This is the devotional I wrote for school in February.
~Samantha

♥ The perfect example of love. ♥

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. 1 John 3:16a
Jesus gave us the perfect example of love when He died on the cross for us. Jesus was not obligated to die for us. He chose to do it because He loves us.
Jesus lived in Heaven with His Father who loved Him. He had the ultimate life, but He chose to give it all up and come to earth as a man. Jesus suffered much during His life on here on earth. The people I would think to be likely to accept Him rejected Him and the people I would think most likely to reject Him embraced Him. The people in the town were He grew up rejected Him, yet the people that should have been His enemies embraced Him. The religious leaders scorned Him, yet the thief on the cross believed Him. He probably felt alone sometimes, because one of the people He was closest to betrayed Him and the disciple whom He loved denied Him three times in one night. He knew that all this would happen. He chose to bear all this for our sake.
Jesus endured much pain and suffering, because He loved us so much. Jesus is perfect. He did not have to ever see the wrath of God, yet He willingly had God's wrath poured out on himself, so that we might live forever. What could be a harder way to lay down your life that as a sacrifice for all our sins?
Jesus gave us the perfect example of love by laying His life down for us.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. This verse gives clearly tells us how we should love. We should be willing to lay down our lives for our friends, family, and enemies. We should follow Jesus' example of love and love everyone enough that we would give our lives for them.
Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor. Our neighbors are anyone we come in contact with: friends, family, strangers and enemies. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:39b
Jesus also commanded us to love the LORD. Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ Matthew 22:37 Laying down our life for the LORD means giving up our life to follow Him. Loving the LORD also means obeying His commands. “If you love Me, keep My commandments. John 14:15
Jesus showed us how to love, and commanded us to love. Now we must love others, and by loving others we will be obeying the LORD, and therefore loving Him, which is our most important task of all.
Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."