Live, Love, Learn

As I sat in a prayer service on Wednesday night, three words popped into my head. I wondered what these words were supposed to mean and why the three of them just came into my head. They had come out of nowhere, and I was sure that God was trying to tell me something. I felt that I should write them down so I turned to the back of my notebook and wrote them down. The words were live, love, learn. I felt that I needed to take these words and search God’s Word to see if I could determine what it was about these words that God wanted to tell me.

As I searched God’s Word, the easiest of these words to understand was love. The Bible tells us that we should love God with all our heart, soul, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5). God is love and, when we abide in love, not only do we abide in God, but He also abides in us (1 John 4:16). Jesus commanded us to love each other, just as He loves us. Our love for each other shows the world that we are His disciples (John 13:34-35). God’s Word says that we love because He loved us first. So love is important in the life of each of us who follow Christ.

Live was also an easy word to understand. From the beginning of creation, God’s intent was that we should live forever in His presence. But sin made eternal life impossible. Still, God wanted us to have life in Him and so He provided a way for us to receive eternal life: believing in His only Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16). Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sin and to make us right in God’s eyes. When we have faith in Jesus, when we put our trust in Him and turn from our sin, we will have eternal life (Romans 1:17). In Galatians 2:20, the apostle Paul wrote that he had been crucified with Christ. He had turned from the ways and desires of the flesh, and so Christ lived in Him. Rather than living in the flesh, he lived by faith in Jesus, the Son of God, who gave His life for him. This is how we all must live: by faith in Jesus.

Learn was a harder word to understand. But as I searched the Word, I was brought to Matthew 11:29, where Jesus taught that we should take His yoke upon us and learn from Him. We need to learn from Jesus how to love and how to live. And, as it says in Colossians 3:16, we need to teach others, using the wisdom that we learn from Him so that they can also learn from Jesus. As I read that verse in Colossians, I looked at the verses before it and saw why God had put the words live, love, and learn in my head. Take a look at Colossians 3:10-17 from the NLT:

Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us. Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

God was telling me that we must live in Christ, love as He loves us, and learn from Him. Why? So that the way in which we live our lives, the way in which we present ourselves to the world will make us the best representatives of Christ that we can possibly be.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.