“Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
John 14:23-24
We were taught this morning that if you want to develop a life of love then what you need to know is that it is your obedience to Christ that is proof of your love for Christ and not your proclamation.
I certainly can’t speak for you but I do suspect that, like me, you have a much easier time professing loves than demonstrating it.
Some have said: “Words are cheap!”
More often than not it is much, much easier to say: “I love you” than it is too consistently and faithfully demonstrate and prove that love by our actions. Jesus recognized that our words may not always be the true barometer of our love and so emphasized in the passage above (and in many other places in scripture) that the definitive proof is in our obedience.
Proof is defined as: anything tending to establish the truth of something.
We can say then that the truth of our love is established by our obedience.
Love is more than mere lip service.
Love is made clearer by what we do and not by what we say.
Does that mean I should never express my love to God?
Not at all, but it does mean that my expression is validated by my actions.
A love which is in ‘words only’ is a love that is superficial at best.
Francis of Assisi is credited with the quote:
“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”
The same could be said of love –
Live, by your deeds, the love you have and then your words will express what your actions reveal.
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