking of encourage others to know the love of God?

At this time of year especially I regularly encourage the church here to look at where they are already at and ask themselves, “How am I loving people as God loves me?” I am constantly tempted to lean on a program or think up an ingenious plan to promote the church. Yet, I know that our God knows the way and the only way for me is to love God and let Him love me so I love those around me most fully.

If I live to be 100, I will still be learning how to love others more completely as I continually discover how vast our God’s love is for me.

Looking at Jesus for examples of love is an amazing and sometimes frustrating task. In no doubt was He the perfect representation of love even when it came to loving his enemies. This is what I and I think others struggle with from time to time.  Its so easy to love people whom you have nothing against or who like already, but for those that rub us the wrong way, that’s a different story. For example, if someone was to walk into my parent’s house and kill my mother, the last thing I would want to do would be to forgive him and say that Jesus loved him still. I would rather take a shotgun and shoot both his kneecaps, douse him with gasoline and then light a match engulfing the bastard in flames. Now I’m not saying that this would be in anyway right, but it just goes to show you the magnitude in which Jesus loved all people by being able to forgive his enemies.

With Jesus’ death on the cross and the self-sacrificial love He embodied, I think it’s important to remember the self-sacrificial love of His Father in Heaven as well.  I don’t think it’s intentional, but I feel that the Father’s love has, sometimes, been overshadowed by Christ’s love on the cross.  While being triune, God the Father and God the Son were also separate at that time.  When I think about that, I wonder which sacrifice was harder.  Not that one has to be harder than the other, but was the loss of His own life, greater than God the Father’s witnessing of His Son’s trial, beating, betrayal by other, mocking, pain and death? 
I think, through the Cross and Resurrection, we can learn and practice the self-sacrificial love of the Son, and also, the sacrificial love of the Father.  I think this double representation of love adds to the relationality of who God is and allows for even greater insight into how we love in community and in the world.

Ever since I was a young girl, one of my very favorite things about the Christian religion and going to church has been the love that people have shown to me. Growing up and going to church on Sundays, I always looked forward to seeing specific people- probably even more than I looked forward to a sermon.
After just recently seeing the movie Les Miserables, I have been thinking a lot about the character of a Christian man or woman. It is incredible for me to watch myself as well as close friends and members of my close family grow in faith and I can sense change in motives as well as personalities. It is amazing how the love of Jesus can change a person, they focus on loving and helping others rather than selfish and egotistical motives. 
It is interesting to ponder Jesus’ love. The fact that each person is so incredibly different and he still loves each one of us equally is difficult to wrap my mind around. As humans, and especially as women, we tend to complicate things much more than is necessary. Sometimes I need to remind myself to step back and look at the big picture and not get so caught up in small details that do not matter in the end. When it comes down to it, Christ loves us each equally, not matter what. This blog was a good reminder of this.

Loving those who persecute you and those who are the neediest is definitely an emulation of Jesus as you mention above. Doing so shows a selfless form of love which Jesus showed as well through similar instances, and even went as far as you mentioned- dying on the cross. Sacrificial and selfless love are two forms of love that I believe are instilled in us from God. I know that sometimes we don’t achieve the potential that God sees in us, but I know that he works on our hearts to see this, recognize it, and helps us to make ourselves better at it in order to be more like him.

Jesus is our ultimate role model when it comes to love. But why is it we still ostracize those who he would have shown love to? We perceive those in need as “deserving it” for some reason or another. We ignore them or judge them for not “earning” their own resources. Even more difficult we find it to love someone who is a jerk or holds different opinions than ours.

The story of the Good Samaritan has always been an inspirational piece for me. The fact that the religious figures walked right by the injured man was a powerful image. Here they were believed to be men of God, but when they had the opportunity to love as Jesus would have loved—they failed. This story taught me how everyone deserves to be loved which is exactly what God calls us to do. We need to keep in mind what we are called to do and if our actions are demonstrating that or not.

