“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
- The Love We Give Begins With the Love We Receive
1 John 4:19 (NASB)
“We love, because He first loved us.”
Christ does not command love without first pouring love into us. The beginning of obedience is receiving. Before we can give, we must be filled. His love is the well; our love is the overflow. The cross is not only our salvation—it is our supply.
• Love is born from grace, not effort.
• We cannot love well while starving for love ourselves.
• Christ’s love does not ask if we are worthy; it makes us new.
How This Affects Us:
We must sit at Christ’s feet before we stand in Christ’s service. We must abide before we act. We are not called to perform love, but to overflow with the love we have received.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, teach us to receive Your love deeply. Take away the fear that we must earn what You freely give. Let Your love settle into the hidden places of our hearts, healing what is cold, wounded, or closed. Make us vessels of the love You have already given. Amen. - Love Is Commanded, Not Optional
1 John 3:23 (NASB)
“This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.”
The Christian life is obedience. Love is not a suggestion, nor is it a personality trait—it is the command of Christ. We do not wait until we feel loving; we step toward others in obedience to the One who loved us unto death.
• Love is an act of discipleship.
• To refuse love is to resist Christ.
• Love is the visible fruit of surrender.
How This Affects Us:
We are not free to decide whom to love. Every believer is someone Christ died for. Love becomes our yes to His Lordship.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, bend our wills to Yours. Remove the excuses, pride, and preferences we use to avoid loving others. Teach us to love because You command it, and help us to obey with joy. Amen. - Christ Himself Is the Standard of Love
Ephesians 5:2 (NASB)
“Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us.”
We are not left to guess what love looks like. Christ Himself is the model—self-emptying, stooping, forgiving, enduring love. We do not define love; we reflect the love we have seen.
• Love serves, even when unseen.
• Love does not demand equality of effort.
• Love gives because Christ gave first.
How This Affects Us:
Our measure is not how others treat us, but how Christ treats us. We look to His cross, not our feelings.
Prayer:
Jesus, show us Your love afresh. Let the memory of Your cross renew the way we treat others. Shape our hearts after Yours. Amen. - Love Is the Mark of True Discipleship
John 15:12 (NASB)
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”
Discipleship is not proven in sermons, studies, tasks, or positions. It is proven in love. The world recognizes Christ not by our statements but by our relationships.
• Love is our witness.
• Without love, our doctrine is noise.
• Love is the only apologetic that cannot be argued against.
How This Affects Us:
We must examine our hearts: If love does not show, Christ is not being seen.
Prayer:
Lord, make our lives the evidence of Your presence. Let love be the language we speak, the posture we carry, the testimony we give. Amen. - Love Flows From the Spirit, Not Human Strength
Galatians 5:22 (NASB)
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love…”
Christlike love cannot be produced by willpower. It is the Spirit’s work. As we yield, He loves through us.
• The Spirit cultivates what we cannot create.
• Love grows where surrender lives.
• Effort strains, but abiding bears fruit.
How This Affects Us:
Instead of trying harder, we surrender deeper. We ask the Spirit to love through us where we cannot.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, fill us. Where our strength ends, let Your love begin. Work in us what we cannot work in ourselves. Amen. - Love Requires Humility
Philippians 2:3 (NASB)
“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.”
Love kneels. Christ washed feet—love chooses the low place. Pride builds distance; humility builds bridges.
• Love listens.
• Love yields.
• Love lowers itself to lift others.
How This Affects Us:
We must be willing to lose the argument to keep the relationship. We must choose lowering over winning.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, break our pride. Teach us to kneel beside You. Give us grace to serve when our flesh wants to be served. Amen. - Love Forgives
Colossians 3:13 (NASB)
“…forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”
Where people gather, offense comes. Love does not deny wounds—it surrenders them to Christ.
• Love releases bitterness.
• Love lets God handle justice.
• We forgive because we have been forgiven.
How This Affects Us:
We must place our wounds at the foot of the cross. No one owes us more than we owed Christ.
