“So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less?” (2 Corinthians 12:15).

There are many times when people don’t notice or reward the good we do for them. That was the case for Paul. If we are only motivated by the response we get from others we will be tempted to give up and think, “What’s the use.” Don’t go there! We love because God has loved us. It’s nice to be noticed but that’s not why we serve.

If no one loves you in return for the love you show them—love anyway. If you expend yourself for others and they don’t respond in kind—expend yourself anyway. If we spend everything we have and get nothing in return from the ones who receive—spend yourself gladly anyway.

It really comes down to our motivation. We love because He first loved us. We give ourselves because we have been recipients of the greatest gift the world has ever seen. “God so loved [us].” It helps us when others love us in return, but we know that in loving them anyway we are demonstrating the nature of the God who saved us.