Love Better than Jesus?
Implied teachings
I was having a difficult time with my older son one night, and I thought to myself, how would Jesus handle the situation? This caused me to deeply reflect on the notion of doing what Jesus would.
If Jesus was in my position, would he :
- Act with love and patience?
- Would he put his hand on my son’s shoulder and remove any mental and emotional pain?
Undoubtedly #2 because Jesus could. Jesus had a unending love and patience for others because he could equally change them all in the end. So what kind of love is that?
So to say we should follow the progressive love espoused by Jesus means we should love better than Jesus.
Jesus progressively asks his follows to love more and more in the Bible. Starting with loving God, then our neighbor, then our enemy, and finally like Jesus loves.
However, we can never love like Jesus loves because Jesus can change the situation any time. He literally has the power to change all circumstances, so his level of acceptance. When we love someone, we often can’t change anything abut them or the situation.
So is Jesus capable of loving like he asks us to? Is he capable of being patient without the option of changing the person?
What Would Jesus Do? WWJD?
He would probably miracle his way out of an uncomfortable situation. So asking this question doesn’t quite work.
What would Jesus want us to do?
If he wants us to love the way he did, then that means loving or trying to love more than we are capable of loving.
That means exceeding our expectation of love.