The love of Jesus is, as you said is the most important person in helping us understand love.  Easter is such a significant date, for Christians especially, in that Jesus showed everyone the ultimate example of self-sacrificial love.  Jesus’ death on the cross was a way of proving his love for us and it truly was the most prime example of self-sacrificial love that I can think of.  I think God is the perfect representation of what love is and we should model or our love after him the best we humanly can!

Lately, I’ve been seeing the topic of love everywhere. Love is unavoidable in the best way possible. As I read the first two paragraphs of this blog, I thought of Paul and how much of his work centers on Christ’s love (his love for us and vice versa), and our love for one another. Paul argued in a majority of his letter that Love is the fulfillment of the law. I believe that Paul desired for the churches that he wrote to, to truly understand what Christ love does and did for them. The churches at that time were so consumed with following the law that they forgot the love of Jesus. I think it is necessary to meditate on what love looks like through the eyes of Jesus. It is only when do this that we will be able to understand love itself.

Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan is probably one of the most told parables of Jesus and, most likely, the most contextually out of place in our culture. I hear so many people talk about the good samaritan and how we should act like he did, but the impact of the parable is blunted by the fact that to the original hearers the Samaritan people were one of the most despised people. In order to get Jesus’ message across I think that perhaps we should replace the Samaritan with a Muslim or a member of the Taliban, someone that people in America would never associate with performing this kind of act. This kind of modernizing of Jesus’ parables, in my opinion, does not change the core of the message, but makes them as radical today as they were then. Jesus was radical in His view of love and loving others, even loving your enemies is a radical idea, but simply saying that we have to love our enemies is easy it is difficult when you have to do it, or if you have to say that you should love the Taliban.

The story of the good Samaritan is always a convicting story for me because I have to wonder which one in the story am I? Am I the one that would stop and help the man, or would I be like the Priest who crossed to the other side of the street and kept on walking? This is a deep conviction of mine. The more I read my Bible, the more I learn about the character and love of Jesus Christ. I pray that God would continue to move in me to cultivate a loving heart for the broken.

After reading about all of the different types of people Jesus calls us to love, it seems to me like pretty much everyone should be shown love. This is obvious to Christians, right? It would make sense Christians understand the most important part of their faith. But how hard is loving all others? Its hard. I fail everyday to love someone who is my neighbor, or someone being marginalized. It takes practice, even though I believe love comes naturally to all people. Some people choose to harness it or push it aside, instead of being vulnerable and being okay with feeling uncomfortable. Its not an easy thing, but I think the first step in the right direction is giving it a try, even if it seems awkward.

Jesus and his love in terms of what he has showed and the example he has given us is no doubt a vital part of our christian walk. But what I often wonder about this love and its effects is how much we would actually change if everyone followed this example of love all the time. What would happen? I think love often times today is viewed as more or less a sign of weakness, if its directed towards anyone but a significant other. Love is just you saying you’re not as powerful. But Jesus showed us how we can use love for our enemies,and very effectively at that. I think while this practice of love as Jesus showed is necessary, it is hard to put into practice.

I enjoyed reading this article, as it was a great reminder of the fundamentals of Christianty. Jesus’ life and words are an example of what we as Christians should be. His love should change our lives. However, I often wonder if Jesus’ life actually does make a difference. I wonder if we as Christians actually change the way we live because of Jesus. I also wonder what difference Jesus’ resurrection makes. Still, I believe in the conclusion you ultimately came to. It is all about love and relationships. That is what Jesus taught, and that is what His followers should do.

This post really hits on all aspects of love. God said to love our neighbors as ourselves. Right there He is telling us to love others as well as ourselves. It then goes on to say that we should love God with all our hearts, soul, and mind. To love means to express it to all; even when people aren’t as easily lovable as we might want. In the story of the good Samaritan the men who first walked by were priests and Levites, who had nothing against the Jews. But a Samaritan, a people who hated the Jews, was the one to stop and help. They were enemies by culture. Yet this man showed self-less love and cared for the dying man. I love how Jesus says that a neighbor is any person in obvious need – regardless of their race, social status, gender, etc. We are called to love the way Jesus did. I definitely think we, as a people of God, need to act on that more often.

