Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: The New Commandment: Love One Another (07/23/26)
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TITLE: WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE | Previous Challenge Entry
By Tracilynn Rodrigues
07/28/26 -
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We can squirm and wiggle our way around loving others, with our own version of what we think love looks like. Jesus removed that option from us when he added that we are to love as He loves us.
Today, we use the word love so loosely in the Western culture that it has lost its meaning and value. We have lowered the standard of love to mere like. We use it to describe how we feel about clothing, food, vehicles, sports, colors, and so on. Do we love things enough to die for them?
We all have heard people say that a dessert is “to die for,” but would you really lay down your life for a tasty treat? Would you run into a burning building to save your golf clubs? Or your favorite dress? Or team’s jersey?
So, when we say to one another, “I love you,” are we really saying I love you enough to lay my life down for you? Or are we saying like Peter, when Jesus questioned him if he loved Him with an unselfish, sacrificial love, “I care about you as someone who shares a common interest.”
We have cheapened the meaning of love, to where you love one person one week and the next week you have moved onto loving someone else. We toss relationships like a used paper plate. What is really lust, we masquerade as love.
Because of this distorted version of love, it is difficult for people to understand the vastness of the love of God. When we tell people, “Jesus loves you,” it runs off them like water on a duck because the word love no longer has depth of meaning.
Jesus exemplified true love.
He showed mercy to the prostitute. He ate with sinners. He defended those whom the religious leaders condemned. He did things that offended the religious leaders because it did not fit into their religious mold. He healed and raised the dead out of a heart stirred with compassion that comes from love. He always looked out for the best interest of others.
He was humble, gentle, and kind.
He left the beauty and wonder of heaven, divested himself of His glory and power, came in the humblest form, yielded to the discipline and training of human parents, was mocked by His own family members and His village, and yielded Himself to the hands of sinners to be killed in the most brutal way.
He did all of it for us…out of love.
Without His life, we would not know how to live.
Without His death, our sins could never be forgiven. It was the only way sinful man could have a relationship with a holy God.
Jesus said that the greatest love there is, is to lay down your life for your friend. He calls us friends if we do what He commands us.
His life is a picture of what love looks like because He is love.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
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