Sacrificial Love
How do we recognize love when we see it? Well, “God [the Father] so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” [John 3:16] “By this we know love, that [God’s Son] laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” [1 John 3:16] One of the most obvious characteristics of love is self sacrifice. We cannot love others and selfishly hold on to our lives at the same time. For those we truly love, we will give up our comfort, our goals, our desires, and even our lives.
This amazing love is not just for our spouse, parents, siblings, and children but is also to be shown to all our brothers and sisters in Christ. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” [Phil. 2:1-8]
