Love and Joy

"Love:
1. The overflow of joy in God that meets the needs of others.
2. The expansion of my joy in God to the lives of others as to include them in it."
                                                         -John Piper- Engage '11

Our lives should be so full of Gods joy that nothing can prevent that joy overflowing into the thoughts, actions and words that come with love.
I have been thinking about this lately.
I love serving people and doing things for people, and not because I am a super- human, nor super-Christian, I simply enjoy loving people in a practical way. I enjoy that by me doing something, another may not have to do it.
But, if it is not I being super-human, where does it come from? The Spirit. The joy that I get from knowing that I; a selfish, insecure, broken, and sinful person, have received Gods grace and mercy through his love for me and everyone around me.

I have been thinking lately about Matthew 22: 37-39 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself."

The first and greatest commandment is quite simple, despite its difficulty. Like the first and second commandments. 1. You shall have no other gods before me. 2. You shall not make idols in heaven above of on the earth beneath or in the waters below. [Exodus 20] God is to be our only god, our only idol, our only refuge, our only salvation and our source for joy.
The second however, I have stumbled on many times. We always hear and are taught that we are to love our neighbours; our friends, our family, and strangers, as ourselves. But how do we love ourselves? When we are also taught to be self-sacrificial and put others first, how are we to love them as we love ourselves.

Love is not just an emotion, or feeling, or thought, but mainly an action. To love someone best is to love someone actively. So how do these two go together. To be self sacrificial, but to loves others as ourselves.
The loop hole I found here is that if we love others as ourselves whilst we are meant to be self sacrificial, we would not be loving them right. But these are not to be against each other, but coinciding each other. To be self sacrificial is to love others as we would have loved ourselves.

An example I can think of is from when I was little. And I'm sure that all have had a moment like this. Me and my sister were to share a muffin/cupcake/anything yummy, or good. And of course being the self-caring little girl, you would always either cut it wrong so there is a distinct bigger half, or spend 5 minutes analysing the pieces to find the bigger one. I want the big one. I want what is best for me.
And it's like that now. We are told to love others as we would normally love ourselves. Love them as if they ARE us. Give them the bigger piece of cake. Care for them self-sacrificially, as if they are us. Switch places with them. Like Jesus did for us.

So, joy in God, in what He has done for me, in calling me His, in saving me, and in unconditionally loving me, produces love. For God, and for everyone around me because God loves them also, and calls me to love them too. Cue Matthew 22: 37-39 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself."

Loving and serving people is how we are to live. It just makes it easier that my friends are pretty great. They are easy to love (not necessarily love in the practical way, but to have love for them), and that makes it a pleasure to serve them and the people around me.