Loving with Action
Loving is action that comes from and understanding of the truth. All of my life I have tried to love people with the words that I say, the way that I speak, and the things that I do. All my life I thought this is the way to love others; by telling them want they wanted to hear, doing things for them (to make them like me,) and by being a person others knew they could trust. Although being a person that others can trust, talk to, and come to is good; it is not all that we are called to do. In 1 John 3:18 Jesus says to us, "Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." Many times the words that we speak have little to no meaning to us, we use them as fillers, as things to get people off of our back, or as things to make ourselves seem greater in the eyes of others. But what we need to understand that our actions speak way louder than our words ever could. If words come from our heart, and therefore the heart of the Lord, then they are loving words to speak into the world but words from our own mouth and our own intentions (which I believe are the most common) are not truthful, and are not loving to bring into the world. Jesus wants us to love people with our actions, actions that are motivated by our all consuming love for Him. When we love people with the things that we do for them, the unattractive, tedious, selfless acts that we complete, we show them a piece of Jesus. When we love people by using our words in truth (and in His truth) we commit ourselves to the Lords kingdom, and we commit ourselves to showing others this kingdom. In the end, my eyes have been opened to my selfishness. So many of my words and actions come from a desire for others to admire me, to value the things that I say and to view me as a "perfect" Christian. How wrong this is, to live in a way that glorify myself instead of glorifying the one who gave me this life.
So this is a charge, do things out of a love for your Lord, not out of a love for yourself. Do things to glorify Him, the things he has done, the things he has said, and the things He will do; rather than to glorify your own accomplishments. Do things that make yourself disappear and make the Lords face shine through you to others. Do things OUT OF LOVE for your Father, not out of love for what the Father has created. This life is short, eternity is forever. Love yourself, love others, and love the one who gave you it all.
