Volume 49: A Perfect Display Of Love

A PERFECT DISPLAY OF LOVE

Someone I love dearly recently called me “a real one” because of the sacrifices I make for others. But honestly, I refuse to live any other way. To me, love is not proven by what we say when everybody is watching. It is revealed by what we do when somebody is hurting, lacking, forgotten, or unable to repay us.

Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). He did not say people would recognize His disciples by their titles, knowledge, gifts, or church attendance. The unmistakable evidence of discipleship is sacrificial love.

LOVE CROSSES THE ROAD

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, a priest and a Levite saw a wounded man and passed by. The Samaritan “had compassion on him,” treated his wounds, carried him to safety, paid for his care, and promised to cover any additional expense (Luke 10:30–35).

The priest and Levite saw a problem. The Samaritan saw a person.

Real love is willing to be interrupted. It crosses the road, gets close to the pain, spends its own resources, and helps carry what the wounded person cannot carry alone.

LOVE GOES AFTER THE ONE

Jesus asked, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine…and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” (Luke 15:4).

Love notices when someone is missing, wandering, or spiritually lost. It does not remain comfortable with the ninety-nine while one person is alone in the wilderness. Love goes looking. Love checks the house, calls the phone, visits the hospital, brings the meal, pays attention, and refuses to let one suffering person disappear in the crowd.

LOVE SUPPLIES THE LACK

“But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” (1 John 3:17).

There are times when prayer is exactly what someone needs—but prayer should never become an excuse for withholding what God has already placed within our hands. James said that telling someone, “Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled,” without supplying what the body needs is useless (James 2:15–16).

If I have food and you are hungry, love shares it.

If I have room and you need shelter, love makes space.

If I have strength and you are weak, love helps carry you.

If I have resources and you are in genuine need, love does not merely offer religious words.

LOVE HELPS CARRY PEOPLE TO JESUS

When a paralyzed man could not reach Jesus, four people carried him. When the crowd blocked the door, they climbed onto the roof, opened it, and lowered him down before Christ (Mark 2:1–5).

That is love in real time. Sometimes people are too wounded, discouraged, ashamed, or exhausted to reach Jesus without help. Love carries them. Love refuses to let obstacles have the final word. Love will tear open a roof if necessary to place somebody at the feet of Christ.

The first believers understood this. They shared their possessions so that “neither was there any among them that lacked” (Acts 4:34). Their love was not merely preached—it could be seen, felt, and experienced.

“Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). The perfect display of love is not only saying, “I love you.” It is making sure the person can see it. So ask yourself: Am I really “a real one”?