How do we prove our love for Jesus in this perilous time?
Every time that I remember what Christ has done for me, I keep on thinking how to reciprocate this incredible love. Jesus picked me up from the dust bin and washed me clean. I was on my way to destruction and was totally engrossed in sin when I had an encounter with Him. He nurtured me in His arms and commissioned me to proclaim His name among those who have never heard about Him.
I am sure that there are other Christians whose hearts are focused on how to reciprocate this love of Christ towards humanity. Everyone who has accepted Jesus as a Savior has the desire to love Him back. If a public opinion poll was carried to ascertain the number of Christians who love Jesus, it is safe to assume that those who love Jesus will be the majority, especially if the survey question is, "Do you really love Jesus?"
However, the real question is, how do we prove our love for Him? The Scripture says that, "For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). God proved that He loves us by sacrificing His son for us in order to save us. We are sure that God loves us by what He did for us. He did not just tell us that He loves us, but He did something outstanding to prove His love for us.
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In our songs and praises, we eulogize Him. In our testimonies we tell of His wondrous works. Even in our prayers, we express how dear He is to our hearts and how we are ready to love Him until the end of time. If we are to be rated by our verbal expression of our love for Jesus, every Christian would pass the test. But a careful search for proofs of our love for Jesus may leave much to be desired. The challenge with merely confessing love for Christ is that it usually results only in lukewarmness and egotism.
It was obvious that all Jesus' disciples loved Him, but He demanded that they prove their love for Him through obedience to His commands: “If you love me, obey my commandments" (John14:15). Jesus gave many commands to the disciples, but the most important one is The Great Commission.
The Great Commission is the instruction of the resurrected Jesus Christ to His disciples that they spread His teachings to all the nations of the world (Mathew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:47, John 20:21, Acts1:8). Jesus laid emphasis on this command because of its urgent importance to Him. If we do confess our love for Jesus daily, how many of us have obeyed this command?
We really need to prove our love for Jesus in a time like this because the devil and his cohorts are really out to stop the advancement of the Gospel. Afghanistan’s recent takeover by the Taliban is a great example of this, and it’s hardly the only one. Nigerian Christians fear that Boko Haram and ISWAP will soon overrun Aso Rock and take over the Nigerian seat of power.
Who are these people? Are they created by the devil? Are we sure that we have not Gospel-starved them? Or are they not part of those whom Jesus died for? Honest answers to these questions will expose our complacency, disobedience and negligence of the last command which Jesus gave to us. The harvest is indeed plenteous, but the laborers are few. If these attackers have been evangelized, don't we think that some of them would have become Christians? And if they are Christians, will they terrorize us anymore?
There is no doubt that we are living in the end time and should expect all these things, but the Bible says that Christ will not return until we take the Gospel of the kingdom to all the world as a witness to all nations (Matthew 24:14). Should we fold our hands and wait until we are all consumed? Or should we take a bold step like the four lepers in the Bible: "There were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, ‘Why stay here until we die?’” (2 King 7:3). The story of the 4 lepers ended in abundance of foods for the famished people of Samaria. If we can trust God on our mission to reach the world with the Gospel, our story also might end in abundance of souls won for the Kingdom.
If there is any time that we need to take risks to prove our love for Christ, it is now. Christians should take risk to fast and pray continually for the souls of every lost person, including terrorists and enemies of the Gospel. We should risk our money to support missionaries and mission projects even when we are not a hundred percent sure of their genuineness. We should risk our lives and move to all the cities, towns and villages of every continent of the world, even when we are not sure about coming back alive. We cannot continue to sit in our churches confessing how wonderfully we love Jesus; time has come for us to work.
Jesus knew of the dangers associated with this command and assured us that He will be with us till the end of age (Mathew 28:20). If we love Him, let us obey His command and give ourselves for His Kingdom.
Oscar Amaechina is the president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network, Abuja, Nigeria. His calling is to take the gospel to where no one has neither preached nor heard about Jesus. He is the author of the book Mystery Of The Cross Revealed.
