There’s a strong connection between loving and giving. When you love someone, you give whatever you can to meet their needs and show your affection. Love is what motivated Jesus to sacrifice His life for your salvation on the cross. Love also motivates us to share that message with others.
Throughout His life, Jesus was filled with love and compassion for the people around Him. As He traveled from town to town, people came from all over to see Him. Matthew 9.36 NLT says, “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
In His final days, Jesus was stopped by two blind men who pleaded for Him to heal their blind eyes. Matthew 20.34 NLT says, “Jesus felt sorry for them and touched their eyes. Instantly they could see! Then they followed him.”
No one is beyond Jesus’ love
On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus knew His fate and told His disciples, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” John 15.13 NLT. It’s clear that people mattered to Jesus, and no one was beyond the reach of His love.
The Apostle Paul was motivated by love to share the good news about Jesus. At great cost to himself, Paul traveled around the ancient Mediterranean world telling people how they could be saved. Though he was criticized, beaten, and arrested in multiple places, Paul’s love for people energized him to keep speaking up.
In 2 Corinthians 5.14-16 NLT, Paul says, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.”
Before he became a follower of Christ, Paul looked at people from a worldly, human point of view. He thought about them in terms of where they lived, what they did, and what they had accomplished. As a Christian, though, his perspective shifted. He developed an eternal point of view, seeing each person he met as someone whom Christ loved.
Their eternal destination was more important than their current location or vocation. That shift completely changed the way Paul lived. He was completely consumed with God’s mission of reaching as many people as he could with the gospel.
God’s love motivated Him to secure our salvation by sending His Son, and it is God’s love working in you that will motivate you to share that message with the people in your life.
This blog features an excerpt from the Grow Series for Students, which is coming soon! Click here for more info!
