“The measure of love is to love without measure,” St. Francis de Sales once said.

Several years ago, Clayton Christiansen, a Harvard business school graduate, wrote a book titled, How Do You Measure Your Life? In it, he looks at fundamental questions that are universal throughout our lifetime — questions like, how can I have a meaningful career, how can I be sure that my personal relationships have enduring happiness, how can I be sure that the three key components-love, give and serve are measured in my life?

The first measurement is love.

In John’s gospel, Jesus uses the theme harvest to help understand the command to love.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,” Jesus said.

The new revised standard version of the Bible has the word love appear 540 times. Most often the Bible uses love to speak of one’s highest priority or deep loyalty. Hence, we are to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. The New Testament is called Agape — God’s love. We are called to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. The Scripture is not talking about feelings but a way of living good. In his letter to Timothy, Paul gives his colleague some valuable advice. Paul lists the qualities a disciple of Jesus should possess. Among them is gentleness and tenderness. God calls for a revolution of tenderness. How do we join that revolution and demonstrate tenderness in our every day life? We do so by speaking to others in a kind tone, notice when someone is hurting, respecting their privacy, refusing to label individuals.