If love is the key to life—the core nature of God, the greatest commandment, and the disciple’s greatest mission—then it has to season everything we do. It has to become central. We know that from reading God’s Word. We believe it by faith. And we tell others how important it is.
So why, then, is love often an afterthought among us? Why isn’t it the clearest distinguishing mark in many of our churches—or even in our families? Why do we sometimes have to go looking for it? Perhaps because we’ve stressed it so much we take it as a given. But it isn’t a given at all. It doesn’t happen if we don’t make sure it does.
We can’t afford to offer our love as a response when needed. We have to be intentional about it—to wake up in the morning thinking of ways to invest in the lives around us. That’s the kind of love that distinguishes Jesus’ people and changes the world. When that’s how we approach it—not slipping it in whenever we can as a reaction, but pouring ourselves out into others—it doesn’t drain us. It becomes the energy that fuels us. We receive what we’ve given. And we begin to look a lot like the one we claim to follow.
