The Overflow of Love (Loving Others)

INTRODUCTION: “The Mirror on the Wall”

Imagine standing before a mirror every morning. You don’t just look to admire yourself, you look to adjust yourself. You fix what’s out of place because what you see matters to how you step into the world.

Now, imagine if we treated the people around us as MIRRORS, REFLECTIONS of God’s IMAGE. When we LOVE OTHERS, we are, in essence, adjusting how we REFLECT CHRIST to the WORLD. Just as a MIRROR shows us who we are, PEOPLE show us how much of Jesus SHINES through US.

SCRIPTURE: Matthew 22:39 “And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Jesus CONNECTS the first commandment (LOVE GOD) to the second (LOVE OTHERS), not as TWO SEPARATE ROADS, but as TWO RAILS on the SAME TRACK. If we truly LOVE GOD, we can’t help but LOVE OTHERS. The VERTICAL LOVE of God naturally spills out HORIZONTALLY toward PEOPLE.

3-WAYS WE LOVE LIKE JESUS LOVED:

LOVE OTHERS INTENTIONALLY

LOVING OTHERS INTENTIONALLY doesn’t happen by ACCIDENT.

John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you…”

LOVE isn’t ACCIDENTAL, it’s INTENTIONAL. 

LOVE OTHERS COMPASSIONATELY

To LOVE OTHERS COMPASSIONATELY, we must learn to SEE OTHERS with the SAVIOR’S EYES.

Luke 10:33-34 “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had

COMPASSION on him…”

The Good Samaritan didn’t see a PROBLEM, he saw a PERSON.

LOVE OTHERS SELFLESSLY

LOVING OTHERS SELFLESSLY means putting YOU in SECOND PLACE.

Philippians 2:3-4 “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem

other better than themselves.”

Paul reminds us that LOVING OTHERS means DYING to SELFISHNESS.