How to Love Like Jesus

Scripture contains many references on how to love. We are admonished to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, and strength. We are told to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We are told that God loved the world so much that He gave His Only Begotten Son. John 3:16

Lots of verses on love. So, what does the scripture mean by the word? The key passage for understanding love from a biblical perspective is Matthew 22:34-40.

The primary principle of the Christian life is loving God totally. Although we have heard this truth often, do we really know what it means to love God? How do you do it? What does it feel like?

I start by drawing your attention to loving God as the beginning point, as you cannot love others with the love of Jesus if you don’t first know how to love God properly. As Jesus did when He was on earth; His first concern is loving His Father and bringing Him honor and praise.

All too often, our priorities in relationships are self-focused. We want to feel loved, we want to feel happy, we want emotional satisfaction, and we tend to love all too conditionally while reserving parts of ourselves. We do this especially because we fear rejection and pain.

Usually, what happens when we do these things is that we create conditions in which we almost guarantee rejection and pain.

Jesus didn’t reserve any part of Himself from the Father.

To love God is to self-sacrificially commit oneself to delight in Him, to rejoice in serving Him, to desire continually to please Him, to seek one’s happiness in Him, and to thirst day and night for a fuller enjoyment of Him. Therefore committing ourselves to God without reservation is the only way to love like Jesus.