1 John 3:16: "This Is What Love Is"

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. - 1 John 3:16

A while back, it was annual review time at my company. In addition to being reviewed by peers and boss, each employee is reponsible to review themselves. This is always a tricky business, especially if your opinion of yourself varies greatly from that of other people. So I tend to evaluate myself very rigorously against the standards listed and fill in a few of my more glaring defects. But then my boss had to come back and write lots of explanatory text. Why? I didn't help him enough by writing about my many accomplishments.

Our culture expects us to be self-promoting. We are encouraged to act as our own PR agencies, constantly looking for a way to look good or, at least, not look bad. Promote what is good, hide what is bad.

But the Bible says that this attitude is antithetical to love. Love is self-diminishment on behalf of another. Paradoxically, in God's economy, the very giving away of our selves is the means to our own spiritual replenishment.

John the Baptist was confronted by the fact that he was losing market share in the rabbi market, especially in the critical demographics, to his cousin Jesus. But he told his followers, "He must increase; I must decrease." It required strength to descend into weakness. John did it for Jesus.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. - 2 Corinthians 8:9

Jesus followed the same path. Forsaking all that heaven offered, he emptied himself, took up our shame. He decreased so that we might increase.

Now the Bible calls on us to follow the same example of love. Our natural tendency is to orient the universe so that it revolves around us. But love orients itself around the other so that the question is not "how much I lose" but "how much will my brother/sister gain."

How can you start the process today? Choose to lose something today.