The Best Use of Our Lives Is Love

Devotional

Day 1: Glasses On: Seeing Life Through Love’s Lens

When blurry vision obscures what matters most, love becomes the corrective lens that brings life into focus. Just as glasses clarify leaves on distant trees or a comedian’s subtle expressions, love sharpens our priorities. Without it, relationships become shapeless blurs and purpose fades. Jesus reorders life’s chaos by anchoring it to two commands: loving God wholeheartedly and neighbors selflessly. These twin focal points integrate scattered energies into a coherent story. When love becomes the dominant lens, even mundane moments gain eternal weight. [40:35]

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
(Matthew 22:37-39, ESV)

Reflection: What distractions currently blur your vision of love’s priority? How might realigning your day around loving God and others bring surprising clarity?

Day 2: Receipts Required: Proving Faith Through Tangible Love

Authentic faith always leaves a paper trail. Like bank transactions requiring PIN verification, discipleship demands visible proof through sacrificial care. Creeds without compassionate deeds create spiritual fraud alerts. Jesus didn’t say people would recognize his followers by their theology tweets or worship playlists, but by their radical love for one another. This love validates invisible beliefs through touchable actions—meals shared, tears wiped, wounds bandaged. [46:38]

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
(John 13:34-35, ESV)

Reflection: Whose hunger for tangible love—a listening ear, a kept promise, a practical help—have you been postponing? What “receipt” can you offer them this week?

Day 3: The Currency of Hours: Spending Time Like Eternal Cash

Time remains love’s most democratic currency—equally distributed yet easily squandered. While diamonds and vacations dazzle, undivided attention outshines them all. Children don’t recall parents’ work bonuses but bedtime stories. Spouses crave shared sunsets more than jewelry. Jesus modeled this economy by letting children interrupt sermons and dining with outcasts. Every hour invested in loving presence compounds eternally, while self-focused minutes evaporate like steam. [55:26]

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
(1 John 3:18, ESV)

Reflection: Which relationship’s “emotional bank account” have you overdrawn through busyness? What specific time deposit will you schedule today?

Day 4: Filtering Hurts: When Love Absorbs the Stains

Broken relationships leave residue like muddy water. Love acts as Rwanda’s filtration system—not ignoring toxins but transforming them. Peter knew this firsthand after denying Christ, only to receive breakfast forgiveness by Galilee’s shore. Covering sins doesn’t mean excusing harm, but choosing to absorb pain rather than retaliate. Like Ian sacrificing Harvard plans for thirsty villagers, love filters grievances through grace’s purifying membranes. [54:04]

“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”
(1 Peter 4:8, ESV)

Reflection: What relational “impurity” have you struggled to filter—bitterness over betrayal, resentment from neglect? How might love’s cleansing flow change your response?

Day 5: Expiration Dates: Why Love Can’t Wait for Tomorrow

Procrastination turns love into spoiled milk—good intentions curdling into regret. Ian’s Rwandan friends couldn’t postpone thirst. The disciples couldn’t reschedule Pentecost. Jesus rebuked Martha’s delay in anointing him, knowing crucifixion loomed. Eternal impact happens in perishable moments: a coffee shared today, a letter sent this afternoon, a confession made before sunset. Love’s urgency stems from death’s inevitability and heaven’s approaching feast. [01:06:09]

“So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
(Galatians 6:10, ESV)

Reflection: What loving action have you been treating as “someday” work that actually carries a “today” expiration? What makes this the irreplaceable moment to act?

Sermon Summary

Jesus brings life into focus through the Great Commandment: love God with all the heart, soul, and mind, and love neighbors as oneself. Love is not one priority among many. Love is the priority, the goal, and the aim. Life is not finally about how much gets earned, accomplished, or accumulated. Life is about learning to love God and love people, and anything less misses the point of life.

Love validates faith before a watching world. Jesus says that love for one another proves discipleship, because creeds without deeds leave the world wondering whether faith is real. First John presses the point even further: anyone claiming love for the unseen God while hating the visible brother or sister is lying. God’s holy love must show up in real relationships, real patience, real mercy, and real acts of care.

Love also integrates life. God’s love becomes the center that holds together all the scattered pieces, protecting integrity when trials, emotional earthquakes, and financial hurricanes hit. Colossians says love ties everything completely together. Love covers a multitude of sins, not by calling sin good or pretending wounds do not matter, but by refusing to rub failure in. Christ’s grace toward Peter shows the way: love rubs it out, extending forgiveness to people who have blown it.

Love’s best expression is time. First John refuses empty words and calls for sincere action, because undivided attention tells another person, “You are valuable. You matter to me.” Gifts, money, clothes, and stuff cannot make up for a lack of presence. Busyness can fill a calendar while fracturing a family, and screens can quietly consume the days meant for friendship, marriage, children, and neighbors. Love requires sacrifice, giving up what feels preferable in the moment in order to be present with another person.

Love’s best time is now. Ian’s choice to delay Harvard so that a village in Rwanda could receive clean water shows the difference between good intentions and love that acts while there is still opportunity. Galatians calls believers to do good whenever the chance comes, because no one knows how long a relationship, a conversation, or one more cup of coffee will be available. The Holy Spirit calls for an honest love examination and heart surgery, so that God’s people may be remembered as those whose presence helped others believe that God loved them. Love God, love people, give time, and do not put it off.

