Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today let’s examine Christ’s standard of love.

Today’s scripture, Ephesians 5:1‭-‬2 (NLT), exhorts…
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.

Consider…
Yesterday in our examination of Christ being God’s standard of righteousness, we nibbled on Paul’s exhortation to live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. Today, with help from the Holy Spirit, we’ll fully digest Christ’s standard of love.

Today’s scripture dishes three courses for our meal.

Our first course reveals that Christ loved us. In John 15:9 (NLT) Jesus said…
“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.

Jesus’ words reveal the key ingredient to loving like Him, which is loving as you are loved. God’s love is cascading, meaning it fills reservoirs to overflowing to another and another and another. Notice the love of the Father filled His Son to overflow to us.

We’re also shown this cascading love of God in Jesus’ farewell prayer. In John 17:23 (NLT) He said…
I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.

The secret to loving like Jesus is simply remaining in His cascading love.

By the way, you’ll know you’re in His cascading love when it overflows to everyone you encounter.

Our next delicious morsel from Christ’s love standard is that actions speak louder than words. Today’s scripture said, “and offered himself as a sacrifice for us”. Love without action is just meaningless words. You can tell real love by the meaningful actions that show it.

Like 1 John 3:16‭-‬18 (NLT) explains…
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.

We’ll know we’re living up to the standard of Christ’s love when we’re sacrificing for others, like He did for us. Don’t forget, He sacrificed for us while we were sinners. Romans 5:6‭-‬8 (NLT) emphasizes…
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Christ models lovingly sacrificing for the unlovable. And here’s the kicker, there’s no guarantee they’ll love you back. That’s what makes it real love, the fact that it’s given unconditionally.

Permit me to highlight a couple additional nuggets about how real love acts. 1 Corinthians 13:4‭-‬5 (NLT)
explains…
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.

Take a moment and let this marinate…

• Christ’s love has been patient and kind to you
• Christ’s love was jealous for, not of you
• Christ’s love made Him humbly come down to be humiliated and hung up (Philippians 2:6-8)
• Christ’s love yielded to His Father’s will for our forgiveness (John 6:38 & Luke 22:42)
• Christ’s love removed all condemnation (Romans 8:1 & Romans 8:33-34)

And nugget two is…
Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. – 1 Corinthians 13:7 NLT

This makes me hear Psalmist Anthony Brown sing…

You thought I was worth saving
So you came and changed my life
You thought I was worth keeping
So you cleaned me up inside
You thought I was to die for
So you sacrificed your life
So I could be free
So I could be whole
So I can tell everyone I know

Christ’s love believed we were worth saving.

Therefore, love others and consider them worth saving in the same way Christ loved and considered you. Let His tender heart for you, make you tenderhearted towards others. Like Ephesians 4:32 (NLT) admonishes…
Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

Let the grace filled love that Christ has extended to you cascade gracefully to others.

Our last tasty treat from Christ’s love standard is it’s aroma. Today’s scripture said, Christ’s sacrificial love is a pleasing aroma to God.
For some reason Christ’s love makes me think of fresh baked bread.

If you’re like me, there’s nothing like the smell of fresh baked bread. I imagine that’s what God the Father thought when Jesus said…
“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life! Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.” – John 6:47‭-‬51 NLT

You see Jesus was the bread of Heaven given for us and to us by God. He came down so that the Father could scoop us up. Ephesians 1:4‭-‬6 (NLT) explains…
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.

God’s desire was to make us part of His family. To accomplish this, He sent His Son, who also wanted to be one with Him and the Father. This shows us that we can’t love like Christ unless we want others to love the Father like we do.

I should point out that God desires EVERYONE to have an eternal relationship with Him! I can confidently say this because 2 Peter 3:9 (NLT) tells us…
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

Don’t ever think for a minute that God only loves saints. We know that because He died for sinners. 1 John 2:1‭-‬2 (NLT) says…
My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

Notice, not our sins only, but the sins of all the world.

And of course, perhaps the most memorized verse of the Bible, John 3:16 (KJV) says…
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

But Jesus didn’t stop there, He continued…
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. – John 3:17 KJV

Christ’s love made Him willingly come down to be God’s bread of life to feed this dying world with the hope of Heaven.

The Holy Spirit is telling me to close with 1 John 4:9‭-‬11 (KJV), which says…
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to bxnbe the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Christ’s standard of love is to love others like God loved us. And that was by lowering Himself to lift us up.

If your love doesn’t lift others to Christ, it’s not up to His standard.

Today’s song is…
Love Like Jesus

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)