Learning to Love Like Christ

IWM Devotion: Learning to Love Like Christ 
Scripture: John 13:34–35, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Word For Today

We live in a world that is quick to judge and even quicker to write people off. But as believers, we are called to a completely different standard. Just like we read in John 13:34–35, Jesus gives us a command that is both incredibly simple and incredibly challenging. And if we notice, we will see that Jesus didn’t say people would know we are His disciples by our theology, our church attendance, or how perfect our lives look. Our only true trademark is how we love each other.

But if we are honest, what does that love really look like? Have you ever seen a sister going through a massive crisis, and instead of lifting her up, people look at her with a bent nose? There's this unspoken, ugly assumption. Or maybe you see someone drowning in pain, and instead of getting into the trenches with them, giving them space to breathe, and quietly interceding, people turn their pain into a spectator sport. If we aren't careful, our prayer requests can easily turn into gossip sessions.

Let me be real with us sisters, if you cannot pray for someone, it is better to just leave them alone. Do not mock them, do not talk badly about them behind their back. In fact, I want you to hear this clearly today, every single time you talk badly about someone, you are grieving the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God lives inside of us, and it breaks His heart when we use our mouths to tear down someone He died to save. We cannot claim to be filled with the Spirit while pouring out poison about our brothers and sisters.

There is something we so easily forget when we are doing well, life hits everyone differently. It should never bring us a shred of comfort or gain to see another human being suffering. When we feel comfortable watching someone else drown, we have completely lost the plot. Having a heart like Christ means training your eyes to see people exactly the way God sees them. It means choosing to intercede and stand in the gap for them when they are too weak to stand for themselves. This reflects what I've learned from the environment I was raised in, where you pray for everyone and love others equally as you love yourself.

People are going to look at you and say you’re doing too much. Let them talk, keep loving anyway. Show them the exact same relentless love that God showed us. Remember, the scripture reminds us that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. He didn't wait for us to fix our mistakes before He chose to love us.

No matter what that person did, we have to look past the wreckage and see them through the lens of Christ. Hate the sin, but love the person fiercely. Fight the spirit behind the confusion, but stop shooting at the people. Never write anyone off, and don't let anyone else convince you to do it either.

At the end of the day, every single one of us deserves love. None of us is qualified to cast the first stone. Now, let’s be completely honest with ourselves, loving people this way is humanly impossible. Our natural instinct is to judge, to protect ourselves, and to gossip when someone slips up. We cannot love like Christ using our own willpower.

That is why we need a supernatural heart transplant. In Ezekiel 36:26, God makes a beautiful promise, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

If you try to love broken people with a cold, hardened heart of stone, you will always end up bruising them. A heart of stone is rigid, judgmental, and easily offended; it’s the kind of heart that whispers gossip and grieves the Spirit. But when you let God break that stone away, He replaces it with a heart of flesh, a heart that is soft, sensitive, easily moved by compassion, and capable of holding someone else’s pain without judgment.

We don't need to try harder to love; we need to surrender deeper so that the Spirit of Christ can love through us. When we let Him trade our heavy, stony hearts for His heart of flesh, standing in the gap for a hurting sister stops being a chore; it becomes our natural reflex.

Prayer

Please, Lord, teach me how to truly love Your people. Forgive me for the times I have looked down on others, judged them, or treated them as anything less than who You created them to be. Give me Your eyes to see them, Your heart to feel for them, and Your grace to stand in the gap for them. Break my heart for what breaks Yours, and make me a safe place for hurting souls. Amen