“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:10

The words “love ya” are said often, but they aren’t always proven. When it comes to the love Jesus has for you, His actions speak louder than any words ever could. 

Jesus loves you to death, and He proved it. 

Jesus didn’t just tell us He loved us—He actually proved His love for us, in the most profound and sacrificial way possible. While we were still utterly lost in our sin, He chose to lay down His life for us. (Romans 5:8) No act of love in the history of the world has ever compared to this. 

In John 15:13, Jesus tells us, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." And Jesus, the Creator of the universe, calls us His friends. He was called a “friend of sinners.” Think about that for a moment—God Himself loved you even in your brokenness so deeply that He willingly went to the cross to die in your place. Then, three days later, He defeated that very death, rising again so that we might have eternal life.

This “Agape” (real love) isn’t just something we’re meant to receive. It’s something we’re meant to live out. Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow Him, to love one another in the same sacrificial, life-giving way He did. We are called to love others "to death"—to love them so fully, so deeply, so selflessly, and so great that they will encounter the transformative power of Christ’s love and experience the hope of resurrection in their own lives.

“We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.” ‭‭1 John‬ ‭3‬:‭16‬ ‭

Christ loved you to death and back so that you could love others to death and back. Dying to your own desires for the sake of others, sharing the life-changing truth of Jesus with a world in desperate need of salvation. This is the love that saves, the love that transforms, and the love that brings new life. This is–Real Love. 

Jesus, your friend, loved you to death and back. Friend, love like this. Don’t let love be merely driven by your feelings of affection, but love sacrificially, unconditionally, and without expectation, for this is how Christ loves you. Love others to death.