Not many of us realise the implications of what love means. Some of us think that we are loving the way God loves us, but actually more often than not, our love has got strings attached. Our love tends to be a selfish love, a “what’s in it for me” love, or a love with conditions attached. For example, some of us say that we love a person or something, but what we really mean is we like the person or thing, because the person or thing is good to us; or beneficial or advantageous to us in some way. But how should we as Christians truly love?
As Christians, we can truly love when we remain in Christ’s love, and we can remain in Christ’s love when we keep his commandments, as Jesus reminds us in the Gospel: “Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love,” Not only that, our love needs to be unconditional, even to the extent of sacrificing our lives, as the Gospel reminds us: “A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.” Love, from a Christian perspective, means that one must put Jesus and others above ourselves, even to the point of losing one’s life for others.
The question we need to ask ourselves is: are we wiling to love totally, unconditionally, willingly and happily? Are we willing to truly love the way God loves us, so that Jesus’ own joy may be in us, and our joy be complete? May we be docile, willing and humble in set ting aside our pride, our ego, and our prejudices, and love all completely, just as Jesus loves all completely.