Oct 13th, 2022: Victorious Love is Sacrificial

 

Sometimes I wonder what victory means to many of us. Politicians talk about victories when they defeat other parties in elections. Nations celebrate victories when they destroy their enemies. Sports teams claim victories when they win championships. Christians talk about victories when they believe in being delivered from the bondage of sin.

 

Contemporary strategists consider Jesus' victory over sin as a miserable defeat. Even His disciples didn't understand why He had to die. Somehow the passage Jesus took to win the final victory was full of pain and suffering.

Sometimes I wonder many TV preachers have a different gospel than the teaching Jesus taught us. The ultimate goal of the life of a believer is not happiness or affluence. Our meaningful experience in loving someone is sacrificial and unconditional. We don't have the spiritual fortitude to appreciate that message anymore.

Much of the human experience has become transactional. Our human relationship has become a casualty. We talk about being relational with others to gain something from it. We have lost the freedom to love the way Jesus loves. We have failed to understand that the greatest love does demand that we die for others.

John 15: 13

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

Ephesians 5: 25

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her"

2 Timothy 3: 2

"For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy"