This document discusses Jesus' teachings on love. It notes that Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus showed unconditional love for all people, even sinners. The document urges Christians to learn from Jesus' example of sacrificial love by doing good works motivated by love for God and others. It emphasizes that without love, good works are worthless. Christians should pray for God's spirit to empower them to love others as Jesus loved.

1. Love like Jesus – 11th February 2016
“A new commandI give you:Love one another.As I have lovedyou, soyou must love one another.
35
By this everyone will know that youare my disciples,ifyoulove one another.” (John13:34-35).
Years ago, a man walked the earth and revealed a life so unique it became the central point in
human history. A man, 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, “Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own advantage;7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the
very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as
a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
(Philippians 2:5-8).
Though He was human and divine, the Son of Man had nothing in the natural that would have
attracted others to him. Yet in three years, He healed the sick, fed the poor, ministered to the
brokenhearted, cast out evil spirits, brought sight to the blind, and gave hope to the hopeless.
His message was radical, and His love, unparalleled… because no one in human history taught
people on the absolute necessity for love. We can learn of many of Jesus teachings on the need
for love through the gospels. Of these teachings one takes great importance as we can learn
from Mark 12:31: “Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than
these.”
According to Jesus teachings, sinners, people who have deviated from their relationship with
God, great pastors or even Kings and Queens’ were the same to Him, because all were equally
deserving of love because God. Jesus is the very definition and the author of Love, and
therefore could do no less. When we read His teachings found in the gospels, He told us to live
simply, to give generously, and to love unconditionally. Taking this further we can learn when
the apostle Paul teaches: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I
am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom
all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have
love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I
may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. ...He clearly states that although One may be a
great achiever but without love in ones heart…he or she is worth nothing. Jesus the very author
of love states this. “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I
may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing...”
We can learn when Jesus told His disciples: "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down
one’s life for one’s friends" (John 15:13). These are not simply words like what we hear around
us in the world today. He did this…due to His love for us, Jesus became the atoning sacrifice for
our sin for our redemption. We need to remind ourselves that in those terrible hours Jesus
hung on the cross, it was all about love. We can't comprehend that kind of all consuming, all-
powerful Love, because none of us can ever do it ourselves. Therefore we must be thankful for
God’s love sacrifice and therefore as Christians learning to live in wholehearted response to it.

2. So how do we do that? We can learn this in Colossians 1:10: "So that you may live a life worthy
of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the
knowledge of God”.
It's clear that we please God by bearing fruit. But what kind of fruit? It is referring to the results
that come from every good work. We can learn from Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God’s
handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to
do.." As Christians we must know that our lives are not simply to “live through” but ‘to do good
works, which God prepared in advance for us to do’ This is our purpose… we have been
gloriously restored by the Resurrection and through which should flow naturally from our
restored identity of being born anew. Good works by themselves cannot save us, but without
the fruit of good works, we lack the evidence that identifies us as new creations in Christ! Just
as God's nature is revealed in what He does, we reveal our relationship with God by the good
deeds that we do. Our good works should result through our Love for God…because without
love in One’s heart, we will not do good works as God desires from us…Without love in their
hearts they will be embroiled with sinful works instead!
What are these good works? While feeding the poor, clothing the naked and visiting the needy,
among a host of other good deeds that we can do, are expressions of the Christian life. For a
deeper understanding one can read the Word with the sole intent of identifying every action
referred to as "good works" that both Jesus and His disciples taught and also practiced. Then
we need to pray that His Holy Spirit will empower us to "go and do likewise!"...to love like
Jesus.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:

3. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
( Romans 5).