A few weeks ago, I was playing with my three-year-old great-niece, and she said, “I love you,” and I responded, “I love you more!” And that launched a long back and forth of “No, I love YOU more.” “No, I love YOU more!” Many of you have probably been that same friendly “argument” with your kids or grandkids yourself.

If only we all made our lives a contest to show each other who loved whom more! Imagine how this world would be different! Imagine if you went to work tomorrow and made it your goal to demonstrate to everyone you met that you love them more, like it was a competition, and you were determined to win. Your coworkers, your clients, your boss, the person in the checkout line at the store, your neighbor, everyone.

As Christians, that should be our M.O. That’s what we’re supposed to do. Jesus told us to love others as He loved us. Unfortunately, we all fall far too short of the standard Jesus set for us. In fact, sometimes it only takes us as long as the drive between church building and the restaurant where we eat lunch on Sunday to forget that we’re supposed to be ambassadors for Christ.

Jesus’ entire life was telling us, “I love you more.” He said, “I love you more” by living as one of us, and enduring everything we do, so He could show us how to navigate the travails of life as God would have us to.

He said “I love you more” by teaching us how to follow God, and attain “Life in all of its abundance,” as He came to give us.

And He said, “I love you more” by sacrificing Himself for us, taking the punishment we deserved, so we wouldn’t have to. In fact, He loved us SO MUCH MORE that Romans 5:8 tells us it was while we were still sinners that He died for us.

Imagine someone slapping you in the face, and you forgiving them. Now imagine offering them forgiveness while they repeatedly continue to slap you in the face. But that’s what Jesus did for us. He was offering Himself up on behalf of the very people who were shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” The very people who were taunting Him, saying, “He saved others, but He can’t save Himself!” And He was doing it for us when our sins against Him hadn’t even started yet.

1 John 4:10 says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Being a Christian doesn’t mean you’re perfect, it just means you’ve found the source of forgiveness for all the times you’ve fallen short, and you’re working to become more and more like Christ. And part of growing to be more like Christ is having the determination to show those around you, “I love you more;” not in a prideful way, but as the flood of love from God fills us to overflowing, that love overflows from us onto those around us.

And I can’t think of a better way to start the Lenten season than to follow Christ’s example, and demonstrate to those around you, “I love you more!”