LOVE IS SELFLESS

You can’t steer a parked car, but if you will step out and take the lead in obeying the love command, God will lead you and guide you continually. Paul continues this train of thought in Phil. 2:3,4, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

The Message? Bible says, “Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.”

Esteeming others as better than yourself is the highest form of love there is. When you treat people like they’re better than you, when you regard them as being more important than you are, your life will be better than it’s ever been before.

Giving more honor to others does not mean they are better than you, but you do treat them that way. Jesus preferred us when He hung on the cross. People mocked Him and blasphemed Him when they said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save” Matt. 27:42a. He put our needs above His own, and by doing so He showed us how to keep the love command.

Two thousand years ago Jesus left the splendor and majesty of heaven and came to earth to live as a man. He came to be a servant of all people everywhere, and shortly before His death He set the example by kneeling down in front of His disciples and washed their feet.

He laid aside His garments and put on a slaves’ towel and in love even washed the feet of the one He knew would betray Him. The disciples were not better than Jesus, but He was treating them like they were. At that moment Jesus took the role of a slave and the disciples had the role of a master.

Afterward He sat back down and explained the meaning of what had just taken place. “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them” John 13:12-17.

The Message? Bible closes out this passage with these promising words, “If you understand what I’m telling you, act like it - and live a blessed life.”

The happiest people in the world are those who take the lead and serve. The willingness to serve, the willingness to put others above yourself, is the mark of spiritual greatness. Like Jesus you can wash peoples’ feet every day and treat them like they’re better than you. You can defer to what they want, because you’ve been told to do so, you’ve been ordered to keep the love command.

The standard or the measure of how you love other people is how Jesus loves you. He said in Matt. 20:28, “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life s a ransom for many.” Paul said the same thing in 1 Cor. 10:24, “Let no one seek his own, but each one the others’ well-being.”

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