Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Love love love.

...then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interest of others. 
Philippians 2:2-4
As Christians, we have one ultimate goal, one purpose: to share God's love through the Gospel to others.  Whether it be through evangelism, through singing, through coaching, through teaching, through just being a lover of people; God wants to use each one of us. Love is the key here. I am not much of the person to write all "lovey dovey" about God, but we are called to love. After all, that is the second greatest commandment; love others. The first being to love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. (Luke 10:27) So sharing the love of God with others is our purpose. That is our one purpose. 
When we share this love with others we shouldn't do it out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, as we see in verse 3. Ambition in itself is not negative; you can have a godly ambition to win others to Christ. Paul here brings up selfish ambition, which is negative. It means that someone is self absorbed and only worried about his or her own destiny or desires. Vain conceit is simply being conceited about yourself. These words, to me, seem to be synonyms. Just know that neither of these terms are something you want in your spiritual life when it comes to serving Christ through love.
We need to serve out of humility. A servant-like attitude. Why should we lower ourself to such a impoverish standard of living? Because Jesus did. We see in the gospel of John that Jesus stooped down to the disciples' feet and washed them. (John 13:1-17) The lowest our, ironically, Heavenly King, could get. The humility of the cross in itself should be enough for us to never complain about being a servant of Christ Jesus. Who are we to complain when it comes to serving? Any body else's toes getting stomped on? Mine sure are.
Make people ask you, "Why are you doing this? Why are you showing me love?" Your answer: "Jesus loves me and he loves you and I want to share His love with you." I want people to question my motives of why I love the unloveable. I want to be asked why I do (in some people's eyes, crazy) things I do to just to show love.  It is not like the world to look to the interest of others, but we are called to do so. We are not called to fit in as a status quo American. We are to be aliens and strangers in this world...( 1 Peter 2:11)
When people realize you genuinely care about them, they will being to open up to you. When people open up with each other, a bond beings to connect. Then, that connection can cause a friendship to flourish. Building a friendship is a beautiful way to let the Holy Spirit pour love into another person's life. Through a friendship, someone can see the display of Christ's love on the cross. He died for everyone, so why shouldn't we love everyone? Simple. When the time is right, God will set up a divine appointment to share the gospel with, who now, is your friend.
This is just an example of what can happen when we put Philippians 4:2-4 into action. Yes, three jam-packed verses. It can change the way you view people for the rest of your life. It can also change the eternal destiny of your future friends, and family members.

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