(Living as Jesus Lived) 4. Living in Love

We have seen that God is both Light and Love. The glory of God was seen in the Lord Jesus, full of Light as well as of Love. Light and Love are inseparable. True holiness is full of love and true love is perfectly pure. They are distinguished here only for purposes of our own understanding.

If one claims to have holiness but does not manifest divine love, then what he has is not genuine holiness but Pharisaical 'righteousness.' Those on the other hand, who claim to have great love for everybody but who don't live in purity and righteousness, are also deceived into mistaking their wishy-washy sentimentality for divine love.

The Pharisees had a 'righteousness' that was starchy and dry. They were like bony skeletons - hard and repulsive. They had some truth, but all warped and out of proportion.

Jesus had all the truth. He stood for every jot and tittle of the law of God more than the Pharisees did. But He was not just bones. The bones were covered over with flesh, as God intended human beings to be - the Light was enveloped by Love. He spoke the truth, but He spoke it in love (Ephesians 4:15). His words had authority, but they were gracious too (Luke 4:22, 36).

This is the nature that the Holy Spirit desires to communicate to us and to manifest through us.

God IS Love. It is not that He just acts lovingly. He IS in His very essence LOVE. The glory of God as seen in Jesus, manifests this clearly. Jesus did not just perform acts of love. He went about "doing good" (Acts 10:38). But that was because the love of God flooded His whole being.

Love has its origin, like holiness and humility, in our inner man. It is from the innermost being of the Spirit-filled man that the rivers of life flow (John 7:38, 39). Our thoughts and attitudes (even if never expressed) give an odour to our words and actions and to our personality. And others can easily detect this odour. Words and acts of love count for nothing, if our thoughts and attitudes to others remain selfish and critical. God desires "truth in the innermost being" (Psalms 51:6).

Jesus placed a high value on all human beings and therefore respected all men. It is easy to respect the godly and the cultured and the intelligent. We can even think that we have attained to great heights when we love all our fellow-believers in Christ. But the glory of God was seen in Jesus' love for all men. Jesus never despised anyone for his poverty, ignorance, ugliness or lack of culture. He specifically stated that the whole world and all that it contained was not as valuable as one human soul (Mark 8:36). That was how He valued men. And so He delighted in all men. He saw men deceived and bound by Satan; and He longed to set them free.

So great was this longing born of love, that He was willing to pay the ultimate price to free men from sin's grip over their lives. And because He was willing to die for men to save them from their sins, He earned the right to preach against sin forcefully. We have no right to preach against sin, if either we have not judged that sin in our own flesh and overcome, or if we are unwilling to die (if need be) to save others from the sin that we preach against. This is what it means to "speak the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15).

It is the warmth of love in the words that we speak that produces fruit for the glory of God in others. Although there is plenty of light at the North and South Poles, nothing grows there, because of the lack of warmth.

Jesus saw clearly the relative value of people and material things. He knew that people had been made to be loved, and things to be used. Due to the perverting influence of sin, that order has been reversed in the world, and things are loved and people used (for one's own ends).

Jesus saw that people were far more important than things. He loved men so greatly that He identified completely with them, and made them feel wanted. He shared their burdens and had words of kindness for the downtrodden, and words of encouragement for those defeated in life's battles. Never would He consider any human being as worthless. They may be crude or coarse, but they were still people who needed to be redeemed.

Things, on the other hand, mattered nothing at all to Him. Material things have no value at all unless they are used for the benefit of others. One can imagine that if a neighbour's child walked into Jesus' carpenter-shop and broke something expensive, it would not have disturbed Jesus in any way, because the child was far more valuable and important than the thing broken. He loved people, not things. Things were to be used to help people.

The Holy Spirit renews our mind so that we might "see things as it were from God's point of view" (Colossians 1:9 - Phillips). To love a person is to see him as God sees him - with compassion.

