EXEMPLIFYING CHRIST-LIKE LOVE
Let no one despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in loveG26, in faith, in purity.
1 Timothy 4:12 (BSB)
Every time we see the word translated charity in the King James Version of the Bible it means the God kind of love, Christ-like love. It is a choice to love rather than being based on an emotional response. Paul was exhorting Timothy that even in his youth, he could be a model of the kind of love shown by the God-Man Jesus, the Christian kind of love. Paul the Apostle placed Timothy in the position of overseer—pastor—to the believers in Ephesus. Paul encouraged Timothy to be exemplary in all facets of biblical godliness. He was to sparkle as one of God’s precious jewels among the believers.
I have a dear friend who is a prime example of this type of love, truly a precious jewel. Janelle had already shown me love in many ways when she came to visit me saying, “I have to apologize to you.” Incredulously I asked, “Why would you need to apologize to me?” She explained that she had loved me but not as Christ would love me. She said Jesus had asked her specifically to love me as He would, on His behalf, and she had answered “yes.” She has fulfilled that promise to the Lord many times over. She stayed with me in the hospital in Tulsa to give my family members an opportunity to rest and freshen up. She visited me numerous times in my apartment. Janelle even flew all the way from Arkansas to Texas to stay with me in the hospital while my friend who has become my sister, Susie, went home to prepare a place for me in her apartment. She tended to my needs with a tender care that can only come from the love of Jesus within her. When she sees me, she sees Jesus and ministers to me as if I were He. Her Christlike love is an example of how the “familyship” of God should behave toward one another. Do you have a Janelle in your life? Better yet, are you being that kind of loving, consistent friend to someone else? Pray the Lord will surround and fill you with this agapē love.
Loving Father, fill us with Your love, the love that loves the unlovely and goes out of the way to demonstrate grace, love, and kindness to others.