As a Christian there are many ways that we can demonstrate the love of Christ. For example, we can send emails or send a text to a friend letting them know how special they are to us. Or we can help meet a financial need of a brother or sister in Christ who is struggling in paying a bill. And don’t forget that adding a person to our daily prayer list is one of the greatest ways that we can demonstrate the love of Christ.
But, I believe, that the greatest act of love we can do is summed up well in the following quote from Matt Chandler: “The single most loving act we can do is share the good news of Jesus Christ, that God saves sinners.”1 My friends, when you share the gospel, not only are you sharing the greatest news in the entire universe, but it shows that you are concerned with both the temporal and eternal state of the individual you are in conversation with. And better yet why not only share the gospel, but commit to praying daily for that person’s salvation!
And just why sharing the gospel is the greatest act of love is stated wonderfully by Billy Graham: “The Gospel shows people their wounds and bestows on them love. It shows them their bondage and supplies the hammer to knock away their chains. It shows them their nakedness and provides them the garments of purity. It shows them their poverty and pours into their lives the wealth of heaven. It shows them their sins and points them to the Savior.”2
But I must admit that true Christian love can sometimes be risky business by showing someone their sins and pointing them to the Savior, as Billy Graham stated above. But love is always risky since we may be rejected and yes having our message rejected hurts. However, always remember that true love cares more for the salvation of souls than our feelings and when a person rejects the gospel it’s the message they are rejecting and not us. So let’s get busy in sharing the best news ever given to mankind – the gospel of Jesus Christ!
1 110+ Matt Chandler Quotes about god, faith, prayer – QUOTLR
Our Greatest Act of Love in Practice
…from The Auditor’s Desk
Curt’s article reminds us that the greatest act of love a Christian can offer is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, because only the gospel reaches all the way into eternity. It exposes our wounds and then applies the cure, tells the truth about sin, then introduces the Savior who alone can forgive and restore.
If that is our greatest act of love, then the question at review is simple: Do the rest of my actions agree with what my mouth says about Jesus? In other words, does our “life ledger” match the “faith statement”? The gospel must be spoken, but it is also meant to be seen.
Here are some ordinary, costly ways Christians embody the love of God with each other, and with the Deplorables – those folks still out in the cold that we must extend our hand, and welcome in.
1. Acts of Service
When believers quietly show up to help in times of need, they are footnoting the gospel with their hands and feet. A ride to a doctor, a meal at the door, fixing a broken faucet, watching a single mom’s kids so she can rest… these are not small favors. They are echoes of the One who knelt with a towel and washed feet.
Service says, “Your burden is not yours alone.” It turns doctrine into groceries, compassion into fuel in the tank, love into something you can hold in your hand.
2. Forgiveness & Reconciliation
Few things display Christ more clearly than forgiveness that should not make sense. When two believers choose to confess, repent, and forgive, they are reenacting Calvary in miniature. And when one believer forgives someone who has not yet accepted the Word and the Grace, it’s also Calvary, and personal.
Feel me? Check yourself before you wreck yourself. Forgiveness only really works when it’s expensive and you didn’t want to, before you saw Christ in the offender in front of you.
Forgiveness does not erase the seriousness of sin. It honors the cross that paid for it. It is costly, because you release the right to nurse the wound. You entrust the case to Christ, who judges justly. Forgiveness declares, “I will not treat you as your sin deserves, because my Lord has not treated me as mine deserve.”
That kind of reconciliation is not weakness. It is spiritual courage. Do you got any?
3. Encouragement & Prayer
Christian encouragement is not flattery. It’s targeted truth. When we remind a bone-tired fellow human being of God’s promises, when we send a verse at the right time, when we simply say, “I am praying for you, and I mean it,” we are pushing back the fog that settles on the soul…fog making our spiritual eyes clouded by dim light from bent sunshine.
Prayer is love that refuses to stay trapped in our own limited strength. Prayer carries people into the throne room they cannot see but yearn to visit. Encouragement and intercession join hands to say, “You are not forgotten. Heaven hears your name.”
…Can you hear that voice? Are you listening to the tune? Can you dance to the music?
4. Hospitality & Fellowship
Hospitality is not interior decorating. For some Christians nowadays, it seems Hospitality is spiritual warfare with a dining table. Opening our homes, sharing meals, welcoming the lonely or the awkward, making room for the stranger into our circles… call it love in the shape of chairs pulled up and extra plates set out…and risk taken to open our hearts and minds, not just our hands and pocketbooks.
In a world obsessed with privacy, isolation, and privilege, doesn’t it seem some folks make Christian fellowship seem a protest? It’s not, and you should know it deeply.
The message should ring out just like Christmas music in a warm and well-lit household living room: “You belong here because Christ has welcomed you.”
The conversation, the laughter, even the tears around that table testify that the body of Christ is not a theory but a family.
Can you shed tears of joy for a stranger’s place at the dinner table?
5. Sacrificial Giving
Finally, here is the walrus, long teeth, happy grin: love gives like a dam burst in your soul, and it feels like watching the morning sun come over the cold horizon, taking the chill off the heart as well as the air.
Sometimes it is money. (Usually it’s money, isn’t it.) Sometimes it is time, attention, or emotional energy when you feel you are bone-empty, with a long hill beckoning ahead.
Sometimes it is simply staying present with someone in their pain.
Sometimes silence is healing when it’s all you have to offer, and it’s all they can handle in their pain.
Sacrificial giving is not measured by the gift’s size, but by the size of the cost. It mirrors Christ’s heart, who “though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor.” When we give generously, we are quietly announcing, “Christ is enough for me, so I can afford to be spent for you.”
This article comes correct. Sharing the gospel is our greatest act of love, because it confronts people with their deepest need and points them to the only Savior who can rescue them forever.
For those yet to find Christ, these daily acts of service, forgiveness, encouragement, hospitality, and sacrificial giving provide the “audit trail” making our message credible. We speak of Christ crucified and risen. Our lives then display what His love actually does to a human heart.
When those two line up, the ledger balances, and the watching world catches a glimpse of what real love looks like.
“Love tells the truth about Christ with our words, then proves the numbers with a life that costs us something.”
(Thanks Curt)