God rejoices over His people with singing (Zephaniah 3:17). And since Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God, He shared His Father's joy over His children. So too will it be with all whose minds are renewed to look at people from God's point of view. The thoughts that Jesus thought of other people were always and consistently thoughts of love - never thoughts of criticism for their awkwardness or their crudeness. People were therefore able to detect the sweet fragrance of His spirit, "and the common people heard Him gladly" (Mark 12:37 - KJV). This is the love that God floods our heart with when we are filled with the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

Jesus was constantly moved with compassion towards the sick, the needy, the hungry and the shepherdless. He made their misery His, and thus was able to comfort them. We can comfort the misery of others only in the measure in which we have identified ourselves with it. Jesus was sensitive to the unspoken needs of others, because He used His imagination to put Himself in their situations and thus was able to understand their problems. He was greatly grieved once, when He saw men so hardhearted that they did not have any compassion for a needy man (Mark 3:5).

In His relationships with men, Jesus constantly died to Himself. He was never offended by anything that anyone did or said to Him. Nor was He ever offended by the failure of others to do something for Him, for He never expected anything from others. He did not come to be served but to serve.

Because He bore the cross daily, Jesus was never irritated with anyone, however crude or stupid he might be. The slowness of others never got on His nerves, nor did untidiness, disorderliness and carelessness in others, ever make Him impatient. The perfect man can easily bear with imperfect people. Only imperfect people find the imperfection of others to be intolerable! Patience is one of the greatest manifestations of our love for others.

Consider the glory of Jesus' love, in His speech.

Jesus never belittled others or passed remarks or jokes about them that hurt them. He never made any subtle wounding statements. He never discussed the shortcomings of His disciples behind their backs. It is truly amazing that in three years, He never exposed Judas before the other eleven disciples - for even at the last supper, the eleven could not guess who was going to betray their Master.

Jesus used His tongue to encourage and admonish others, thereby making His tongue an instrument of life in God's Hand. He used His tongue to speak soothing words to the weary (Isaiah 50:4), and also as a sword to cut down the proud and the haughty (Isaiah 49:2).

How greatly encouraged the Roman centurion and the Syrophoenician woman must have felt when they heard Jesus praise them for their faith, publicly (Matthew 8:10; 15:28). The sinful woman who was praised for her love (Luke 7:47) and Mary of Bethany who was praised for her sacrificial offering (Mark 14:6) would never have forgotten the words of Jesus.

How strengthened Peter must have been through Jesus' assurance that He would pray for him (Luke 22:32). Just a few words, but what strength and encouragement they conveyed.

Many others must have heard words from Jesus' lips that lifted their weary spirits, for it says in Isaiah 50:4 that Jesus listened daily to His Father's voice so that He might have an appropriate word for the weary souls that came across His path each day.

The righteousness of Jesus was not one that gave Him a gloomy appearance. No. He was anointed with the oil of gladness (Hebrews 1:9). He had such overflowing joy on the eve of His crucifixion, that He could say to His apostles, "....hat my joy may be in you" (John 15:11). He went everywhere spreading that joy to joyless, dreary souls.

He was gentle with all men, never breaking a battered reed or quenching a dimly burning wick, (Matthew 12:20). He saw the good points in weak, sinful people and hoped for the best in everyone. He was the sort of person one longed to be with, for He was understanding, kind and gentle. Only the proud and those with secret sin avoided Him.

The love of Jesus was not sentimental. It sought the highest good of others. And so He did not hesitate to give a word of admonition where He saw that there was need for such a word. He rebuked Peter for trying to turn Him away from the cross - and that too with such strong words as, "Get behind Me, Satan" (Matthew 16:23).

He rebuked James and John for seeking places of honour and for wanting to take revenge on the Samaritans (Matthew 20:22, 23; Luke 9:55). And He rebuked His disciples seven times for their unbelief.

Jesus was never afraid of speaking the truth, even if it hurt others, for His heart was filled with love for them. He was not concerned whether His reputation for kindness would be lost by speaking strong words. He loved others more than Himself and so He was willing to sacrifice His reputation in order to help them. Therefore He spoke the truth firmly, lest men be ruined eternally. The eternal welfare of men mattered far more to Him than their opinions of Him.

Peter described the ministry of Jesus as "going about doing good" (Acts 10:38). Truly, this summed up His life. He was not just a good preacher, nor was He just interested in winning souls. He loved the total man, and did good wherever He went, both to the bodies and the souls of men.

His enemies, taunting Him, called Him, "a friend of tax-collectors and sinners" (Luke 7:34), and that was exactly what He was, a friend of the most despised people in society.

