Weekly Devotional

What Is Love According to the Bible?

Jesus is love, and in Scripture, it tells us what true love is…

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” — 1 Corinthians 13:4–7

If this eternal truth were fully embodied by the Church, the children of God, the world would look different. We would look different.

If we are truly fully adopted as children of God and believe deep down in our core that we are brothers and sisters with Christ Jesus, then we should have no problem fully dying to our flesh. We should have no problem fully walking like Christ.

But what does that look like?

What does it mean to walk like Christ? To love like Christ? To be unoffendable? To overlook wrongs?

It begins on our knees, praying to God for His Spirit to lead us, heal us, and guide us.

It means letting go of the right to always be right. It means letting God fight our battles, giving up the right to seek revenge, and, at all costs, refusing to take joy in anything that is unrighteous. Instead, we aim to be a beam of light in our own physical worlds.

You also have to guard your heart so you can love well and not allow darkness in. It means learning how to have healthy, Biblical boundaries and asking God for wisdom about what those boundaries should look like and what levels of access the people in your life are supposed to have to you.

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need to do this. But we live in a broken world, surrounded by people who have different levels of revelation of who Christ is, what His love looks like, and what surrender to Christ means.

It’s hard to love when life is hard.

It’s hard to love when no one in the natural world ever showed you how.

How can you love people like Christ when no one ever showed you the kind of love that is written about in Scripture?

How can you?

First, by letting Him into every part of your broken soul. (We all have some form of brokenness.) Let His love heal those places, and then ask the Holy Spirit to teach you how to love the people around you.

Ask Him to teach you how to deal with, interact with, and build relationships with people.

Ask Jesus to guide you to people and resources who fear God and are trained to help you when things might feel too hard or scary in the beginning.

Ask Jesus Christ for someone to disciple you—someone who deeply loves God and His people.

Ask, and it shall be given to you.

Wholeness is a part of God’s perfect will for your life.

This week, I challenge you to ask God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit to help you.

I challenge you to pray dangerous prayers—prayers asking God to teach you how to love the broken people around you.

Pray and ask Him to show you where you need to release unforgiveness, brokenness, and hurt, so you don’t have walls keeping Him from gaining access to every part of your mind, body, and soul.

He loves you so much, and He wants you whole. He wants you healed.

He wants you walking into your God-given destiny—the destiny He chose for you before the foundations of the earth.

You were CHOSEN by GOD before you were formed.

You were always GOD’S IDEA.

I pray that whatever led you to read this writing today, His Spirit will touch your heart and show you just how deeply you are loved by Him.

You were always chosen by Him, before anyone else ever knew who you were.

You were CHOSEN BY GOD before the foundations of the earth.

Jesus loves you.

Ask Him to show you.

Ask Him to help you.

Ask Him to teach you how to love like Christ and become a true agent of Christ in this world.

With Love,
The G.O.A.A. Team

Scriptures to Meditate On

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. -- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God — God remains in him and he in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in Him.” -- 1 John 4:15-16

“Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.” -- Matthew 7:7-11

“He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.” -- Psalm 147:3

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” -- 1 Peter 2:9