Last week we talked about how important
it is to be steadfast in our love for God, regardless of our situation. We used Job as our model who remained
faithful to God in the midst of incredible pain and hardship.
Well, this week I would like to talk
about another love that should also have no strings attached – our love for
others.
Our love for others is often dependent
on how they treat us. We live in a
tit-for-tat world. You scratch my back,
I’ll scratch yours. If you love me, I’ll
love you. We yield love as a reward that
has to be earned based on performance.
If someone doesn’t live up to our expectations or behave a certain way,
we will withhold our love and affection from them. Oh sure, maybe we will never admit it with
our lips, but how often do our actions betray us? A little silent treatment here, a little cold
shoulder there.
Enter Jesus. Romans 5:8 says “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still
sinners, Christ died for us.”
Jesus showed love to us while we were
still enemies of the cross. He
demonstrated love first and without receiving anything in return. He didn’t withhold His love until we met some
certain expectations. Instead, He
lavished His love upon us before we thought one good thought towards Him, and
He continues to do so on a daily basis regardless of our actions or behavior.
In his book One Way Love, Tullian
Tchividjian writes ”The older I get, the more smitten I become by the fact that
God’s love for me, His approval and commitment to me, does not ride on my
transformation but on Jesus’s substitution.
Jesus is infallibly devoted to us in spite of our inconsistent devotion
to him.”
In our performance-based culture, let’s
choose to freely love others without expecting to receive anything in return,
either before or after. No strings
attached!
When we do that, we are pointing others
to greatest act of one-way love ever demonstrated.
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