Reading this blog post was a great reminder for me think about this week. As this semester is getting started, it is easy to become stressed and think about all of the things that need to get done. Even though school is only a few weeks in, I am already getting worried and caught up in the little things that I have to do. Instead of stressing about all the minor details of life, it is important to focus on the love of God. Instead of focusing on myself and thinking about things that I am struggling with, it is most important to focus on God’s love and reciprocate it unto others. This blog brought to my attention how important it is to focus on the things that matter and will continue to matter for eternity.

What a good reminder this was for me. I went to a women’s event this past week with Natalie Grant, and there the speaker also talked about the importance of wearing out love to everyone around us. I really like the part in this blog that said that loving your neighbor sums up all of the other commandments. As long as we are loving others, we are following all of Jesus’ other commands for our life. What a good reminder that it really can be that simple–that all we have to do is live a life of love. I hope that the day that I make it to heaven Jesus will tell me he is proud of the life of love that I lived.

“I pause to ponder — and to imitate — the love of Jesus.” I love that. This post really helped to bring some perspective to light. When I may be feeling like I am not doing all I can or “should” as a Christian, or perhaps feel as if I am doing life wrong, the simple realization that if I am loving, then I am doing well, is comforting. To be honest however, showing love, demonstrating love, being love… that seems overwhelming at times! Although at the same time, it sounds like a task I am able to do throughout my day-to-day life. By going the extra mile, doing some tasks for others, saying kind words, and so on, I can share love with others, and more importantly, perhaps share Jesus with others. By taking a step back from my own tasks and business, and pausing to ponder the love of God and inspire to share that same love, is a calling I hope to live into every day.

The idea of Jesus to me has always been an idea of what I was going to church to become. I did not know each part of what that meant but I knew that he was a good guy and to be like Jesus would be a good idea. Today my view of Jesus is still a view in which I want to strive to be like him and enact love into the people around me. I may not always do the best job at this but I do try to be a good person. When I think of Jesus as someone who is a strong example of Love, I think of all the miracles that he performed. They were not in an act of selflove they were in an act that wanted to further the kingdom and bring joy to the people that he encountered.

I really enjoyed reading this blog. This idea and belief is something that I think about a lot of the time. I find it fascinating how Jesus led by example and called each of us to love in the way that he loves. I think that this topic is one of the most talked about but often times the least practiced. The church preaches and prays for love and understanding but I think that a lot of the time they fail to open their eyes and see the abundant opportunities to love. We spend so much time convincing ourselves that nothing is wrong, that there are no people who are suffering or who are in obvious need. When relating to the story in Luke chapter 10 we have become like those who simply walked by, who turned to look the other way. The world today has cultured a type of bubble reality in which we only allow the few people and places in our “bubble” to affect us in any way and if it’s not directly happening in our bubble, we don’t see it.

One of my biggest downfalls, I feel, is using words like hate and despise. Especially when it is directed at people. As you could imagine, the commandment Jesus tells his followers, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” is a sobering commandment for me. At times, I can’t imagine how I could love my enemy; that being said, I further couldn’t imagine how some people who have it worse than I do love their enemies. Anytime I hear or think about this commandment, it seems that I have to work harder to follow it. The occasion with which this passage was written is Easter, but I don’t think we should wait until then to remember Jesus’s self-sacrificial act of love. Jesus paid the ultimate price for our sins. And yet essentially all we are asked to do is love you enemies? Puts things in perspective for me.

