Love in Action

1 John 3:18,  "Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." (NIV)

This passage of scripture challenged my thinking this morning. Have you ever heard someone make this statement, "Words are cheap." It is very easy to make great declarations with our words yet fail to follow up these words with the appropriate actions. Is that what the Spirit through the writings of the Apostle John was seeking to establish in our hearts? Our love for God and our love for each other must be more than just the use of words but our love toward God and man must be established through appropriate actions being taken.

Let us remember the words of Jesus found Mark 7:5-7, "So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.” 6 Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7  Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’" (NLT) 

I believe that God is calling us to action as well as to a time of conversation or discussion with Him and with each other. I am constantly asking myself these questions; "Am I backing up my words (both public as well as private) with the proper actions? Do I expect more out of others than I am willing to do myself? Do I preach one thing and live another way? Does my life demonstrate and reveal those principles that I am promoting to others?"

I truly desire for my life to reflect the life of Christ at work in my heart. I desire for my life to be more than just a series of words that I have learned to articulate whether it be through the songs we sing or the messages that I preach. 

Dear God, let our lives be lived in a manner that reveals the fact that our walk with Christ is more than just an assortment of religious words that we have learned to memorize!!