Crazy Love: Love that Makes No Sense is the first segment in this series, focusing on Jude 20–21:
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life (KJV).
In this Scripture, the love Jude mentioned is not our normal concept of love. It’s Godly love—the love God designed for His church; the love God intended His children to live by and operate in. Jude warns us to keep ourselves in love—to take our plans, thoughts, actions, behavior, etc. and ensure we stay in the same love that saved us and transformed our lives.
When we think about God’s love, it does more than change our life. God’s love has the power to change every life and relationship around us. His love is meant to flow through us into every situation and person we encounter on a day-to-day basis. We need to allow God’s love to saturate us to the extent that it flows out of us. His love was never intended to be dormant; it was meant to be put into action.
Our idea of love is one-dimensional. When God pours His love into us, we think it is only meant for us. But, God’s love should not be contained in us, but should flow out of us everywhere we go. We can’t just have a relationship with God where we consume His love and keep it to ourselves. We need to let it out!
God’s love is so powerful that we can’t contain it. We need to allow God’s love to operate in our life. We need to let it get crazy!
Jesus told a lawyer in Scripture if he loved the Lord with all his heart, soul, strength and mind, and loved his neighbor as himself, that he would live (Luke 10:25–28). But, who is our neighbor? Jesus defined our neighbor in a story about a the Samaritan who encountered wounded man—someone he didn’t know—and went out of his way to care for him by sacrificing his time and finances (Luke 10:30–37).
This example shows that our neighbors are the men and women all around us—the people we meet every day in all circumstances. The ability to show crazy love isn’t wrapped up in a ministry, or in specialized titles, but is demonstrated loving people. God will give us the chance to pour out crazy love everywhere we go. Opportunities to love people are at our doorstep every day.
God’s love—crazy love—is not a feeling. If we allow our relationship with God to be ruled by our feelings, His love cannot be fully operational in our life. God will put us into situations with people who need more from us than our feelings. They need to feel and experience God’s love through the Holy Ghost.
When we love others, we cannot be consumed with what we’re going to “get” from the encounter. We need to think about what God’s love, in operation through us, can do for someone else. When we think about Jesus Christ and His ultimate sacrifice on the cross, He did not have the ideology of “getting” anything from mankind if He laid down His life. We don’t have anything that God needs! Jesus just has a heart that longs for people and He desires to help us when we fail.
We need to put on the Christ-like mentality of “loving to love.” God gave because He loves His people, but He also gave because He loves to love. If we have the same Spirit of Christ working in us, we need to love to love others as well.
Loving people again and again is a foreign concept to us because in our human nature we think there should always be a limit. We should not think that we’ve ever done enough for others or that we’ve extended enough mercy to them. Crazy love is unconditional.
In the story about the good Samaritan in Luke 10:25–28, Scripture tells us that after taking care of the man, the Samaritan told the host, “Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee” (Luke 10:35, KJV). The Samaritan was coming back. He was returning to pour out more love on the wounded man again.
When Peter asked the Lord how many times he should forgive others, Jesus told him to forgive 70 times 7 (Matthew 18:22). We are to forgive and love others an innumerable number of times. Crazy love does not have a limit and will bring deliverance to others if we allow it to work through us.
Many people are too afraid to display crazy love because they have a fear of getting hurt and being vulnerable. I John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (KJV). If we are fearful to love, this is an indication that something is not right in us. Perfect love will cast out all fear.
Galatians 5:14 instructs us to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we can’t love others, the root cause is the inability for love to flow not only from us, but to us as well. We may have a hindrance in our life that prohibits God’s love to flow to us and through us. If we struggle with loving others, it’s because our own relationship with God is not where it should be. We need to examine ourselves and ensure that we’re allowing God to use us as a vessel to pour out His love on others.
Crazy love goes against all the rules; therefore, we have to get crazy about the idea of God’s love. Crazy love will always require work, but when it’s work is done—crazy love will ultimately work.