After reading this it reminds me that one of the fundamental Christian characteristics is, or should be, love. Christ not only called us to live into the Christian life, loving in the same manor he himself did, but to show love to everyone. This is why I find the story of the Good Samaritan helpful in this article. We are not called to love when it is ‘convenient’, but to love others at all times. This is the example both Christ and the Good Samaritan set for us. I think we should all, both Christian and non-Christian, should strive to do.

When you think of Jesus what do you think of?

Do you think of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins?
Do you think of church?
Do you think of those bible stories that you heard when you were young?

I think of love.
Jesus to me is love and embodies all that love is supposed to be. It is difficult for me personally to even begin to comprehend his love in its entirety and fully understand what it means to love as Jesus loves. I think that people would agree that the world would be a better place if everyone truly loved their neighbor and loved their enemies. It is difficult to imagine the world like this at this moment, because not everyone loves their neighbor. We live in a society filled with hate and sin. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with all the suffering that happens around me.

Reflecting on the videos we have watched so far in class, I think that it shows how we (humans) do not always love or express love. We have seen lots of suffering and the suffering of the good. Another example that shows pain and suffering is the news. The news is full of stories emphasizing the horrible things that happen all the time around us to people who don’t deserve it.
So where is the love? Where is Jesus some may ask?
These questions are the ones I have always struggled with and I don’t have the answers to. But I do know that I see love and I feel love. Along with all the bad things there are good things. I think part of being a Christian involves trying to love and love the way he loved.

In reading this post, I am reminded that, as Christians, our lives ought to focus on and revolve around how we can love others. As the perfect example of what we strive to be, Jesus embodied the kind of pure and unconditional love we ought to give others. If we truly wish to reflect Jesus and the love he expressed for us in life, death, and after death, then we need to extend our love and acceptance even when it is uncomfortable for us. We are called to love all people, just as Jesus did, and to love them no matter their actions, choices, or lifestyle. We are not meant to decide whether or not someone is our “neighbor,” or what instances we are supposed to express our inner “good Samaritan.” We just are called to love, and to love always. If more people inside and outside the church began to love like Jesus, we would all be better for it.

Just as your post about explaining love to an alien brought forth, so I may mentioned it again in regards to Jesus. Not ever does Jesus stop and give a lecture about what love is, how we should do it, and all of its many discrepancies. Jesus simply loves. He has wise things and specific commands to make about who to love, but in all actuality, he simply acts out the object of our attention: love. I consider myself a ‘doer’ rather than anything else. Therefore, this is how I best understand my savior’s love; acting on what love is in order to be the worlds greatest example of love that it will ever know.

Whenever I hear the story of the Good Samaritan I always think how could someone just ignore a man in need just because they don’t like them. But when I think about how hard it is to love those you don’t like and that have hurt you I have to take a step back and re-look at my life. Jesus calls us to love all, those we like and those we don’t, and that’s one thing I need to work on daily in my life. This was a good blog to remind me of this fact.

The quote, “You shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength…” Is a common quote among Christains and personally, overlooked. I am sure that I am not the only one who could agree that no matter how many times we hear this command from our Lord we don’t take it seriously or into consideration. Not only do we have to love Him fully with one of those but ALL of them. As a Christian, I have found it most hard to simply love like He did because of the humility needed to do so in society today. I am guilty that I fall into this but also vulnerable to admit to it and want to change… Not some of me but all of me! Great post for a great reminder.

Mt. 6:43-44 is one that I really need to hear more often than other Bible verses. It’s really easy for me to love on my friends, feel their pain, and be there for them when they need me, but to do that for my enemies is very difficult for me. It’s hard to remember that God wants us to love our enemies and pray for the ones that are hurting us because we automatically think about the ones we love in our prayers, not the ones that just made fun of us or hurt us in some way. But those are the ones that need it the most and it’s always a good thing to remember that.

This blog really emphasizes what the perfect form of Love is, Jesus Christ. Jesus through his life and teachings taught us how to love ourselves and one another. We must first Love God, and then we must love our neighbors. Those two things sound so simple but for me are often so hard, especially the second one. Sometimes I find it extremely difficult to love my neighbors, my roommates, my friends, or family but when we love each of these people we are showing them the love that God shows us.

