love

Daily Devotional: John 15:12–13 (ESV)

Tuesday, October 27, 2026

John 15:12–13 (ESV)

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Reflection

Think for a moment about what kind of love you actually have the capacity to produce on your own. If you’re honest, most of your love is conditional, keeping score, waiting to see if it will be reciprocated. You love people who are easy to love, and even then, not consistently. This is the human condition: we are self-focused lovers trying to obey a self-sacrificing command.

That’s why Jesus doesn’t just give us an instruction in these verses. He gives us a model and a means. “Love one another, even as I have loved you.” The love he’s calling us to isn’t generated from somewhere inside us. It’s a love that flows out of what he has already done. He laid down his life for his friends, and we were not yet his friends when he did it. We were enemies, rebels, people who had nothing to offer him. He loved us when love made no logical sense.

This is where your hope for change lives. You don’t have the ability to manufacture greater love. But you have been loved with the greatest love there ever was. Every time you fail to love well today, run back to this truth: Christ laid down his life for you first. His love doesn’t wait for you to get it right. It transforms you from the inside, little by little, so that his sacrificial love becomes the pattern your own heart begins to follow.

Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me when I had nothing to give. Let your sacrifice be the well I draw from as I try to love others today.

Sources & attribution

Devotional from Morning Selah.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Daily Devotional: 1 Corinthians 13:13 (ESV)

Saturday, October 24, 2026

1 Corinthians 13:13 (ESV)

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Reflection

Some mornings I wake up and immediately start taking inventory. How much faith do I have today? How much hope can I muster for what’s ahead? Am I loving the people in my house, my office, my church the way I should? And if I’m honest, the inventory usually comes up short. My faith wavers. My hope flickers. My love runs thin and selfish far too often.

But here’s what strikes me about this verse: Paul doesn’t say faith, hope, and love depend on your ability to generate them. He says they remain. They endure. They’re not fragile little candles that you have to shield from every wind with your own effort. They’re gifts, rooted in the character of a God who doesn’t run out.

And love is called the greatest, not because it’s easier than faith or hope, but because it’s the clearest picture of who God is and what He’s done. Before I ever loved Him, He loved me. Before I had faith to reach for Him, He reached for me in Christ. My hope isn’t hope in my own spiritual stamina, it’s hope anchored in a finished work on a cross and an empty tomb.

So today, when my love feels thin, I don’t need to manufacture more. I need to look again at the love that never runs dry, the love that remains.

Lord, where my love is weak, let me rest in Yours, which never fails, and let that love overflow into the people You’ve placed in front of me today.

Sources & attribution

Devotional from Morning Selah.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Living From Love, Not For Love

We often act out of a deep desire to be loved, seeking approval, validation, or respect from others. This mindset can leave us anxious, disappointed, and focused on ourselves.

But when we remember that we are already loved by God, everything changes. We can act from a place of security and freedom rather than striving for acceptance. We can serve, give, and relate to others without hidden agendas or unrealistic expectations.

Living because we are loved means:

  • We can humble ourselves without needing to prove anything.
  • We can give our worries to God instead of obsessing over our performance.
  • We can resist lies and stand firm in faith rather than relying on feelings.
  • We can embrace growth and strength instead of choosing comfort and ease.

When we live from the truth that we are loved, we find true freedom and clarity. We stop striving and start living with purpose and grace.

Lord, help me remember today that I am loved. Free me from self-focus and striving, and help me live out of Your love. Amen.

Adapted from Lysa TerKeurst, Because I Am Loved.