“Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends”. (John 15:13) These were some of the many words Jesus spoke as he instructed his disciples on the meaning of the kind of love he expected them to have for God and their fellowman.
The beauty of the Gospel is demonstrated in these words and we can clearly see that Jesus never asks us to travel a road that he has not travelled Himself. As the good shepherd (John 10), He does not drive us forward relentlessly, but rather he leads the way while calling our names and gently expects us to follow in His footsteps. Just as Jesus sacrificed all for us on the cross, so we are called to be living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to Him and consecrated for the service of mankind. (Rom 12:1)
Each of us has a place and a role to fulfill in this big tapestry that is life. We are all linked together by a common need-the need to love and to be loved and the need for a Saviour to rescue us from our sins. In Jesus, we find all this and more!
I only really began to understand the true import of Christ’s words while reading a book about the Underground Church in Russia. In countries like these, God’s people face terrible persecution and yet they still love God and their persecutors with all their hearts! Compared to the trials they face, which include being beaten, starved to death and tortured, we are privileged possessors of a religious liberty that we all too often take for granted.
We bicker and fight about church politics, office politics and things that could be easily resolved if we all worked as a team for God. While we cannot resolve the smallest matters among our brethren, others suffer gruesome trials for their faith that we cannot even begin to understand, and yet they face them with a dignity and grace that only Christ can impart!
We need to learn the true meaning of what it means to be a hero, because Jesus is calling us to be heroes in the midst of adversity, shining for Him like lights in this dark world. He is our ultimate hero, and we must daily become more like Him.
I often wonder how strong my faith in God is. Will I give up if I face terrible trials like these precious people of God, or will I be able to stand up for my faith and totally surrender my life to God? Our greatest fear should not be the trials and persecutions that may or may not await us, but rather the possibility that we will disappoint Christ because in the weakness of our flesh, we will fail to stand for Him.
Jesus asks a compelling question in Luke 18:8: “When the Son of Man cometh, will He find faith on the earth?” Will Jesus find His faithful bride or will we have lost ourselves in fighting, trivialities and “playing church” and in so doing, lose our salvation? We cannot let the wickedness of men take away the love of God from our hearts for them. It is only through God’s love in our hearts that we can conquer and change the world!
"For God so LOVED the world that He GAVE His only-begotten Son, that WHOSOEVER believes in Him SHOULD NOT PERISH but have EVERLASTING LIFE." -John 3:16
Other Scripture Refs:1 John 3:15, John 15:13