It is not natural for man to go around doing good and befriending the outcasts of society. Even when this is done, it is often done with self-centred motives. But Jesus' love for the outcasts and friendless was selfless and pure.

We cannot manifest the nature of Christ by cultural refinement, but only by dying to that which is natural, and receiving that which is divine from the Holy Spirit.

The love of Jesus enabled Him to serve His disciples joyfully, and to do dirty jobs for them - like washing their feet. This was not done to impress them with His humility, but was the natural outflow of His love for them.

Human goodness and love invariably have some ulterior motive, such as seeking honour or some other selfish reason. It is corrupt at its source. It is divine love alone that is uncorrupted. Jesus did not do good with any thought of personal gain. His goodness was a manifestation of the nature of His Father Who "gives His sunlight to both the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust too" (Matthew 5:45 - TLB).

God's nature is to do good and to give and give and give. That is as natural to Him as it is for the sun to shine. This was the glory manifested in the life of Jesus. He constantly did good, served others, helped others and gave whatever He could to others.

The words in John 13:29 indicate what the disciples had seen of Jesus' use of money throughout His public ministry. They had seen that Jesus used money for two purposes alone: To buy what was needed AND to give to the poor.

Jesus had taught His disciples that "it is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35), and demonstrated by His life that the happiest and most blessed life that a man can live on this earth is one lived totally for God and for others, where he gives himself and his possessions to bless others.

Jesus wept and prayed for those to whom He preached. He wept over Jerusalem, when they would not receive the Word of God. He had wept for the hypocrites in the temple, before going in to use the whip to drive them out (Luke 19:41, 45). Only he who weeps is qualified to use the whip.

No man on earth ever had a more important job to fulfil than Jesus. No man ever packed more useful labour into 3 years of public ministry. Truly, He must have been busy day and night. Yet wonder of wonders, He never appointed a secretary to regulate the access of people to Him! When His disciples tried to act as secretaries for Him, He rebuked them (Mark 10:13-15).

He made Himself freely accessible to all people at all times, though He had a miracle-ministry far exceeding any man's (which fact alone would have made many people make demands on His time).

His relatives thought that He was out of His mind to allow such a situation where He would even ignore eating, in order to have time to minister to people in need (Mark 3:20, 21).

People knew that Jesus was freely approachable. That was why Nicodemus felt free to visit Jesus late at night, after Jesus had finished a busy day of preaching. Nicodemus knew full well that he would be most welcome. Jesus gave that impression to people - that they were welcome to come to Him for help, day or night.

The sick were brought to Him one day after sunset - a great number of them - and Jesus laid His hands on everyone of them (Luke 4:40). That must have taken Him many hours. But He did not try to shorten the process by praying a mass prayer for them. He was interested in each one of them and wanted to give them individual attention. The fact that He was going to thereby miss His dinner and many hours of His sleep did not matter to Him.

Jesus did not consider His time His own. He gave Himself to people wholly. People in need could feed on Him, His time, His possessions, His everything (Isaiah 58:10). He was willing to be inconvenienced, and He was never upset when inconvenienced, or when people intruded into His privacy.

The mighty supernatural gifts of the Spirit that were manifested through Him blessed the people, because the power of God in Him was insulated with God's love and compassion. Miracles without love and compassion can bring spiritual death, like an uninsulated electric wire.

The love and concern of Jesus extended to His relatives according to the flesh, too. He did not have that warped idea of "the Lord's work" that the Pharisees had, who encouraged people who had gone into "full-time ministry" to disregard their needy parents, because they had to "love God more than their parents" (Mark 7:10-13). On the cross, as Jesus was dying, He was thoughtful enough to make provision for His mother's future (John 19:25-27).

Jesus lived so utterly for God and for others that, even when dying, He found time to lead a thief to salvation. Hanging there on the cross, He was unmindful of His own sufferings and of the jeering and hatred of others, and was more concerned that those who crucified Him should have their sin forgiven (Luke 23:34).

Jesus always overcame evil with good. The floods of the hatred of others could not quench the flaming fire of His love (Song 8:7). This is the love that He gives us by His Spirit whereby we can love one another even as He loved us (John 13:34, 35; Romans 5:5). Thus we too shall manifest the divine nature.