before Saul, with David still holding the Philistine's head. "Whose son are you, young man?" Saul asked him. David said, "I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem." After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father's house. And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.

From the day that David stood up for the name of God against Goliath, Jonathan loved David and did everything he could to protect him, and God used him to save David's life.  We see that to love someone we care about them more then we care about ourselves.  We put their needs above our needs.

But it is impossible to find anyone in the Bible who matches the love of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Of course Jesus is our model in all the fruits of the Spirit, but when you talk about love Jesus just keeps coming to mind. 

John 15:13   Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Paul, Peter and all the disciples laid down their lives for their friends, becoming martyrs. But Jesus Christ laid down his life for every person in the world who would simply place their faith and trust in Him.  He did that because of how much He loves us.  He loved us so much that He did not want us to perish in our sins, but make a way for us to escape the wrath of God.  The only way for Him to do that was to lay down His life for his friends.
 
Joh 3:16   "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus is our pattern.  Since Jesus has done so much for us, we should in turn want to show God's love to others.

1Jo 4:11   Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

There are so many people in the world who need the love of Jesus Christ.  How will they know about it unless we tell them, and how will they see it unless it is demonstrated in our loves?

Love Examples In Life

Bad Beginnings to Happy Endings

A young man lay in the corner of a dirty, roach-infested death row cell in a South Carolina prison. His body curled up in a fetal position, he seemed not to notice all the filth and stench around him. His name was Rusty, and he was sentenced to die for the murder of a Myrtle Beach woman in a crime that left four people dead.

Police arrested twenty-three-year-old Rusty Welborn from Point Pleasant, West Virginia in 1979, following one of the most brutal killings in South Carolina history. Rusty was tried for murder and received the death penalty for his crime. Bob McAlister, deputy chief of staff to South Carolina's governor, became acquainted with Rusty on death row. Bob had become a Christian a year or so earlier and felt a strong call from God to minister to the state's inmates--especially those spending their last days on death row.

Bob's first look at Rusty revealed a pitiful sight. Rusty was lying on the floor when he arrived, a hopeless  picture of a man who believed he mattered to no one. The only signs of life in the cell were the cockroaches who were running everywhere, including over Rusty himself. He made no effort to move or even to brush the