In this, the third and final installment of the ‘Don’t talk of love…’ series we come to what could be the most contentious of them all but which I feel is very important.
We’ve already looked at showing love to your spouse and showing the love of Christ to the world, now for this last post in the series we are going to look at showing love to God.
This is an issue which has played on my heart and mind many times. Do I actually love God?
Sure, I talk about it. Sure, I sing about it. Sure, I say it in my prayers – but do I actually DO it?
This creates all kinds of discussions about what love is and, more specifically, what love for God is – and that’s not a debate that I want to get into right now. What I want to ask is:
You say you love God and you tell him that you love him but does anything in your life suggest that your love is real?
If you tell your spouse that you love him or her and then beat them unconscious with a bat, will they believe you? Will your actions prove your love or will your actions suggest something to the contrary?
If you tell your spouse that you love them but then do nothing at all to show any affection or thought toward them will they believe you? Do your actions show your true heart or do your words?
If you tell God that you love him and then turn around and spend your time with your friends joining in with them ridiculing Christ and Christianity, will He really believe you?
If you tell God that you love him and then refuse to obey any of his commands, then do you truly love him? Or do your actions show your true feelings?
So the question is, do your actions marry up with your words? (at least, with the words you use at church on a Sunday)
There has been some great discussion over at Katdish’s blog about the whole question of faith without works from James 2:14-17
14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
We probably don’t need to rehash that same discussion here but look at those verses if we replace the word faith with the word love:
14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have love but has no deeds? Can such love save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, love by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Yeah, you read it right, “love by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.”
If I tell God that I love him but I don’t back that up by obeying him, then do I really even have love? Or is my love dead?
There was a comment on my previous post from someone called ‘heartafire’ which reminded me of something important:
Deeds without love are as empty as love without deeds.
In other words, doing things to show God that you love him without actually loving him in your heart is pointless, they’re just actions and that’s not what God wants.
What I want to encourage you to do is to allow your love for God to overflow into your actions.
Listen to Him say “Don’t just talk of your love for me… show me, my Child.”
God demonstrated his love for you by sending his one and only son to die for your sins. How can you show your love for Him?
Great post Peter.
God is more concerned about building our character than the work we do for Him. Our acts of obedience that build our character to more reflect Christ is how we show that we really love God.
I am not saying that doing things like witnessing and caring for the poor are not important, they are. But if God is telling us to do something else we are to be obedient. We must examine our intentions, is what we do to glorify ourselves or God.
Blessings!
I completely agree Sherri.
I guess I should have stressed that point.
When I talk about showing God’s love I get into this groove of talking about ‘action’.
The ‘action’ should be obediently obeying whatever God tells you to do, which doesn’t necessarily mean opening a soup kitchen. It’s whatever God says to YOU!
Thanks for the correction Sherri!
Well, when we love a person we get to know them. We do what makes them happy and study their likes and dislikes. In essence, we form relationship and it doesn’t happen overnight.
God created us in His image so why would it be any different in our relationship with Him? We read the Bible because God’s word is important to Him. We pray because God desires the conversation (you know, both ways!). We reach out and serve because God so loved the world and His desires that none would perish but all would come to repentance.
It’s such a privilege to know God and love Him. As we spend time with Him, He shows us His heart and desires. Then we get to turn around and show our love by obedience and walking it out.
Okay, I’m getting too long now! Thanks Peter- very good post.
Okay, that whole replacing “faith” with “love” thing was just AWESOME! Everytime I come over here to get your blog address to put you on my blogroll, I start reading one of your posts and get so involved in it, I forget why I came over here in the first place! So, if you don’t see your blog on my roll, please remind me. Okay. I’m outta here! (very good post, btw)
I keep meaning to add you to my rss and do exactly the same thing!
Thanks for the encouragement!