How To Share God's Love
Welcome to the Proverbs and Pens blog, where we encourage and uplift you to live the victorious Christian life through wisdom in Scripture. Today, we're diving into the 2nd love-based topic of the month: how to share God's love with others. If you are interested in reading our first blog, click here.
In a culture often marked by self-interest, sharing God's love isn't just an option; it's our calling as followers of Christ. As Jesus commanded in John 13:34-35 (ESV), “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.”
But how do we effectively share this love? We'll break it down into three key points as we take a look at what Scripture says about sharing the love of God.
The first most important is knowing how much you are loved by God. Before we can pour out love to others, we must first receive and internalize the truth of God's love for ourselves. It's like trying to give water from an empty well. Without being filled with God’s love ourselves, our efforts will run dry and never leave an eternal impact. Scripture reminds us that God's love is the foundation of our ability to love.
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV): "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Here, Paul prays for believers to be “rooted and established" in love, emphasizing that understanding Christ's love empowers us to live it out.
This isn't a distant, abstract love; it's personal, sacrificial, and compassionate. The beauty about being loved by God is not based on anything we did. Romans 5:8 (NIV), “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Even in our brokenness, God pursued us with unrelenting love. He loved us because He is love!
To share God's love, start by meditating on these truths. Spend time in prayer, asking God to reveal His love anew. Journal about moments when you've seen and felt His love, or do a topical study on verses all about God’s love for you. Repeating these truths over and over to yourself and writing them on your heart is the key to transforming how you see yourself in God’s eyes. You are treasured and loved by God Almighty. Once you're overflowing with this assurance, loving others becomes a natural overflow. As 1 John 4:19 (NIV) states, "We love because he first loved us." Let this be your starting point!
The next most important thing is knowing what love really is. True love isn't defined by our emotions or Hollywood ideals; it's outlined clearly in Scripture. Not only is God Himself love, but He has also defined what love (who He is) means. To share God's love effectively, we must understand its characteristics, as described in 1 Corinthians 13, the famous "love chapter." This passage isn't just for weddings; it's a blueprint for daily living and sharing the Gospel.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV): "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
Patience and kindness mean bearing with others without judgment and treating them with God’s kindness and love, as God does with us. 2 Peter 3:9 (NKJV): "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." When we are striving to share God’s love, it takes patience and having a heart to see people repent or fully walk into what God has for them.
Love also forgives and keeps no record of wrongs. This is the same love and forgiveness given to us by our heavenly Father and the same love we are called to share with others. But let’s also remember that God’s love calls us to repent and follow His ways, not the world's ways.
Psalm 103:12 (NKJV): "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."
Knowing what love is, and letting Scripture shape your expression of it is the first step in sharing that same godly love with others. It will empower you to love the “un-loveable” and to truly be the light of Jesus for others.
Lastly, godly love can be bold and loud, or soft and quiet. Either way, it's always serving, sacrificial, and compassionate.
God's love can be shown in various ways and has impacted believers from around the world differently, but it never changes. Sometimes it's proclaimed boldly from rooftops; other times, it's whispered in quiet acts. But regardless of how the Holy Spirit leads us to share, it will never contradict what the Word of God says.
For bold and loud love, think of Peter's sermon in Acts 2:14-41 (NKJV), where he fearlessly declared the Gospel, leading 3,000 to faith. Or Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5:14-16 (NKJV): "You are the light of the world... let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Bold love confronts sin with truth. Yet godly love can also be soft and quiet, like Jesus washing His disciples' feet in John 13:4-5, a humble act of service. Or the widow's quiet offering in Mark 12:41-44, which Jesus praised as sacrificial giving.
At its heart, this love is serving. Philippians 2:5-7 (NIV): "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who... made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant." It's sacrificial, as in John 15:13 (NIV): "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." And compassionate, like Jesus in Matthew 9:36 (NIV): "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."
As we walk in the love we know to be true, we will have the opportunity to share it with others. We have all been called to preach the gospel (Matthew 28:18-20). If you are called to boldly share in front of a crowd or on the mission field, God’s truth, serving heart, and compassion have to be your motivations. If you are called to share it quietly in the checkout line, with a neighbor, coworker, or friend, the motivation has to be the same. God’s love never changes!
Sharing God's love transforms us and those around us. Start by embracing how loved you are, understand love through Scripture, and express it in ways that serve, sacrifice, and show compassion. As you step out, remember that God is love and abiding in the root will always produce everlasting fruit.
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