What Does Love Look Like?

What does love look like?

Ask ten random people that question, and you’ll probably get ten different answers.

Our world is full of ideas—some right, some partially right, and some blatantly, tragically wrong—of what love is and what it looks like.

In his Word, God gives a different, very surprising answer of what love looks like.

Love looks like sacrifice. Love is sacrifice.

In 1 John 4:10, the apostle John writes what God has made clear throughout the entire Bible: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” The only way for the sins of the world to be atoned for—our sins—was for the sinless Son of God to shed his blood as punishment.

God sent his Son, Jesus, to live a perfect life in our place and die the horrible, shameful death . . . all for the people of a world who wanted nothing to do with him. That is love. True love. 

His sacrifice is even more amazing because Jesus wasn’t forced to go to the cross. He went willingly. Lovingly. He wanted to save us, his enemies, from our sins; he loves us and wants us to be in heaven with him.

Love looks like service. Love is service. 

Jesus came to serve, not be served. How incredible is that! The One who deserved to be served gave his life as a ransom for others. Jesus fulfilled our greatest need, restored our relationship with God, and opened the door to eternal life. His love for us changes everything about us and our lives. He creates life and love in our hearts.

What does that mean for us?

As the apostle John wrote a few verses after demonstrating what love is, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Without Jesus’ love influencing our own, we’d still be working primarily off a worldly definition of love. Now, we’re working off our Savior’s definition and living by his example.

We’re sinful, so our love is not the same as his perfect love. We’re still influenced by the world around us and our own sinful desires and impulses that want nothing to do with sacrifice or service without thought of some sort of return.

But through Jesus, our love is a sacrificial, other-serving love. That is seen in our words and actions, our interactions with the people God has placed in our lives.

What does that love look like?

Dear Christian, look to the cross. Look to your Savior. Then, look to the people God has blessed you with. See Christ’s love reflected in their words and actions. Strive to intentionally see Christ’s love reflected in your own.

Love is a sacrifice. A sacrifice of self, of my wants and needs until I’m only thinking about other people, seeing them as God sees them: blood-bought souls for whom Jesus lived, died, and rose again. I want them to be in heaven with him someday. Does that change how I speak and act toward others? Absolutely.

Love is service. A service that gives with nothing expected in return. A service that doesn’t seek recognition, honor, or praise but seeks to provide for another’s needs because our Savior knelt and washed dirty feet. He did far more than that—he came to wash us clean of our sins.

What that love looks like depends on your relationship with someone, be it your spouse, sibling, parent, child, coworker, neighbor, or a random stranger on the street.

But it’s our prayer as God’s children that Christ’s love for that person is at the heart of every interaction, that our loved ones see him through us, and that Christ’s sacrificial, other-serving love works on their hearts too, influencing their own words and actions to us and others.

That is what true love looks like.

---

Did you enjoy this post? Subscribe to the NPH blog for free devotional content every week!

---

---