Sharing Christ's Love: Why Should We?

I said in my last post that I would make a post about sharing Christ's love.  Well, here it is!

A picture pulled off of some random blog which I don't read

Sorry for the wait, this took a little longer than I expected.  When I first went to write this post, I completely missed the point and fell pray to that which I myself warned against: I focused on things like how to share Christ's love, when I should've been thinking about why to share Christ's love. 

There are several major reasons why I think that it is vital that we, as Christians, show love to others.

In John 13:34-35, Jesus says: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Love is one of the ways we as Christians distinguish ourselves; love is what defines us, and sets apart from most other religions.  By following Christ's example and loving others, we show that world that we stand with Him.

When writing about the subject of love, it would be impossible to leave out 1 Corinthians 13.  In verses 1-3 Paul says: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."  That's another big reason why it is so important that we share God's love.  Without love, we are nothing.  Our ministry is nothing.  We gain nothing; not only for ourselves, but for Christ.

1 John 4 has a lot to say about love.  Starting in verses 7 and 8: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."
We see once again that love is one of the things that defines us a Christians.  By loving others, we show that Christ is in us; that we love Him, and that He loves us.  If you're not showing love, then it could be a sign that God is not in you, and that you are not saved.

John Basically repeats Jesus' command in verse eleven: "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."  Christ is our example, and we should strive to act as He did.  Showing love is just one of the many ways we can do this.  Verse 12-13: "No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.  By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit"  Again, we see how loving others shows what God has done within us.  If He has truly given us the Holy Spirit and abides within us, then His love will shine through in the way that we love others.  John continues along the same lines in verse 16: "So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."
Note: 1 John 4 has a lot more to say about love, but time does not permit me to go into all of it in detail.  I recommend reading the whole chapter for yourself.

Through these scriptures, we see just how important it is that we show love.  As Christians, love is our identity.  It shows that we are followers of Christ.  It shows that Christ is in us.  It shows that we're not like all of the other religions.  It sets us apart, identifies us, and is the proof of God within us.  And that's why we should take every opportunity we have to love others.  "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13)

How have you been sharing God's love?