“My little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.”
— 1 John 3:18
Christianity presents an incredible picture of love, the love of God in Jesus Christ. Because its ideals are so lofty and soaring, because its sentiments are so noble and so high, there is a danger that we should love in platitudes, and in ideals, and in emotional sympathies. There is a danger that we should feel that we have paid up our debt to love if we have praised its beauty, if we have felt its charm, if we have experienced its sentiment, then we feel that we have loved.
But John says no, let us not love in word or merely in feeling or in thought or tongue, but love in deed and in truth. We need to love in the practical ways of helping other people who are in need. And he says, “By this we know that we are of the truth, and shall reassure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20). And those two verses have to be read together.
What does that mean “if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart”? He is saying that if we have lived our life and, because of the love of Christ we have loved our brethren, and we have endeavored to lay down our life for them, then we know we love because He loved us. God assures us in our hearts that we are His because we truly love.
God You who are love, what a miracle it is that any of us are loving at all. It is only Your love in our hearts which makes it so. I thank You for all the love I have received from fellow Christians, especially those closest to me…
BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN
SERVE EACH OTHER IN LOVE.