Selfless Love

Our scripture reading is from Matthew 25:31–26:16 today.  In this passage Jesus appealed to his disciples then (and now) to be ready and to expect Him to return. 

What do we do in the meantime? 

We serve Him with selfless love! 

When Jesus talked about separating out the two groups of people it was people who served Him and people who neglected to serve Him.  When the time of judgment (separation) came it wasn’t because of their “sins” per say it was because of the duties they had neglected.  Jesus was separating the "goats" from the "sheep".  Jesus calls us His sheep when we follow him.  The goats were those who did not follow Him.  What was the test of this love and following Him?  It was those who serve Him by serving others and those who did not serve Him or others. 

What I see in this passage is that people need to be loving other people through acts of service; to love people in need.  We must serve Him in the way that we live every day and notice they weren’t necessarily big things either – simple things like getting a glass of water for someone.  This can show that we are His disciples.

Notice too the type of people that Jesus' disciples served - the sick, the naked, the hungry and those in prison.  These were people that most others turned their back on - especially the church leaders of that day.  To be around these types of people often would make you ceremonially unclean, but these are the people who need Jesus' love and compassion the most, but they also can be the ones that are the hardest to love.  This love can only come from a place of being filled with the love of Jesus ourselves. 

Let's clarify this:  Our works don’t buy us salvation, but because of the free gift of salvation we can freely love and serve others.  Through doing these works Jesus is teaching us the importance of selfless love.  In the next chapter (26) Jesus starts off by telling us what He was about to do for us out of His own selfless love.  Mary also was an example of this selfless love through her act of anointing Him with the oil and perfume.  The book of Mark tells us this was spikenard which was frequently used when preparing a body for the grave.  It was super expensive in that day and what she did came from a place of selfless love.

So what can you do to serve Jesus today and show others selfless love?  In the fruit of the Spirit love comes first.  I have often thought that before we can have joy and peace and the other fruits it all points back to LOVE!  Is love the greatest of all?  I would love to hear your thoughts.  Feel free to leave a comment on this post on the blog site on your thoughts on selfless love.

Heavenly Father, Your Word tells us ‘God is love’.  Love is part of Your character - it is who you are.  I pray today we would love others the way You love others.  It is not always easy and sometimes its not easy because we can get self absorbed or selfish with our time.  Love demands surrendering ourselves.  Father I pray that we would be selfless today and in the days to come because of what we have learned and studied and seen in this passage today.  Through Christ, the most selfless One and our example of pure selfless love, I pray, Amen & Amen.

Let’s go deeper:  Salvation is a free gift that Jesus offers any who comes to Him.  We come to Him recognizing we are a sinner in need of His salvation.  Only because of what He did on the cross and through his resurrection can we have this free gift.  “Earlier in His work, Jesus had said that He would die. (Read 16:21; 17:22–23 and 20:18–20.) But now he declared the time when He would die. He told his disciples the way that He would die too (verse 2). So, He emphasized that He was in total control. His death would not be just an accident. It was his plan and purpose to die. He would save his people from God’s punishment for their sin. (Stephen Dray)” Whatever your circumstance is right now You can know that God is in TOTAL CONTROL!  He chose to lay down His life for you and He is still in control today!  Knowing this can free us up to freely love and let God handle the rest of the details!