This blog really spoke to me. I work in fast food and it is truly hard to show love and compassion to someone who is just angry and does not show love or kindness to you. It’s amazing to read about throughout the Bible just how much love Jesus had for everyone. Even though he was persecuted he still showed love and asked his father not to punish them because they didn’t know what they were doing. I believe this is hard to do as a human alone. I know for instance if I didn’t have God in my life I wouldn’t be able to show love to people because without Jesus’s example and his holy spirit working through me I just couldn’t do it because I would copy what others do. It isn’t easy to show love even though it is one of the most important commandments that God told us to do. Without God I believe there wouldn’t be a lot of love.

Scripture makes it very clear that we are called to imitate the love of Jesus, but for the more formulaic of us, that can be a very intimidating proposition, as scripture does not give us a simple answer for every situation; I don’t think we can ever really know what exactly is the most perfect imitation of Christ’s love in every situation. That being said, I think that the Lord is honored by our attempts to try, and I also believe that the Holy Spirit, the general movements of scripture, and the support of the Church are the only guides that we need to live as close as humanly possible to the example of Christ.

Jesus gave his life to showing people that God is love. Jesus did everything in his power to bring other’s together to a common truth. This truth that God is Love. Jesus brought together tax collectors, martyrs, and fisherman, carpenters, scribes, and doctors to engage them in relationship and forgiveness. It was evident that Jesus’s life was so power with Divine Presence that he fulfilled God’s message to word to love God and each other.
Jesus lived a life of Forgiveness taking on wrong’s that have been done and making them right. This message was evident in the parables Jesus told like the one in Luke 16. In this parable Jesus was with pharisees and tax collectors who were discussing Jesus for welcoming sinners and eating with them. He told the parable of the lost sheep, prodigal son, and shrewd manager. These stories emphasize God’s value of every being and how it is important to lavish love no matter who it is, nor in what form. For the pharisees this meant money. For us, we have the choice to choose how we allocate all of our resources whether that is money, time, attention, or works. It is our choice to use these for love, which was edified in the most Divine form in Christ Jesus, where he sacrificed his life on Christ for all Humanity. God is love.

The sacrifice of love that Jesus made on the cross required Him to be forsaken by His Father. This is something that, as we walk through life as Jesus’ disciples, we will never have to experience. The agony of being separated from the love of the Father is something that Jesus suffered on our behalf, so that we would never have to. Love sometimes causes us to feel pain. But in the midst of any pain that we experience in this life, is the presence of God and a loving Savior who can honestly say to us, “I know what it’s like to be human and to suffer as you are suffering.” Our God does not pity us; but instead He empathizes with us as someone who went through it Himself and also goes through it all with us. That is Jesus’ loving choice. In God’s choice to be present with us, God chooses to experience our pain. When we choose to take the risk of love, that also many times means experiencing the pain of others. This is not comfortable. But it can be very joyful. I believe that God takes joy in being with us, whatever that means–even if it means being in pain sometimes. And our suffering does cause God to experience pain. I take joy in experiencing love, even though that sometimes means that I feel pain because of it. I will take the pain if it means also receiving the experience of the love. That is (on an infinitely smaller scale) the choice that my Savior made for me.

It is hard to imitate Christ when the example Christ set is so broad. There are so many ways to show Christ’s love in this world. And in this day and age, there are so many people who need love. This can almost be overwhelming. I think Paul realized this when he wrote to the Corinthians about the many different gifts each person receives through the Holy Spirit. Each of us are called to use our God given gifts to show God’s love to people in different ways and each of us may reach a different population set as well. One person does not have to do it all. I think this should ease the minds of those who go out to spread the love of God to all they meet, knowing that others are helping cover the ground they cannot cover.

