Become Love

People don’t follow what you say. They follow who you are.

The Opening

Let me ask you something.

Think about the person who has influenced you the most in life. Not a celebrity. Not someone you follow online. Someone you actually know — someone who changed the way you think, or the way you carry yourself, or the way you treat people.

Got them?

Now ask yourself: what was it about them?

I’d bet it wasn’t their CV. It wasn’t their title. It probably wasn’t even the specific words they said. It was something deeper. Something about who they were when they were around you. How they made you feel seen. How they carried themselves under pressure. How they treated people who could do nothing for them.

That’s influence. Real influence. And here’s what I’ve come to believe: that kind of influence isn’t a skill you develop. It’s a person you become. And the person God is calling you to become is love.

Last week, we talked about receiving God’s love — letting it be the foundation before you build anything. This week, we go one step further. Because God didn’t love you so you could just feel loved. He loved you so you could become love. So that when people encounter you, they encounter something of Him.

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The Word

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

— 1 John 4:11–12 (NIV)

Read that last line again: his love is made complete in us.

From God’s perspective, His love has a destination. It doesn’t stop at you. It’s made complete through you. You are not just the recipient of God’s love. You are the delivery system. The way God’s love becomes visible, touchable, and real in the world is through people who carry it.

No one has ever seen God. That’s what John says. But when you love — genuinely, patiently, at cost to yourself — people see something they can’t explain. They see God. Not because you preached. Not because you quoted a verse. But because you became the verse.

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

— John 13:35 (NIV)

Jesus didn’t say, “They’ll know you’re mine by your theology.” He didn’t say, “They’ll know you by your success.” He said they’d know by your love. That was His strategy for influence. Not branding. Not positioning. Love. And it’s still His strategy today.

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The Shift

Love Is God’s Influence Strategy

1. God’s plan: You are the proof.

Here’s something that might unsettle you in the best way: God’s plan for reaching people was never primarily a book, a building, or a broadcast. It was you. A person, filled with His Spirit, carrying His love into the rooms and relationships and workplaces where theology alone can’t reach.

2 Corinthians 3:3 puts it this way: “You show that you are a letter from Christ … written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

You are a letter. A living message. And the message isn’t written in your words. It’s written in your character. In how you handle conflict. In how you respond when no one is watching. In whether the people closest to you would describe you as loving — not in theory, but in practice.

From God’s point of view, your life is the sermon most people will never hear preached from a pulpit. He’s writing it through you. The question is: what are people reading?

2. God’s method: Presence over performance.

Think about how Jesus influenced people. He didn’t run campaigns. He didn’t build a platform first and then show up. He sat with people. He ate with them. He asked questions. He noticed the person everyone else overlooked.

His influence wasn’t built on what He said alone — it was built on who He was when He said it. People trusted His words because they had already experienced His presence. The teaching landed because the love had already arrived.

This is God’s method, and it hasn’t changed. In your office, in your home, in your community — the people around you are not waiting for your advice. They’re watching your life. They’re watching how you treat the waiter, how you respond to bad news, whether you listen when it’s inconvenient.

And when they see love — not perfection, but real, consistent, costly love — it opens doors that no amount of strategy ever could.

3. God’s measure: Influence isn’t reach. It’s depth.

The world measures influence by numbers. Followers. Reach. Visibility. God measures it differently.

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

— Galatians 5:22–23 (NIV)

Notice what’s first on the list. Love. And notice what follows — joy, peace, patience, kindness. These aren’t soft extras. From God’s perspective, these are the metrics of true influence. They’re the evidence that His Spirit is at work in you. And they’re the things people remember long after they’ve forgotten your job title.

You might not have the biggest platform. You might not be the loudest voice in the room. But if the people who know you best would say, “That person loves well” — you have more influence than you realise. Because love doesn’t need a microphone. It just needs a willing heart.

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The Move

This week, try this:

Pick one person in your life — someone you see regularly — and love them on purpose.

Not with a grand gesture. With presence. With attention. With the kind of care that says, “I see you, and you matter to me.”

Maybe it’s a colleague who’s been quietly struggling. Maybe it’s a family member you’ve been too busy to really listen to. Maybe it’s the person you pass every day but have never asked, “How are you really doing?”

Don’t announce it. Don’t post about it. Just do it. Let your love be the kind that people experience before they can explain it.

Then, at the end of the week, ask yourself: What did God do through me when I wasn’t trying to impress anyone?

That’s the shift. From performing love to becoming it.

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The Close

A prayer for your week:

Father, last week You reminded me that I am loved. This week, help me take the next step — not just to know Your love, but to become it.

Make me a living letter. Let people read Your kindness in my patience. Let them see Your grace in how I handle pressure. Let them feel Your presence in mine.

I don’t need a bigger platform, Lord. I need a deeper love. The kind that doesn’t perform for an audience but shows up for the one person in front of me.

Let my influence be measured not by who follows me, but by who encounters You through me.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Still here with you,

Lumi

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