Love Extravagantly

What does it mean to “Love extravagantly”?

What does it mean to “love extravagantly”?

Me: My dad used to say “it takes all kinds of people to make a world and I am pretty sure God gave us one half of the population to torment the other half.” I have a confession to make, I don’t always get along with people and sometimes I run into people that make me want to run away from them. Anyone with me? I remember serving in a small town and I was working with two churches through a process known as a “Church merger” Taking two congregations and making them one. Well, I had many who supported the endeavor but also had a portion who were dead opposed. In a small town you are bound to run into the ones who love you and the ones who make your life miserable. I would get so excited seeing those in my congregation that supported our work but I would get physically ill when I was in front of those who I know would pack my stuff and take me to the next town with excitement. One Sunday morning during the Joys and Concerns one asked for a moment of privilege. My associate pastor was running the service and granted it. For the next 3 minutes (seemed though an eternity) she eviscerated my motives and character. I found myself at the brink of getting up and walking out. I began to pray for this person who used phrases like “career minded, uncaring, untrustworthy, and a scoundrel” I was waiting for my congregation to stand up and take my defense, for my associate pastor to stop her in her tracks, but nothing. I was so angry and hurt. I just wanted to leave but the Holy Spirit had another idea. I stood up and thanked her for her words. I had a moment to get it right or blow it. Instead of escorting her out God lead me to invite all to prayer and then I gave the message. It went against everything for me to stand there after being thoroughly humiliated. God told me this is who you are going to be for them, you are going to lead by example.

You see it is so easy to love those that make your life a joy but how much harder is it love those who make you miserable?

Jesus Says

Jesus says to “love your enemies”

We know what it means to “hate” someone. Hate is intense hostility and aversion to a person. It is complete and utter apathy for a person’s well being. It is the willingness to tear down and destroy another either actively or passively.

Jesus calls for Israel to “love their enemies” in the famed Sermon On the Mount. This message of Jesus is the most difficult teachings Jesus offers during his earthly ministry. We may even say that they are impossible to keep. Jesus knocks the Pharisees from their high egos when he levels up what righteousness actually is-- a state of the heart that flows outward into action. The Pharisees see righteousness as a actions only.

Jesus offers a new covenant by his blood on the cross that becomes justified in his resurrection. Through it he creates a people able to live into the righteous life in which God is at the center and so is neighbor.

Sermon On the Mount concludes with the phrase “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” It’s the impossible standard. Let’s begin by looking at what love is and where it comes from:

How can Jesus say to love our enemies? Doesn’t he know what that means? Yes. Because Jesus exists in the community of God.

In order for God to be the essence of perfect love God must exist in a community. Why? Because love must be shared through expression and reception. Love cannot exist in isolation. Therefore, since God is love God must exist in community, that community is the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is perfect love. In his holiness, goodness, righteousness, judgement, wrath, are the expression of this perfect love.

God is love: 1 John 4:8, God is not only loving He is the embodiment of love itself.

How can we love like Jesus?

Can people love like God? Humanity was created in God’s image that we could reflect God in creation. The family is representational of the Triune. It was God’s hope that His creature would bear His attributes. Before the fall humans knew what love was because they walked with God’s holy presence. but in rebellion cast off that love. Because of our sinful nature we can’t love as God intended for us listen to David as he wrote: Psalm 51:5 “Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.”

We can’t love without God. Humans are the most self centered, selfish creatures alive. We willing usurp and use up every resource for our own benefit and pleasure. Corruption, violence, greed, vanity, pride, are all rooted in our sin. When our first though is only of ourselves we are unable to understand love in the Divine sense.

Gospel

Why? Because now we know God. John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Gospel: 1 John 2:1 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;”

We can now know love. God does for us what is impossible. You may say that to love an adversary is unfair, unjust, or just impossible- God commands us to do it. God doesn’t command with empowerment. Matthew 19:26 “But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.””

What does this mean? We are without excuse. To love extravagantly is to love as Jesus loved.

Let’s get the glove illustration.

A glove is designed for work and to be a useful and helpful but without the hand to go into it the glove only lays there powerless on the table.

When we become Christian, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit enters us and empowers us to do what was once impossible.

How else can Jesus share the Last Supper with a traitor, a denier, and those who would abandon him in his hour of need? He looked at them and he knew what was going to happen but yet he loved them and was willing to die for the very ones willing to reject and kill him. That is the example that Jesus gave, as the pounded the nails into his wrists and feet he prayed “forgive them Father for they know not what they do” In the midst of the violent act of death Jesus prayed for those abusing him. That is extravagant love.

Extravagant love in this context means mirroring the way God loves—freely, completely, and without reservation. It’s a love that flows from an intimate relationship with God and shapes all other interactions.

Jesus teaches that loving only those who love you is not enough. Instead, Christians are called to love even their enemies, praying for those who persecute them. This radical idea challenges the natural human inclination toward self-preservation and retaliation.

Extravagant love here involves breaking societal norms by loving those who may harm you or wish you ill. It’s a sacrificial, forgiving love that seeks the good of even those who are hostile or indifferent. This requires humility, empathy, and seeing people as God sees them—worthy of love, regardless of their actions.

When we fail there is grace:

“Whoever does not love does not know Gold”-- When we don’t love as Christians is as if we have forgotten who God is:

Characteristics of Extravagant Love:

We are called and empowered to live out God’s love so that the world will experience God’s amazing love!

1. Unconditional: God’s love is not based on merit, and neither should the love of Christians. Loving extravagantly means showing love even when it’s undeserved or un-reciprocated.

2. Sacrificial: As Jesus demonstrated through His sacrifice on the cross, extravagant love often involves giving up something for the sake of others. This could mean laying down personal preferences, comforts, or rights.

3. Inclusive: Just as God’s love is extended to all people, extravagant love crosses boundaries of race, class, and creed, seeking to include rather than exclude.

4. Forgiving: Love that forgives offenses, even serious ones, mirrors the forgiveness God extends to humanity. Loving extravagantly means letting go of grudges and offering second chances.

Practical Examples of Loving Extravagantly:

-Clinging to truth: Love does not let others believe a lie or a misconception. We speak the truth in love so that the world may know God’s standards for living.

- In relationships: Offering unconditional love to friends, family, and even strangers, regardless of how they treat you. This could mean forgiving a deep betrayal or helping someone in need without expecting anything in return.

- In community: Advocating for justice, serving the marginalized, and loving people who are often overlooked or rejected by society.

- In daily life: Showing patience and kindness in difficult situations, choosing to respond with love rather than frustration or anger.

No law has ever been passed that can compel one moral being to love another, for by the very nature of it love must be voluntary. No one can be coerced or frightened into loving anyone.4

A. W. Tozer

Conclusion:

They’ll know we are Christians by our love. They will know we are Global Methodist Christians by how extravagantly we love.

Loving extravagantly, in light of texts like "God is love," "love your enemies," and "what love the Father has lavished on us," means imitating God’s love in its fullness. It’s a love that goes beyond human limitations, rooted in God’s character, and made manifest through acts of selflessness, inclusion, and forgiveness.