Love Puts Others First
God’s character is love. 1 John 4:16 says, “God is love.” and Jesus said the law hangs on love to God and love to man. It’s no wonder that the writer in Romans 12:10 says that we should “be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, in honor preferring one another.” Does this sound, then, like we should put others before ourselves? We’re told in Acts chapter 3 of Dorcas, the woman in Joppa who died. The part of the story to which I would direct your attention is verse 39 where the widows were showing the clothes that Dorcas had made them. Can you imagine Dorcas, after lovingly making these items, then being unkind to them? And would they still think so highly of her if she had been unkind?
I heard aof a more recent event at which children in the community lamented at the death of one in the community saying such things as “who will read to me now?” or “who will put a bandaid on me when I cut myself?” People truly loved this person because he/she first loved them.
So it is with Jesus–we love Him because He first loved us. We can be like a cup overflowing when we recognize that we constantly receive God’s love. Our daily prayer could be,”Father, help me to love others as You love me.”