I’m thinking right now about Yeshua and the Canaanite woman with the demon-possessed daughter in the gospel according to Matthew: Yeshua wasn’t very kind to her–at first. And while various theological interpretations can be offered to explain this, at heart I think it suggests that even Yeshua’s love wasn’t “perfect”: he would have originally sent her away on the basis that dogs shouldn’t eat food intended for children. Only when the woman replies that dogs deserve the crumbs does he commend her faith and heal her daughter.

I guess I propose this because I tend to look more towards Yeshua the man who was (I think–but then again, I’m not-quite Christian in an orthodox or traditional sense) fully human: I think he made mistakes. I think he had moments of anger. I think he had moments of impatience. I don’t necessarily think his love was “perfect”–except to say that in the end, he fulfilled what his God was calling him to do: to love, unceasingly, as best as he could. And I think, regardless of faith or how we conceive of God (if we do at all), I suppose that’s all our purpose on this earth: to love and show compassion to all, unceasingly, as best that we are able, and hopefully in progression from moments in our pasts when we’ve failed to do so.

(Also, I would love to second Kyle’s point about Yeshua’s Jewishness and how a Jewish understanding of love–particularly of love between God and humanity–is perhaps different, even fundamentally so, from what Christianity has come to see as love.) 🙂

I’m thinking the same thing reading this post as I did hearing this passage from Luke today: why aren’t we given more specific direction regarding self-love? Luke is clear about love directed toward God. It is complete. It is whole—the whole heart, soul, and mind. The kit and the caboodle! But then we are prompted to love our neighbor . . . as our self? What doe that mean? Even the example of the Samaritan doesn’t really tell us what loving our self looks like. Are we to assume that the whole and holistic love we direct toward God is the model of all kinds of love? Why doesn’t Luke, in quoting Jesus, say that? Why didn’t Jesus say, ”Love your neighbor and love your self as you would love your God?” If this is so central, why isn’t there more?

I wonder if we need to spend more time, in an historical-critical way, seating the conversation about love within the Hebrew scripture, as a phenomenon deeply rooted (as is the case for the Gospels) in Second-Temple Judaism? Rather than continuing to rely upon Christian interpretation (in the works of people like Augustine and Anders Nygren, for example) why don’t we go back to Christianity’s primary antecedents in Jewish literature and scripture for more answers about God’s love, and in turn, our love direct back toward God or others?

You bring up the inclusivity of God’s love (Mt 5:43-48) which we are still wrestling with today, and don’t shy away from the controversial nature of God’s love. I completely agree that Jesus pushes us to love the unlovely, and this is something that cannot be emphasized enough. This can even greatly inform our self-love.

I’m also surprised to realize that I’ve never heard what Paul said in Romans 13, (“Owe no one anything,” Paul writes to the Christians in Rome, “except to love one another”) in the way I did when reading this article. This has profound implications on how we are to be relationally.

I affirm that Jesus can be seen as a model of how best to love and see that the ways that Jesus pushes us to love those for whom we would not naturally love as a really important message. I think it was important in that time to talk about it as individuals were being cast out of societies for reasons that were beyond themselves or were not for the community to judge them for. I see this still being an important thing for us to understand and that loving the unlovable or unlovely as the passages you brought up requests of us can help us. I think this is something we need to remember to do at all times as Christians within our own faiths as well as with those from other traditions. We all too often discount others because they do not share our views and we see that as ugliness but in loving them despite that and in spite of that we can love them into a place of reconciliation but without love, we will never find reconciliation with them. I would only caution against seeing everyone who disagrees with us as unlovely because then we tread on a slippery slope, for we may be the one who has the unlovely beliefs in this case. It is important in these cases to love as Jesus did because we are commanded to love our neighbors regardless of how they treat us or how we feel about them. The commandment of love is bigger than ourselves and our nature.
I’m not sure that this was anything with great resolution, it was however, the reflection I had coming out of reading this piece.