by Pastor Mark Chin

One of the inevitabilities in life is to be in a place where we feel short on love – either we don’t have enough love for the difficult people in our lives or we ourselves feel we are not being loved enough.

Sooner or later we discover the truth that human love – our love and that of others – is inadequate to address our hurts and needs. This is just as true in marriage as it is in ministry or the work place.

The frequent human response is to withdraw and create distance between ourselves and others – or to be discontent, discouraged, or angry.

Luke 22:14-23 subtly points out the heart of the problem. Our hearts and lives, and the hearts and lives of those around us (that’s all of us), are sinful and selfish by nature – and the love that comes from our hearts is sinful and self-serving by nature. If this were not the case – we would not need a Passover lamb – a perfect substitute and savior to die for our sins.

Until we come to grips with this – we will always struggle with discouragement and discontent – for our love and the love of others will never be enough to cover our unloving attitudes and behavior or the unloving attitude and behavior of those around us – be it our husbands, wives, children, co-workers, or fellow church members.

What’s the remedy? Luke 22:14-23 points out that our cups must be filled with the contents of Christ’s cup – it must be filled with the new wine of the new covenant – His life and His love. We need a good and perfect love from above – and we cannot give what we don’t have.

The good news is that Christ has the love we need to cover – not just our sins but the sins of those in our lives. He deeply desires and is able to give His life and His love to us in abundance. However – our cups will not be filled by Christ if we are not with Him or if we do not empty our cups of the dirty old wine that presently fills it. By faith – we must be emptied and we must go to the Savior to be filled.

It is for this reason that Jesus exhorts us to abide in Him – to abide in His Word – to be in prayer and to actively obey His commands by faith (John 15). It is the reason we are called to build our lives around the ministry of His Word and prayer – why we are called to follow Him 24/7.

As we follow Him – we meet the cross of loving others – which leaves us with only 3 choices: we walk away, we destroy or remove the unlovable, or we die to ourselves – become empty and allow Christ to fill us with His love and his life.

Frequently there is shortage of love in many churches because American Christians are seldom willing to follow Christ by faith to the cross of loving difficult people in our lives. We are content with the old wine that fills our cups – and simply want more of it. I’m as guilty of this as anyone.

But when we are crucified with Christ – new life and new love abounds – providing an abundance of love not just for ourselves but for those around us.

So the real question when you and I are hurting or are short of love is: have we been to the cross lately?