How do I Show Others the Love of Jesus?

God first. Then Family, then ministry. Our pastor told us that is the correct order. 

1 John 4:20 says this: 

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

I have been hearing this scripture a lot lately. 

That one, and this: Matthew 22:37-39

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

Since the death of my dad and little brother back at the start of the year, I have made it a point to spend more time with family. So, this past summer I've been spending a lot more time with my mom. We also had my brother's children down for a few weeks.  

I adore spending time with my mom. 

She's a lot of fun. She's a pretty, funny, and smart, and her small size to me is just so cute. (She hates to be called cute!) 

My nieces and nephews are a lot of fun to hang with, and each very different. I enjoy getting to watch them grow and turn into little people. 

My husband is great to hang out with and since we don't have any children, we see a lot of each other and just look forward to each time we get to host our nieces and nephews for a weekend. 

So, I've been asking myself what it would look like to live this Godly order. Putting God before everything else, including our families, and then putting our families next--still pretty high up in priority--and, in a way I've been practicing it this summer and ever since. 

To elaborate on each of these: 

God first. 

This is the "no-brainer" to a Christian. If you love God, everything must come after that love for Him. The amazing thing about walking the Christian walk is since we can do nothing apart from our Lord, and when we put Jesus first, when we make Him our top priority, all else falls into place. 

Next, family. 

I think of my family as like my neighbors (even logistically that's not true).  And I must love my neighbors as myself, and if I hate my brother (my neighbor) then the love of God is not in me. Several years ago, my husband and I decided to distance ourselves from our family. There was only dysfunction, substance use, a lot of drinking, junk food and gossip it seemed whenever we all got together. 

As we grew in Christ, we realized that's not what Jesus wanted us to do. We need to be witnesses no matter where we go. Avoiding our family is not the way to shine our light. 

By the way, I'm happier this way. We both are. We missed our family. There are years (not many, thankfully, but a few) that we will never get back.  

Ministry last (although it's still just as important).

I've come to learn that ministry is what we do whenever we share the love of Christ, no matter if we are with our birth family, with our music team, with a congregation member, or at a bible study.

As "leaders" in our ministry roles, I want to always take a stance of being able to listen when someone on our team needs to talk. Leaders do have responsibility, as well as accountability.

In addition to growing in our roles as leaders, we are to help others grow in both their ministry role AND in their walk with Christ. 

This means OUR walk has to be strong, and that's where I feel as a leader, I am held accountable to the people I'm given the responsibility for. I need to point them to Jesus, and it starts with understanding why I was chosen into this leadership role.

(It's humbling, and truly I can't do it without Jesus. God made sure I was an inadequate a leader/director and Christian as much if not more than I am adequate as a director and experienced singer, musician, and band leader.)    

We also meet with our pastor as often as we can, to be mentored in how we can better lead and mentor our team. 

And we are worship leaders, but that's just one role we serve in this church. We're worshipers first, and still sinners. 

Why this order? God has order for everything. God is a God of order. Since the beginning! (See Genesis chapter 1.)

I understand why. Our family is our first ministry, starting with our immediate family. When our nieces and nephews come to stay with us, we do say grace with them and pray before bed. Our families need also to see how we are different.

And because God loved us first, we know how to love because of him (1 John 3:16) so we know how to be with family, we know how to love our family, lead our ministries and follow Jesus. 

It impacts our marriage. Following this same template, our marriage is three-part. God at the center, God as the priority, then all the rest falls into place. We love God more than we love each other BUT that means that he then loves us, and we can take care of our marriage.

To conclude, why do we put God first?

To love others. To be filled with the Holy Spirit whose love spills out onto others. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

We put God first to live with a perspective of joy. From joy we find love and extend that love to others. From love we find peace. All this comes from and through God. When we put God first, all else falls into place. 

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Photo by Patty Brito on Unsplash

References: 

Why Do We Need to Put God First in Our Lives? (christianity.com)