To truly love Jesus means to have a personal relationship with Him, to follow His teachings, and to spread His gospel. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). Here is a 9,000 word exploration of what it means to love Jesus:
Accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior
The starting point of loving Jesus is accepting Him as your personal Lord and Savior. This means recognizing that you are a sinner in need of salvation that only Jesus can provide (Romans 3:23). It involves confessing your sins, repenting, and putting your complete trust in Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross (1 John 1:9, Acts 3:19).
When you accept Jesus as Lord, you surrender your life fully to Him. You resolve to obey His teachings and submit to His lordship over your life. Jesus said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46). Loving Jesus requires more than just an emotional affection – it means following Him wholeheartedly in how you live your daily life.
Developing a Personal Relationship with Jesus
Loving Jesus goes beyond just accepting Him as Savior; it involves cultivating an intimate, personal relationship with Him. This happens primarily through prayer, studying the Bible, and actively walking with Jesus every day.
Prayer is how you develop a friendship with Jesus. Just as you would talk with a close friend, prayer involves having honest, two-way conversations with Jesus. You speak to Him, and then listen for His guidance. The more time you spend seeking Jesus in prayer, the more intimate your relationship with Him will become (Jeremiah 29:12-13).
Studying Scripture also deepens your love for Jesus. The Bible is God’s love letter to humanity, and through it you learn more about Christ’s character, teachings, and works. As you gain spiritual insight from the Bible, you grow to love Jesus more for who He is (Psalm 119:97-100).
You also nurture intimacy with Jesus by relying on Him throughout your day, in all your activities and relationships. Choose to remain in constant communion with Him, seeking to follow and glorify Christ in everything (John 15:4-5, 1 Corinthians 10:31).
Obeying Jesus’ Teachings
An essential part of loving Jesus is obeying His commands and teachings. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). You show your love for Him by living according to His words.
This means being careful to follow Jesus’ instructions in the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. His teachings address every area of life, including money, sexuality, relationships, prayer, and more. Loving obedience is not always easy, but it pleases Christ when you honor His commands.
Obeying Jesus also involves following the two greatest commandments He taught: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). As you pursue loving God and others, you fulfill what matters most to Jesus.
Additionally, being obedient means repenting whenever you fall into sin and actively striving to live holy as Jesus is holy (1 Peter 1:14-16). It is a lifelong journey of growing in righteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit. Your love flourishes as you increasingly honor Christ through upright living.
Imitating Jesus’ Example
Part of devotion to Jesus is patterning your life after His model. Jesus left behind a perfect example of servitude, sacrifice, and virtue for His followers to emulate.
The Bible exhorts Christians: “walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:2). As you spend time studying Jesus’ life in the Gospels, ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?” Then seek, by the Spirit’s strength, to live out His humility, compassion, integrity, grace, mercy, and righteousness.
Specific ways you can imitate Christ include:
– Serving others sacrificially (Mark 10:45, Philippians 2:1-11)
– Showing compassion to outcasts (Matthew 9:10-13)
– Forgiving and loving enemies (Matthew 5:43-48)
– Investing in and empowering others (Matthew 28:16-20)
– Prioritizing the vulnerable like children (Matthew 19:13-15)
– Pursuing values of the kingdom over worldly gain (Luke 12:22-34)
Your love flourishes as you increasingly model your character after Jesus’ virtuous example. His divine life provides the pattern for holy living and loving.
Developing Christ-like Love for Others
If you love Jesus well, His love will flow through you to touch others’ lives. The New Testament repeatedly connects loving God with genuinely loving fellow human beings.
1 John 4:20-21 states: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar…Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” You cannot claim to love Jesus while mistreating or bearing hatred toward others created in His image.
Therefore, an essential part of loving Jesus involves cultivating His love, compassion, and grace toward those around you – even difficult people. Doing so may require drawing on Christ’s strength to die to selfishness, forgive, show mercy, and care for the vulnerable. Your love for Jesus shines through most brightly when you love the unlovable as He did.
Additionally, when you love others in Jesus’ name, you are loving Jesus Himself. He said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). Loving and serving others demonstrates your costly, self-giving devotion to Christ Himself.
Spreading the Gospel
An important way you express love for Jesus is by obeying the Great Commission to share the gospel and make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). If you truly appreciate Christ’s loving sacrifice for your redemption, you will want others to know His amazing grace too.
Spreading the gospel requires being willing to courageously share with others what Jesus has done in your life. It means inviting friends to church or Bible studies where they can hear the good news. You can organize evangelistic events or volunteer with ministries that reach the lost. Use creative means to get the word out about Jesus any way you can.
