If we only love those who love us or do good to those who do good to us, are we exhibiting God’s love? There are 7 beautiful ways to show God’s love to others The love of God for us is not based on what we do for Him; it is unconditional love. God’s love for us is very selfless.
Most times, we do not realize it but when we show an act of kindness or love to someone, even if we might not say it, deep down, we want that act of love to be expressed or shown to us. When he or she doesn’t meet our expectations, we become petty and stop loving.
Ask and examine yourself ‘are you showing God’s love to others?’
Love is not a business transaction. Love is not a give-and-take situation. It is all about giving and not expecting anything in return. Yes, it hurts when we love and we are not loved in return, I totally get that feeling. It will keep us questioning ourselves and we will just want to stop loving or loving less.
When we are loving, I want us to think of one thing- Christ. Think about His death on the cross, the price He paid by dying your death. If not for God sending Christ to die as seen in 1 John 4:10, we will not be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and have all the inheritance we have in Him.
The popular scripture, 1 Corinthians 13 informs us about the attributes of love. It indicates that love is not easily provoked, love is not self-seeking; selfless by putting others first, love endures all things; it is patient.
God is love and love is God. Even if we speak in tongues, prophesy, give to charity and we do not love, we are like sounding brass or tinkling cymbal; we are nothing. If love is not the foundation, then it is empty and void. Believers, you and I should love the way God requires us to love. We should love as God loves us. Let us make deliberate effort to love like that. Love is easy when it is not a selfish type of love.
If God’s love is prevalent in our day, the world would be a much better place but unfortunately, we live in a fallen world. This is why the Bible says that we are in the world but not of the world. As believers, we are not to conform to this world but our minds should be renewed as shown in Romans 12:2.
In this blog post, we will learn about 7 beautiful ways to show God’s love to others.
What is Love?
I have tagged love as the act of showing affection towards another selflessly. It is a display of great and deep affection towards another without expecting anything in return.
Qualities of God’s Love
The following are so many points to buttress God’s love and here are 8 of them below:
- God’s love suffers long and is kind.
- God’s love is not easily provoked.
- God’s love is sacrificial.
- God’s love does not rejoice in iniquity.
- God’s love is patient.
- God’s love is unconditional.
- God’s love is limitless.
- God’s love forgave others of their wrong in Christ Jesus.
How to Love like God
The love of God is overwhelming because we see how He loved us by sending His only begotten son to die for the forgiveness of our sins and whosoever believes will be saved (John 3:16).
We didn’t merit the death of Christ Jesus for our sins but it was bestowed on us. God didn’t say we are too far to be redeemed through His sons’ death. He is the one who leaves the 99 in search of the one who is lost as shown in Matthew 18:12-14.To love like God is not rocket science and it is very possible to love like does because we have the Holy Spirit living in us.
We are empowered to love like Him by showing His kind of love to others. We are not to love others because they love us or show the same degree of love towards us, if we do that, where is the gain? (Matthew 5:46).
It is easier said than done but it is not impossible. Today take it upon yourself to make intentional steps and love like God. Start by showing His love in the subtle things and don’t expect anything to be done to us in return.
For instance, forgive that person who hurt you so badly, give more, stop being easily provoked, stop expecting when you give, be someone people can rely on etc.
7 Beautiful Ways to Show God’s Love
Among many others, there are 7 beautiful ways to show God’s love to others which are:
1. Preach To Others:
Preaching the Gospel to others is a vital way of showing God’s love to others. When we preach the Gospel to someone and they believe in the message, they become saved (Mark 16:15-16). We have done the person so much good by preaching to them because the Gospel saves them from eternal condemnation and eternal life is assured for them when they believe. The Gospel should go viral in our day. We live in such a dying world and we need the Gospel to thrive. God desires to see all men saved and experience joy and progress in faith.
2. Pray for and with Others:
Praying for and with others is a vital way to show God’s love. When we love someone, we pray for them and with them. If you know a friend or someone who is in a challenging phase in their life, pray for them and with them. When we pray for them, we can receive a word of knowledge for them and this word would resonate with their present reality. Praying for and with them by giving them a word would help them in that situation.
3. Give to Others:
Giving to others is another way to show God’s love to others because giving is an act done out of love and not out of compulsion or because you want to get something in return. If someone lacks a need and we have the financial or material means to help that person, then we should give to him or her. It is more blessed to give than to receive as we can see in Acts 20:35. Give to someone because it is a show of God’s love towards them.
4. Forgive Others:
We have received forgiveness through the finished works of Christ (Ephesians 1:7) and because of that, we should show the same forgiveness to others. The fact that God has forgiven us in Christ Jesus should be a strong motivation to forgive others who hurt us.
The truth of the matter is that it is not easy to forgive someone who badly provoked you because deep down, when you remember the scenario, it hurts and you find it difficult to forgive.
As believers, our default setting should be to forgive no matter how difficult. If God could forgive all our grievous sins by sending Christ to die for them, then we ought to do the same to others as instructed in Colossians 3:13.
5. Correct Others:
It is not out of love that we see someone doing wrong and we keep quiet and watch as they fall into error. Loving others like God does is stemmed from correcting their missteps. We all know that God in the person of the Holy Spirit doesn’t hold back to correct us when we go astray. We should stop keeping quiet when we see others do wrong. It is better when we correct in love, the person in question gets offended when we correct in love than when we do not correct at all.
6. Rendering Acts of Service to Others:
Rendering acts of service is another way of showing God’s love to others. Acts of service include: taking others out for lunch, a spa date, giving to them, refilling their fuel tank etc. Rendering an act of service is not an act of foolishness, it is an act of love. This is a selfless act and it is a way of showing God’s love to others because when we do all these we make them happy.
7. Check on Others Frequently:
Checking on others is an act of love because it shows that we care for them and we are not self-seeking. Everyone is going through one thing or the other that they do not let out and when we check on them frequently, it shows we care for them and they are most likely to open up to us.
10 Scriptures on God’s Love
- 1 John 4:8: He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
- John 3:16:For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
- John 15:13: Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
- 1 John 4:19: We love Him because He first loved us.
- Romans 8:38-39: For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- 1 John 4:16-17: And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world.
- Romans 5:8:But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
- Ephesians 2:4-5:But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).
- 1 John 4:11: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
- 1 John 3:16-18: By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
Points to Note:
- Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus as stated in Romans 8:38-39.
- Love is not a business transaction where you receive what you give or invest.
- Loving like God is easier when you channel your focus from yourself to others.
- Preaching the Gospel to people and getting them saved, is a great show of love to others.
- When it seems like the offence is unforgivable, think about your many offences that God has forgiven you of.
- When you do bad to others by repaying them for how they wronged you, you are not loving the Godly way.
- There is no stop button to God’s love for you.
- Showing God’s kind of love to others is not a sign of weakness but rather a sign of spiritual maturity.
- When you love others, you do not backbite or gossip about them behind their backs.
- You ought to be able to lay your life for our fellow brethren if you claim to love them (1 John 3:16-18).
CONCLUSION
I hope this blog post has shown you 7 beautiful ways to show God’s love to others? We cannot keep claiming we are Christ-like and we fail to love like God. In this Christian journey, we die to ourselves every day. We have a new nature in Christ. We are not living for ourselves anymore but we are living for God.
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