When you want the greater kind of love

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13 ESV)

Love is all around us

You hear a lot of songs about love. A lot of movies are about love. Many books and poems are written about love. With so much around us about love, you’d think we’d all be love experts, but we are not! That’s because love has many different definitions. The definition of “the greatest kind of love” according to the passage at top, is “that someone lays down his life for his friends.” That’s what Jesus did for us on the cross. And he told us to love others as He loved us (John 15:12). Because He loved us first, we can also demonstrate love toward others. 

“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19 ESV)

Therefore…

“Let all that you do be done in love.” (1 Cor. 16:14 ESV)

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7 ESV)

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8)

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:13 ESV)

Quotes:

“Love is the doorway through which the human soul passes from selfishness to service.” - Jack Hyles

“In the New Testament, love is more of a verb than a noun. It has more to do with acting than with feeling. The call to love is not so much a call to a certain state of feeling as it is to a quality of action.” - R. C. Sproul