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Sacrificial Love
by Dr. Paul Chappell
“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
1 John 3:16–18
On October 1, 2017, concert goers at an outdoor venue in Las Vegas, Nevada, were attacked in what became one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. As bullets flew among the shocked crowds, people rushed for safety, seeking a way to escape. Among the more than twenty thousand who attended the concert were a couple from Tennessee, Sonny and Heather Melton. Sonny placed his body between his wife and the shooter and kept the bullets from reaching her. He was shot, but her life was spared by his sacrifice.
Most of us will, hopefully, never face a life and death choice where we would have to protect someone else with our own bodies. Yet each day we are faced with choices of whether we will live for self or for others. There is no way to emulate the life of Christ without loving others to the point where we are willing to sacrifice for them. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
We live in a world that glorifies selfishness. The value of sacrifice in God’s eyes is still great, but it is little valued by most of those around us. But we are not called to be like the world, or to be great in their eyes. Instead, we are called to lay down our lives, pick up the cross, and walk in the footsteps of Jesus.
1 John 3:16–18
On October 1, 2017, concert goers at an outdoor venue in Las Vegas, Nevada, were attacked in what became one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history. As bullets flew among the shocked crowds, people rushed for safety, seeking a way to escape. Among the more than twenty thousand who attended the concert were a couple from Tennessee, Sonny and Heather Melton. Sonny placed his body between his wife and the shooter and kept the bullets from reaching her. He was shot, but her life was spared by his sacrifice.
Most of us will, hopefully, never face a life and death choice where we would have to protect someone else with our own bodies. Yet each day we are faced with choices of whether we will live for self or for others. There is no way to emulate the life of Christ without loving others to the point where we are willing to sacrifice for them. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
We live in a world that glorifies selfishness. The value of sacrifice in God’s eyes is still great, but it is little valued by most of those around us. But we are not called to be like the world, or to be great in their eyes. Instead, we are called to lay down our lives, pick up the cross, and walk in the footsteps of Jesus.
Today’s Growth Principle:
The Christian life is not about serving ourselves, but rather sacrificially loving and caring for others.
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