Learn by Observing: Learning to Love Part 3

God is love. He defines it. His prime directive to each of us is to love. But loving—at least loving the way the Bible describes it—doesn’t come naturally. It is something we have to learn. The last two weeks I have been sharing some ways we can learn to love like Jesus.

The first way we learn is through experience. God lavishes His love on us, and as we learn to embrace and live in the reality of God’s love, it changes us. We start to “get” why loving is so important. And because our love tank is full, we have something to give.
Becoming God’s student. Another way we can learn to love is by accepting our role as God’s student, and His as our teacher. We not only need to be willing to learn how to love, we need to be teachable. And who better to teach us than the person who created love, and who defines love?

A third way to learn to love like Jesus is by observation. No, we don’t live in the time when Jesus walked the earth. But lots has been written about how He conducted His life, and through these accounts we can see how Jesus loved people. For example,

Jesus hung out with all kinds of people. The riff raff. The lepers. The outcasts.
He met people’s practical needs. When the crowd who’d been following Jesus got hungry, He fed them. All 5000 of them. When Peter’s fishing trip was a bust, Jesus hollered out to him telling him where to put down his nets, so he could catch some fish. He calmed a terrifying storm. He healed sick folks everywhere He went. And the night before He was murdered, He washed His disciples’ feet.
He stood up for what was right. He didn’t let the pharisees or anyone else intimidate him, or push him into doing something He wasn’t ready to do. He shooed away the people who wanted to murder a woman for infidelity. He helped people see that all people, including women and children, were important in God’s eyes.
He taught what He knew. He was constantly instructing not just His disciples, but lots of people everywhere he went.
And he was unbelievably patient. And kind. And forgiving. His disciples were bullheaded, stubborn, selfish. Just like we are. But Jesus hung in there, and kept sharing the truth with them.
He paid the ultimate price. He loved us so much that He was willing to suffer and die so that we could be with Him in eternity.

How can you learn from Jesus’ example how to love others? Is there a specific way God is calling you to love like Jesus this week?