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How We Know What Love Is

            This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  (I John 3:16)

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

When the going gets tough… we may face death. Jesus didn’t do anything wrong, and we killed Him. It’s rather silly on our part to think that we should expect to not face struggles or death when He did. Why should we fear it, when we know what comes after?

I suspect many of us don’t fear death so much as the manner of death. I know that most of the time, my response to the idea of dying is “bring it on” until I think about my dog and wonder who would take care of her. But that’s thinking in terms of going to bed at night and not waking up in the morning or being otherwise instantly killed. I’m not as sanguine about the idea of spending days, weeks, or months in a nursing home or prison, in pain or suffering from dementia.

We sometimes hear about martyrs in history, or in some terrible country, but we like to think it couldn’t happen here. We don’t prepare. Can you imagine anyone in your church being willing to die for you? Can you imagine anyone you’d be willing to die for, other than maybe your family? Perhaps back in the first century, things were different, people were closer. But if that’s the case, why does everyone writing the New Testament have to spend so much time talking about how we should love one another enough to die for one another?

Jesus is held up as our example, of course. So how did it work? Did He go to the cross because we were such marvelous people, and He was so smitten with us that He just couldn’t wait to volunteer to die? I know some folks would like us to believe that way, but He asked the Father to take the cup in Gethsemane. I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, but I suspect that His decision to die on the cross was more about who He is than about who we are.  His love was sacrificial.

In the same way, it’s not that our brothers and sisters are perfect, or delightful, or even lovable. We are to love them anyway, even to the point of dying. I can’t help but think about emergency responders: police, firefighters, members of the military. They don’t endanger their lives on a daily basis because the public they’ve vowed to protect, serve, aid, and/or defend is wonderful. They (the good ones, at least) have chosen to train themselves to risk their lives for you even though they don’t know you, and might not like you if they did.

In a similar way, we need to train ourselves to face death, even death in the place of another. We need to pray about it, and be willing to die in someone else’s place for the love of God if not for the love of that person. We need to think about it, and do what is necessary to become the sort of person who would die in someone else’s place.

It’s a scary thought. I’m not sure how to go about it. I’m afraid I’d delude myself into thinking I could do it, until I got to the point of actually having to make the choice. But this is where faith comes in. If you submit yourself to God, telling Him that you are willing to follow Him even if it means you die, He’ll take care of the details. It comes down to trust.

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