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Key Takeaways

1. Love proves faith before a watching world. Jesus makes love the visible evidence of discipleship. Creeds matter, truth matters, and doctrine matters, but love gives those convictions flesh and blood in front of family, friends, and neighbors. God’s character becomes believable when Christ’s people treat others with the mercy they have received. [46:38]
2. Love holds a fragmented life together. God’s holy love gives the whole life a center when every other part feels scattered. Love guards integrity because it keeps ambitions, money, relationships, and decisions under one ruling purpose. Christ’s love remains strong enough to hold a life steady through the storms that expose weaker foundations. [48:12]
3. Love rubs sin out, not in. Peter’s own failure and restoration show that forgiveness is not a theory. Christ met Peter’s denial with grace, and that grace formed Peter into someone able to call the church toward deep love. God’s love does not deny the damage of sin, but it refuses to weaponize another person’s failure. [52:42]
4. Time gives love its clearest expression. Love offers more than provision, presents, or words. Undivided attention says that another person is worth stopping for, listening to, and knowing. Christlike love sacrifices convenience because presence cannot be replaced by stuff. [55:26]
5. Love must not be postponed. Opportunity can disappear through death, distance, changing circumstances, or simply the passing of years. God authorizes every believer to use each chance for doing good, especially among the family of faith. Love becomes real when it acts before regret gets the final word.

## [64:37]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[40:16] - Bringing Life Into Focus
[42:25] - The Great Commandment
[44:46] - The Best Use of Life Is Love
[45:16] - Love Validates Faith
[48:12] - Love Integrates Life
[51:12] - Love Covers a Multitude of Sins
[54:25] - The Best Expression of Love Is Time
[57:48] - Busyness and Broken Relationships
[61:53] - The Best Time to Love Is Now
[62:16] - Ian’s Choice to Serve Rwanda
[66:09] - Do Not Put Love Off
[69:39] - A Simple Next Step of Love
[70:56] - Closing Prayer

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Matthew 22:37-40
“And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’” [42:44]

1 John 4:19-21
“We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” [47:43]

Galatians 6:10
“So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” [01:04:46]

Observation questions

In Matthew 22:37-40, what two relationships does Jesus name as the greatest priorities in life, and how fully are believers called to love God?
According to 1 John 4:19-21, what comes first: God’s love for believers or their love for God? What connection does John make between loving God and loving a visible brother or sister?
What are some things that can become the center of a person’s life instead of love for God and people? [49:48]
What examples are given of ways people may provide things for loved ones while still withholding the time and attention those loved ones need? [56:18]

Interpretation questions

Jesus says that all the Law and the Prophets depend on loving God and loving one’s neighbor. What does this mean for a believer whose schedule is full of worthwhile activities but whose closest relationships are being neglected? [43:21]
First John says that a person cannot truly claim to love the unseen God while hating a visible brother or sister. How should this shape the way believers handle irritation, resentment, and conflict in everyday relationships? [47:46]
Love “covers a multitude of sins,” yet biblical love is also holy and rooted in truth. What is the difference between forgiving someone’s failure and pretending that sin, hurt, or unhealthy behavior does not matter? [53:52]
Galatians 6:10 calls believers to do good “as we have opportunity.” What kinds of opportunities for love are easy to delay until they are lost, and why can delay become spiritually costly? [01:06:16]

Application questions

What has been receiving the best of your energy, attention, and time lately? Does that pattern show that love for God and people is your highest priority, or does something need to be reordered? [58:42]
Is there a relationship in which you have been tempted to rub someone’s failure in rather than help “rub it out” through grace and forgiveness? What would a truthful, wise, and loving next step look like? [54:01]
Who in your life most needs your undivided attention right now—a spouse, child, parent, friend, neighbor, or someone in the church? What specific time could you set aside this week simply to listen and be present? [55:22]
How do screens, entertainment, work, or busyness compete with your ability to be present with the people you love? What is one realistic boundary you could try this week to make room for deeper connection? [59:21]
Is there someone you need to call, visit, encourage, serve, apologize to, or forgive while the opportunity is still available? What has kept you from doing it, and what could you do in the next few days? [01:04:54]
Think of a person who may not feel loved by God or by others. How could your words, attention, practical care, or hospitality help that person see something of Christ’s love? [01:12:43]

Sermon Clips

58s

#LoveNow

“Just sit down with them. Listen to them. Look them in the face. Listen to them. If they're if they're in a different part of the country, just give them a call or FaceTime them. And don't make the conversation about you. Just just just listen. Seek to pour love into them. Who knows? You you might end up apologizing. You might empathize. You might sympathize. Whatever it is that you need to do, do it. Because loved ones, the best use of our lives is love. The best expression of our love is time, and the best time to show love is now.”

74s

#ForgiveWithLove

“See, I believe Peter, he also realized from personal experience that there's grace to be found too. Because Jesus showed amazing love and grace in the aftermath of Peter's failure. And I believe Peter is also speaking from personal experience. One that is a person once they've been forgiven much, God gives them the ability to forgive the unforgivable and others as well. Come on, church. Come You see, covers a multitude of sins. When you really love someone the way that God loves you and they blow it, here's the thing. Love doesn't rub it in. Love rubs it out. Maybe I need to say that again because this is the mark of God's love at work in us. Love doesn't rub it in. It rubs it out.”

50s

#NoMoreRegrets

“I mean, how many of us have someone who has come and gone in our lives, and we would do absolute anything in the world just to have one more day? Just one more cup of coffee. Just one more conversation. So, friends, it's not a question of whether we will regret procrastinating and and neglecting showing love to others because of an overloaded, furious pace of living where we skim on relationships. That's not the question. The question is when will we regret it? And then what are we gonna do to change it?”

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