Let us not love in word
1 John
{3:18} My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
{3:19} And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.
You ever hear the saying- You're all talk and no action? I think this refers to that. Let us not love in word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth.
In deed. A deed is and action right?
deed (dêd) noun
1. Something that is carried out; an act or action.
Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary
Love in deed.
Our actions should be those of love, which is truth. Jesus is truth, Jesus is the Son of God, if you've seen the Son then you've seen the Father, God is love, truth is love.
Our actions should be motivated by love. A genuine brotherly love.
Right now it's the Christmas season and movies on television are portraying all sorts of brotherly love but only after they reveal the need for the love. Everyday we can choose to act out of love, brotherly love with kindness or we can choose not to.
Love is a choice, it's not something that some sweet people magically possess and others do not. Not that we aren't predisposed in differently to act certain ways, meaning our natures lean us towards grumpiness, cynicism and other unsavory traits, but because love is a choice we can all possess it. Love doesn't play favorites tapping some with the love hammer and others not. Love is a choice and the sooner we realize this the better off we'll be. The false concept of being sweet and loving clouds a lot of minds, minds that wake up grouchy and continue on in irritation. People play the why not me game. Why can't I be more sweet? Why can't I be more *naturally* loving? Why can't I *want* to be nice? These people believe that the sweetness, the loving, and the niceness favors some more than others but it's not true. Real love can be manifested in the worst of circumstances, to people we would think have every reason to hate life. Real love can be something everyone has by choice and it's not the feel good feeling that makes it loving. Love doesn't have to *feel* all happy and light, sweetness and flighty. You're not choosing a feeling when you're choosing to love. You're choosing to act in a certain manner, a manner that treats others as you would have them treat you, a manner that extends kindness not because it's deserved but because you choose to give it to commit an act of love.
We can't get caught up in the trap of feelings, we just can't. If we do then every time we don't feel happy we'll question the truth we know in Christ and our possession of the truth. Love is a choice, an action, something we can portray in our deeds and this is the truth. If we can make the choice to act from love without getting caught up in the feeling of love we are one step closer to the reality of things. We can still act out of love if we're having a bad day. We can still love in our deeds without sappiness and sweetness. Choose to love. Let our loving words, words that would have us say nice, loving things, become more than just words to us, let them become part of our lives in our actions.
May God help us all as we assure our hearts before Him, as we become of the truth, of love. Let our deeds be the driving force of our love, let our lives, our actions stem from love in choosing to love in Christ, by His great mercy and His truth now and forever.
Amen.
12/04/09
Rev 22:5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
The Holy City Jerusalem- the heavenly Holy City descending down to earth, what a marvelous sight, what a marvelous city! And there we are, the redeemed after a thousand years in heaven returning to earth in such grandeur. There is no night there- no need of a candle, or even....get this...no need of the sun light! Now we can understand on some level that okay, we'll have permanent day perhaps and that means permanent sunlight to us in one respect yet we are told here that we won't need sunlight. No night, no candle, no sunlight- the Lord God will give us light.
No, we won't be wandering about with infrared vision such as we imagine it- we will have the light given to us by God and that's all the light we'll need in this new existence on earth in that Holy City that has no night.
Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
Lord God giveth them light.
The light is Christ! The Lamb of God! We are given this light even here on earth we don't have to dwell in darkness in a figurative sense. We can be filled with the Light of Christ's love and forgiveness and it doesn't matter what our circumstances are at all whatsoever.
Easy to say when things are going smooth, but who has a life like that? I don't know anyone that doesn't struggle in one way or another, or have worries that can consume them if they let them.
Christ told us this...
Luk 21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
We have to be careful that we don't let our worries overcharge our hearts. Satan might not get us with drunkeness or surfeiting
(sur·feit·ed, sur·feit·ing, sur·feits verb, transitive to feed or supply to excess, satiety, or disgust.)
...but many times our hearts are overcharged with the cares of life aren't they? We get wrapped up in the life we have here and now to the exclusion of God and the life everlasting that awaits us.
Having the light of Jesus' love in us now is as essential as it will be to have the light of the Lamb illuminating us in the New Jerusalem, the Holy City come down from Heaven.
May God remind us often as the cares of this life overwhelm us that all these cares are temporary even if they have effects that result in death or destitution here on earth now. We must live for Christ and that living is focused on laying up treasures in heaven and trusting in God completely- not for an easy life, but for a life that will allow us to live for Him no matter what.
By the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and forever, all glory, praise, and honor to Him!
Amen.
12/04/10 - Teach Me
12/04/11