To Be Love not Be Loved

“Take up your (his) cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). These words of Jesus run directly upstream from the culture we find ourselves in. This is a call to follow in the steps of Jesus, to deny ourselves, and exemplify our lives after Him.

I’ve been reading some about imaging God. See, we we’re “created in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27). This is a fundamental, inherent quality that each and every one of us are born with. We have to strip some cultural thinking away for us to grasp this concept.

Especially here in the West, we are bent on the “me, myself, and I” sort of thinking. The world encourages our own personal empire building, but this way of life looks nothing like Jesus. See, Jesus is the Son of God who came to reveal the glory of the Father. This is a fancy way of saying, He came to show us what God is like – His character, His qualities, His way of life.

In order for us to “image” God, we have to first know who God is. We find that answer in the person and work of Jesus and in the Scriptures. As we come to have a deeper understanding of who God is, we then become more able to reflect what God is like to those around us. We don’t stop at knowing what God is like, rather we start showing what God is like.

Think of how an apprentice relates to his master (teacher). The end-goal of that relationship is for the apprentice to exemplify the master, to look like him, and do things like him. The relationship is not meant to be one where the master simply does everything for the apprentice. No, it’s grounds for training, building, and growing him up – our walks with Jesus are meant to look similar.

Friend, Jesus lived an intentional life. He was fixed on bringing glory to the Father. He did this in His constant obedience to the Father even over His own will (Luke 22:42), He routinely retreated to pray and commune with the Father (Luke 5:16), and He did so that we would know what the Father is like (John 14:6-7).

This is a high call, but at the end of Jesus’ time here on earth He turns to His disciples and tells them to follow Him. That same intentionality and pointedness that Jesus revealed to us through His life, He then asks us to portray ourselves.

Where I want to encourage you today is here, the following of Jesus and the imaging of God is an active verb. We aren’t called to sit back and receive – no we’re called to be the giver. We aren’t called to be loved – we’re called to be love to others. Just as Jesus told us that the “Son of man came not to be served but to serve others and to lay His life down as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Let’s, together, follow Jesus with our actions today and keep our eyes open – you never know the places God may take you to glorify His name.