Called to Love.

We are called to love.

At first glance, this phrase presents itself simple enough. It is a cliche so engraved in our minds and religious conscience that its depth is often overlooked.

As believers we are called to love. But love takes on a new meaning in Christ. Our call to love is more than lending a hand or treating others nicely. It is a love so encompassing, so invading to the heart; that when encountered it transforms.

We are first taught this love in John 3:16, that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son..." To nonbelievers, you may not understand sin, or the need for redemption but everyone can imagine the extent of a love that would push someone to sacrifice their own child. Its a love that can't easily be explained; nonetheless comprehended. And yet its that type of love that we are called to.

As I write this, I struggle to find the right words to express the full depth in which God calls us to love. Love is the foundation of compassion, grace and mercy. It is what brings us to forgive, to aide and to engage with the world around us. I was once asked what is the greatest form of love; I immediately began to think of John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends" (NIV) What greater love is it: that one would lay down his life for his brother.

I began to formalize a thought: Love takes sacrifice. Abraham with Isaac, God with Jesus, parents with their children and so on, we see that love requires sacrifice. When we first receive salvation we see that sacrifice on display. Salvation requires us to sacrifice relationships, habits, comforts and mindsets that are inconsistent with the gospel. It is because of our love of Christ and the gospel that we make these sacrifices.

As I indulged deeper into the thought I discovered another truth. Love is needy! Love is relentless in its pursuit; it knows no limits, it creates no borders, its unceasing in its depth and it always requires action. One cannot love without action. Love requires us to back it up. Because we love: we care, we cry, we help, we pray for others, we give to causes, we form relationships, we marry, we grieve and mourn our lost.

With that being so, no wonder scripture calls us to love. God is a God of action; He's a doer so it should not be surprising that he calls us into action as well. When scripture commands us to love, it is a command to no longer be stagnant but to take action. It is the love for our brothers and sisters that leads us together in prayer and strengthening one another. It is love that urges us to call out a brother or sister when they fall, to encourage when they are weak, to applaud them when they grow. It is love that sends us out into the world to do missions, to heal, to deliver and to preach the gospel.

We are called to love others so much that we care for the well being of their soul. That is why we minister and preach the gospel; because through love we are burdened to care deeply beyond ourselves. Love urges us into a collision course with activism. It beckons us to be filled with compassion, to lend grace to the oppressed, to show mercy to those who wrong us. It is love that works on us to forgive. It is love that propels us across seas and into new places with the hope of spreading it. Love is enduring, its non-depleting, but more so its required for believers.

No believer can fulfill the great commission without love. Without love our words, our actions, our very motive is baseless. For it was love that sent Christ to the cross. It was love that replaced grace with death. Love takes sacrifice and requires action. With those tenants in mind we have a better understanding of what it means to be called to love. We are called to sacrifice and act. When a missionary moves thousands of miles away from home to spread the gospel, when everyday Christians make the commitment to serve at church, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we see the intersection of sacrifice and action.

When God calls us into action, we often sacrifice our pride or comfort zones to fulfill the task. I remember when God called me to minister to a stranger for the first time; I was afraid and definitely out of my comfort zone. I remember wondering what the person would think of me. But because of my love and faith in Christ, the love inside of me pushed me past those fears into action. I was filled with an immense sense of compassion for the individual, and in that moment nothing else matter except what God was doing in their heart and mine. I had never believed I could love a complete stranger but in that moment their burdens became my own, their afflictions rested on my heart. I felt such a need to care for them, to uplift them and above all to introduce them to the one who makes all things new. That day I sacrificed selfishness for service; I sacrificed my own personal comforts for someone else's. That day I loved.

In close, being called to love is as simple as this: allowing God's heart to become your own. Being called to love means having a heart after God's heart. We know from scripture God has a heart for the lost, the afflicted, the oppressed and those longing for deliverance. Being called to love means having a heart for them as well.

We are called to love, because Christ first loved us.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

1 Corinthians 13:13