The Sacrifice Of Love

Saturday, February 2, 2019 2:54:08 PM

Welcome to this month's blog post. Since February is considered to be a month of love, I would like to talk about love in today's message.

Generally speaking, we live in a culture that has tried to define for us the meaning of love. For the most part, our culture defines love as something that is associated with a fleeting moment and to a large extent even equated with obtaining illicit intimacy. Our culture also tends define love as something selfish, non-sacrificial and lacking commitment.

We need to step back for a moment and ask ourselves some critical questions that our culture does not seem to address. Is there such a thing as selfish, non-committal love? Is it possible to be selfish and at the same time still love God (or someone else)? Is it possible to have love without sacrifice?

The key to answering these questions can be found in John 3:16, which I believe is one of the most famous verses in Bible. Join me as we dig in and dissect this verse.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NIV)

The two key words that we need to look at are the words “loved” and “gave”. The key to understanding these two words lies with us understanding an additional third word. The word is sacrifice which ties both words together in a very unique way. While taking a critical look at this verse, please note the following

  • The Bible does not say that God first gave His Son then loved the world. The action of God “giving” was motivated by one thing. This one thing is His love for the world. The love happened first and then the giving happened second. This clearly shows us that love should be a precursor to giving.
  • Love is always associated with a commitment. When God loved the world, He committed Himself to saving the world through the sacrifice of His Son. When you say that you love God, there has to be a commitment associated with that love that you profess.
  • Love is not necessarily reciprocal. Even though God loved the world, the world in turn did not love Him back. John 1:11 is very clear on this. The scripture says that "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him". God with full foreknowledge that the world would reject His Son, still sent His Son to die for the world. Based on this, we should continue loving people even when they do not reciprocate that love back to us.

Based on John 3:16, the Biblical pattern of true love always involves commitment, selflessness and sacrifice. To further clarify this point, love always has a level of sacrifice associated with it. Sacrifice should always be a product of love.