Love Like Jesus

God is love. Agape. God's perfect love makes us complete and frees us from fear. Perfect love cast out fear so that we can love others as God loves us. 

“In the days...there was a famine in the land. So a man...went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died...Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud...but Ruth clung to her. Ruth replied, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die...I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me" Ruth 1:1-21

Loss is hard. We all experience loss. Naomi left her home with a husband and sons to avoid death only for all three of them to die in a foreign land. How do you respond to loss? Where do you turn when your dreams die or all your hope feels like it is gone? 

Naomi could not see through her pain, but God was working. She blamed God and said He afflicted her. What she missed was how God was working in that moment through Ruth. What are you going through today? Do you know anyone else who is having a Naomi moment? How could you love like Ruth? In this chapter, we do not know much about Ruth other than she has a faithful, compassionate heart. Isn't that all it takes to love others well? 

“O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God. See how your enemies growl, how your foes rear their heads. Cover their faces with shame, Lord, so that they will seek your name. Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord— that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.”

Psalms 83:1-2, 16, 18 

Silence can be deafening. Can you relate to silent moments? Moments where you want to hear from God, but only hear crickets? It can cause you to question God's timing, His character, and His plans.  In the moments where we are feeling, attacked or overwhelmed by life, it is easy to question God. 

One of the things we can learn from David is how he handles difficult situations.  How does he respond when facing adversity, an enemy, or something that should make him afraid? He turns to God. He trusts God. He continues to pray that God would be glorified through all the seasons of life. Is that your approach? Or do you tend to look inward and want to avoid the Almighty? Naomi turned away from God and did not know what to do. 

“The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end. The poor and the oppressor have this in common: The Lord gives sight to the eyes of both. Discipline your children, and they will give you peace; they will bring you the delights you desire. An angry person stirs up conflict, and a hot-tempered person commits many sins. Pride brings a person low, but the lowly in spirit gain honor. Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” Proverbs 29:7-25

The beautiful thing about perfect love is the motivation behind why. Perfect love does not love because of what I can get from someone or something. Perfect love seeks to give, restore, serve, and bring life. Solomon says the righteous seek justice for the poor. This is the opposite of what the world teaches. The poor can never pay you back and they cannot stand up for themselves. In our story, Naomi had lost everything. She had lost all security and all future hope. 

Ruth is a woman after God's own heart. She stays, serves, and loves the person who can do nothing for her because it is the right thing to do. Perfect loves is generous, patient, and kind. It is not self-seeking, it is life giving. It does not require a bachelor's degree, but simply has a heart that says you belong to me. 

She is a woman of great humility and her life demonstrates one who trust in the Lord. Don't miss the great faith demonstrated by Ruth. By choosing Naomi, she's choosing a life of poverty and difficulty. She doesn't have any guarantee that things will work out. Most people would be terrified at the idea of not having any guarantee or security. Ruth just loved. 

The safe play would be to get remarried, but she doesn't play it safe, she chooses to simply love the other person the best way she knows how to love them. Shouldn't that be our call? Shouldn't that be our approach? What if every day we simply asked ourselves what is the most loving thing we can do in this moment? 

“Speak...to the remnant of the people. Ask them, ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? Does it not seem to you like nothing?...Be strong...Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’ I will shake all nations...I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty...give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid...and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.””

Haggai 2:2-5, 7-9, 18, 23 

When you look at your life, what do you see?  We have such a limited perspectives and so easily can allow fear to impact our ability to see.  It is easy to get sucked into the sensation that the good time have already passed and lose hope. God never works that way.  He says look at what you see and believe me when I tell you the best is yet to come. Naomi could not see ahead beyond her pain, but that does not mean God did not have great plans for her.  Often He uses our pain to fuel our purposes, and he uses other people to protect our love. 

Will you receive the words that he gave today?  Be strong! Be strong and courageous for I am with you. If God is with you who can come against you. Is there any reason to ever be afraid if God is with us? He says I am doing a new thing. He says I am the one who has all authority, all provision, all power. He says I will fill the temple with my glory, and the new will be better than the old. Do you believe this for your life? Do you believe that he will fill you with his glory and do a new thing in your life? 

God says consider the foundation. For us the foundation is Jesus Christ. Is upon him that we build our lives, center our lives, and learn what it means to love well.  He says I have chosen you and place my signet ring on you. He gives us authority and equipped us that we might become love to the world. We are meant to be Christians, little Christs. 

It all starts with centering our life in Christ, rooting our life in Him, and abiding with Him so that we receive power. What are you doing today to draw closer to him? Is He your center? Is He your foundation? Or do you like to segment to your life and have times where you might turn to God and then the rest of the time do things in your own strength? 

“You, dear children, are from God... the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world...let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins...since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen."

1 John 4:4, 7-21

Love can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.  What does it mean to you when you read the text and it says God is love? What does it mean to you when you read the perfect love cast out all fear? Do you believe this? 

The Greek word used here as agape, and it is the key. The greatest model for agape is Jesus Christ.  He is the author and perfector of our faith. We live in a world that loves to turn love into an emotion or a lustful action, but that is not at all what is meant by agape. 

Each of us were made uniquely by the hand of God. He sees you and he knows you. He made you perfectly to be able to bring perfect love into this world by how you serve others with the gifts that you've been given.  The world needs you. You are the only you and only you can bring love into the world the way you've been made. Agape is perfect love that is made perfect through serving others. 

One of the most important things to learn is to love people as they need to be loved not as we prefer to love. This is emotional intelligence 101. This is hard for us. Consider how gracefully, beautifully, and truthfully Jesus has loved you. He met you where you were and met you with amazing grace. But he did not leave you there, and he does not leave us where we are because he has such a higher calling for us. He chooses us and places a signet ring on our fingers so that we might become love to the world. 

How will you love others today?  Who could you, like Ruth, spend time with and make sure they know that they are not alone. Who is experiencing loss that needs a steady supportive hand? Who is poor or experiencing injustice that you could encourage? How is fear impacting your life and what could spending more time with God do to reduce your fears? God speaks to us directly and says be strong. I am with you. Love is with you and you can rely on that love in order to love others.

John says if you hate anyone then your love is not made complete. Is there anyone in your life who you do not love? Why? Do you want the leave things the way they are or do you want to find healing? John says how can you say you love God if you don't love the people right in front of you. None of us are perfect, but God is.

Perhaps you are like Naomi and feeling stuck. Look up and look around you and you will see that God has already put people in your life to help you walk through this season. No matter where you are God wants to take you to a better place and help you have confidence that the best is yet to come.  He wants to equip, empower, and encourage you to bring His love to someone who needs it today. So let us learn to love like Ruth and live in a way where we bring the love of Christ at all times to all the people of meet.