Loving Without Seeing

“whom having not seen ye love…” -1 Peter 1:8

Isn’t this the epitome of living the Christian life? Most of the time, we define our Christian life in one of two ways. Either we define our faith by our rituals (worship, prayer, quiet time, etc.) or we define it by our restrictions (all of our many rules). Peter defines it as loving the One whom we have not yet seen.

Loving Jesus is always demonstrated by obedience regardless of our feelings, so the ultimate expression of love is a life of holiness. Loving without seeing is the primary expression of our faith, which is not only the medium of our salvation, but the principle by which we life life on a daily basis.

Do you love Jesus? The truth is, you only love Jesus when you are obedient to His will and His commandments. But the bigger question may be, do you define your life by your love for Jesus? You may say “no” to sin because it’s on your list of restrictions. You may say “yes” to religious rituals because they are part of your forte of faith. What if instead, we said “no” to sin because we love Jesus and “yes” to the practice of our faith because we love Jesus?

It’s very difficult to cross this bridge to living by the motivation of loving Jesus. Why? Because we can see our rituals, we can see the world around us and whether we are living a holy life or not. But we cannot see Jesus yet. However, we can love Him and experience Him on a daily basis. Have you experienced Him today? Why not begin by saying, “Jesus, though I can’t see you, I’m going to love you with all of my heart today…”