Prayer:
Lord, we give You our hurts. Heal what is broken and soften what has hardened. Let Your forgiveness become our forgiveness. Amen. - Love Shows Itself in Actions
1 John 3:18 (NASB)
“Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.”
Love is concrete. It is expressed in how we respond, speak, serve, and endure.
• Love shows up.
• Love moves toward others.
• Love is visible, not theoretical.
How This Affects Us:
We must turn affection into action. Love must be lived, not admired.
Prayer:
Jesus, make our love real. Let our hands, words, and choices bear witness to Your heart. Amen. - Love Requires Sacrifice
John 15:13 (NASB)
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
Love costs. It demands time, energy, patience, and the death of self-interest.
• Love pays the price.
• Love suffers long.
• Love trusts God to honor what the world overlooks.
How This Affects Us:
We must give without expecting return. The cross teaches us the cost—and the joy—of love.
Prayer:
Lord, teach us to give ourselves away without fear. Let the joy of obedience be our strength. Amen. - Love Builds True Unity
Colossians 3:14 (NASB)
“Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”
Unity is not found in sameness, but in love. Differences do not destroy love—selfishness does.
• Love binds what would otherwise break.
• Love holds fast in tension.
• Love heals what pride divides.
How This Affects Us:
We must choose relationship over preference. Unity is the fruit of love practiced daily.
Prayer:
Lord, make our fellowship a testimony of Your unity. Knit our hearts together in love. Amen. - Love Reveals Christ to the World
Matthew 5:16 (NASB)
“Let your light shine before men…that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
Love is light. When we love, the world sees Christ—not our goodness, but His life.
• Love is evangelism in daily form.
• Love draws where arguments cannot.
• Love makes Christ visible.
How This Affects Us:
Our witness begins at home, in church, with those closest to us. Love is our mission.
Prayer:
Lord, shine through us. Let our lives be windows through which others see You. Amen. - Love Is Sustained by Abiding in Christ
John 15:4 (NASB)
“Abide in Me, and I in you.”
Love runs dry when we disconnect from Christ. Our life and strength flow from remaining near Him.
• Abiding fuels loving.
• Closeness to Christ produces likeness to Christ.
• Love dries up when prayer dries up.
How This Affects Us:
The secret to loving well is staying close to Jesus. When we dwell in Him, love flows naturally.
Prayer:
Jesus, keep us near. Let nothing pull us from Your presence. Make our lives a continual abiding in You, and let Your love flow freely through us. Amen.
How Then We Shall Live
We are called to live from the love we have received in Christ. We begin each day at the cross, letting His love quiet our fears, soften our edges, and cleanse our motives. We go into our relationships as those who have been forgiven, so we forgive. We go as those who have been served, so we serve. We go as those who have been welcomed, so we welcome. Our lives become the witness. Love is no longer occasional or selective—it becomes the pattern, the posture, and the presence of Christ expressed through us. We do not love in our own strength; we yield to the Holy Spirit who pours the love of God into our hearts. And we carry this command not as a burden but as a blessing: we are the vessels through whom Christ is seen.
Love As He Loved
We begin at the cross, where love is given before it is deserved.
Christ does not love us because we are worthy.
His love makes the unworthy new.
His love bends low to serve.
No place was beneath Him.
He shows us that greatness kneels.
His love carries what others drop.
He bore our sin without complaint.
Love bears the weight of another’s burden.
His love forgives before we ask.
His mercy reaches into our refusal.
He breaks the chains we hid behind.
His love stays the course.
He does not withdraw when we fail.
Love remains when it is costly.
His love moves toward the broken.
He sought the hurting, the unseen, the ashamed.
Love goes where pain lives.
His love gives without needing return.
He trusted the Father to remember every sacrifice.
Love does not measure its own offering.
His love makes strangers into family.
Walls fall where Christ is present.
Love binds what pride divides.
His love shines where words fall short.
The world recognizes Him through our care for one another.
Love is the Gospel made visible.
His love flows as we abide in Him.
Without Him, we have nothing to give.
In Him, love becomes our life.