Loving and Following Jesus Fully
Jesus was the master of communication. His words are so important, and He did not want to lead anyone in the wrong way. That is why it surprises us to hear Jesus say that we must hate people to be His disciples and follow Him. (Luke 14:26,27) What does He mean? It must be essential for us to understand, or He would not have used such drastic language.
I believe that love means to put the other person first, before ourselves and anyone or anything else, so that we strive to please them, and we obey them because of our love, not out of obligation. Therefore, to fully love Jesus He has to come first above anyone or anything else, whether it is family or even ourselves. That means that what we have for others is not fully love, because we do not put them first. However, when we put Jesus first and fully love Him, He commands us and empowers us to love others, even our enemies. Then, we are loving them well, and we are keeping them in the proper perspective in our life.
Also, when we love Jesus fully, and we hate our own lives, we will take up the cross to die to self or even to die physically for Him, because we do put Him first. Also, this enables us to fully follow Him without distractions of the flesh, the world, or the Devil. We are fully focused on Him, and we follow immediately out of sincere love.
I know that achieving this type of love is a daily commitment, but remember love is a choice, not a feeling. We can choose to fully love and follow Jesus every day, after trusting Him as Lord and Savior. Then, we will grow each day to be more like Him, and to be able to love Him with His unselfish love. We can love others in that way, too, as long as we love Him fully and follow Him fully.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Luke 15-18.
I believe that love means to put the other person first, before ourselves and anyone or anything else, so that we strive to please them, and we obey them because of our love, not out of obligation. Therefore, to fully love Jesus He has to come first above anyone or anything else, whether it is family or even ourselves. That means that what we have for others is not fully love, because we do not put them first. However, when we put Jesus first and fully love Him, He commands us and empowers us to love others, even our enemies. Then, we are loving them well, and we are keeping them in the proper perspective in our life.
Also, when we love Jesus fully, and we hate our own lives, we will take up the cross to die to self or even to die physically for Him, because we do put Him first. Also, this enables us to fully follow Him without distractions of the flesh, the world, or the Devil. We are fully focused on Him, and we follow immediately out of sincere love.
I know that achieving this type of love is a daily commitment, but remember love is a choice, not a feeling. We can choose to fully love and follow Jesus every day, after trusting Him as Lord and Savior. Then, we will grow each day to be more like Him, and to be able to love Him with His unselfish love. We can love others in that way, too, as long as we love Him fully and follow Him fully.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Luke 15-18.