We don’t need to look far to recognize this one. We see this in an extreme form—as recognized by Jesus—in the religious system. In fact, Jesus had some harsh words for those who live from self love. He calls them a “brood of vipers”, and “out of an evil heart speaks evil” (Matthew 12:34).

This form of love caused the Pharisees to miss The Lord’s birth, become infamous in His death and snub His resurrection. Make no mistake, it will cause you to miss all The Lord is doing around your life as well. This phase is man’s default—this phase is your default. This form of love is riddled throughout the Old and New Testament and where you see this form of love, either in the Word or in your life, this form of love never ends well.

As we progress in our likeness of Christ, we find ourselves in Phase 2—loving God until He no longer meets your perceived need. We see this in several places where Jesus address the crowd after he had fed them. His words rang out “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” (John 6:26) Again after Jesus presented the crowd with words they did not want to hear we read “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” (John 6:66). This phase of love rings prevalent in the American church today.

In this phase of our transformation, we sit under the progression of The Lord having met us over and over. He met us in our valley, He met us on the mountain, He met us when we tried to run. He met us in our faith and through our (sometimes) painful obedience we beheld His glory. This phase is built on the “pillars of faith” that The Lord Himself has built, secondary to his unwavering faithfulness to us despite our unfaithfulness to Him.

Think through Peter’s betrayal of Jesus. Regardless of the “high treason event” committed against Jesus, He tracked Peter down, called Him by name, shared a meal with Him and then restored him. For those that live in this phase, our story is the same. It is why He is our King and it is why we Love God (period).

In this phase, we come to learn that we are no longer the mission of the church but have become the missionaries of the church. Those that live in this phase have crossed the same bridge the original apostles crossed. We see this “bridge” in the jump from the Gospels to the book of Acts where the lives of the apostles went from ignorance to authority, from denying Jesus to owning Him and from fearing for their lives to laying them down. There is a shift in the souls of men and women in this phase where they see their lives as a ransom for many and the souls of others as dearly loved by their Lord. In this phase, the words of Jesus ring true in a whole new way and life is produced by the constant laying it down for the good of others. Living in this phase is where abundant life flourishes and all suffering produces crops of righteousness.

This is seen in the forgiveness offered by our Lord during his crucifixion.

This is seen in the forgiveness offered by Stephen at his stoning.

This is seen when Paul uses the words “The love of Christ compels me to love.”

This is seen when Peter asks to be crucified upside down,

and this is seen when you lay down your life to make disciples.