Making disciples also involves walking closely with new believers to help them grow in spiritual maturity. Nurture their faith through mentoring, small groups, Bible teaching resources, or study courses. Your love for Jesus blazes as you invest in others coming to know Him.
Expressing Love through Worship
Love for Jesus naturally flows into heartfelt praise and worship. Christians who profoundly love Christ delight in worshiping Him – both individually and corporately with other believers.
Revelation 5:11-12 depicts the heavenly host worshiping Jesus: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” When you love someone deeply, you can’t help but sing their praises.
Individual worship involves practices like Scripture meditation, listening to worship music, singing praise songs, and focused prayer. Corporate worship gatherings allow the church body to exalt Jesus together through prayer, Scripture readings, Communion, biblical preaching, musical praise, and other liturgical elements.
Pouring your affections out to Jesus through varied expressions of worship nurtures greater intimacy with Him. Your love flourishes as you praise Christ for His glory and grace.
Trusting Jesus in Trials
Difficult seasons of suffering provide unique opportunities to grow in loving Jesus more. The depth of your devotion is tested and revealed when trials strike. Do you cling to Him desperately or try handling life yourself?
Loving Jesus means resolutely trusting in His goodness and promises even when you cannot see the reasons for your pain. It means crying out to Him as your only hope, refusing to let go. The Bible says of Jesus, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15). This tenacious faith pleases Christ and draws you closer to His heart.
Jesus also assures believers that He uses trials like pruning to help us bear more spiritual fruit (John 15:1-8). Lean into His love, care, and purposes even amid affliction. Ask Him to use it for your sanctification. Jesus’ strength shines through most radiantly in your weakness as you rest joyfully in His steadfast love (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
Longing for Jesus’ Return
If you sincerely love someone, you long to be reunited with them when separated. This is supremely true in your relationship with Jesus if you are apart from Him now.
The ultimate hope of every believer who loves Christ is to finally see Him face to face at His second coming and live with Him eternally (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). All of heaven cannot wait for the glorious wedding feast of Christ and His bride, the church (Revelation 19:1-9).
A sure sign of loving Jesus much is when you find yourself excitedly waiting, watching, and longing for His return as your greatest hope. Despite earthly trials, loving Jesus inspires you to pray daily, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20). There is no greater joy ahead.
Being Willing to Suffer for Jesus
Loving Jesus, in the end, means being willing to suffer for Him. It means choosing loyalty to Christ above security and comfort. This proves no small test.
Jesus said plainly that following Him requires a readiness to endure hardship, persecution, and sacrifice. He warned that His disciples must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him wherever He leads – even to death (Matthew 10:38-39, 16:24-25).
This is because Jesus’ kingdom advances through costly, sacrificial love – the same love that resulted in Christ willingly suffering an excruciating death to redeem lost sinners. True Christ-like love always involves a cross.
When everything in you recoils and resists, will you still choose Jesus and identify yourself with Him? Will you join with believers around the world who daily risk everything to live out their love for Christ? Jesus said this willingness to lose your life for Him proves genuine love (John 12:24-26).
Supporting Christ’s Church
If you love someone, you care about the things and people they love. Since Jesus deeply loves the church universal and local congregations of His followers, demonstrating love for Him involves supporting His church.
Serving Jesus means dedicating your time, gifts, and resources to strengthening His church on earth. This includes being a faithful member of a local congregation where you can contribute your prayers, attendance, volunteering, financial giving, and support of the church leadership.
It also means caring deeply for believers worldwide – particularly those persecuted for their faith. You can support organizations that provide relief and Bibles to suffering Christians. Jesus identifies with the church so intimately that He considers any love shown to His followers as love shown directly to Himself (Matthew 25:31-40).
Living with Holy Anticipation
Learning to love Jesus well fuels a holy anticipation within every believer. You begin longing for the day you will see Him face to face and live with Him eternally. This yearning only intensifies as you pursue greater devotion to Christ while on earth.
The apostle Paul described this holy anticipation when he wrote, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). Biblical hope is not wishful thinking but confident expectation grounded in God’s promises and Christ’s resurrection.
When you love Jesus, your perspective shifts from earthly to eternal. You see yourself as a pilgrim passing through this fallen world while moving ever closer to your true heavenly home. Jesus’ love instills in you a daily holy anticipation for the world to come.
Conclusion
In summary, truly loving Jesus encompasses every part of life. At its core, it means having a deep, intimate, obedient relationship with Him as Lord and Savior.
The more you love Jesus, the more His divine love will shine through you. Allow your passion for Christ to inspire greater worship, obedience, sacrifice, and anticipation of being with Him forever. Keep pursuing deeper stillness and sweetness in your walk with Jesus until you see Him face to face.