My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. vv.18-19
Read chapter 3
What’s your love language? In this chapter of 1st John we hear a lot of how to love. Love is tricky because so many people define love differently and respond differently to different ways of love. Some people define love by being pleased by someone or to someone, a circumstantial reaction. Others define love by emotions of desire or lust. The Bible has three different words for love in the original language, but the love we’re talking about here is agape love, self-sacrificing love; and in verse sixteen it says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” John tells us to not love with words and tongue, meaning let’s not just be all talk of how we love but let’s practice what we preach. Let us love with actions and in truth. Putting our love in action is going to be self-sacrifcing because it’s putting others first before ourselves. But what does it mean to love in truth? Well we have to start at what is truth. If we believe the God’s Word is truth (John 17:17), we ought to know His Word then to love with it. Now loving with truth isn't easy, as it can not be something people always want to hear or see, but if it is what is true than it is what is right. It’s hard love sometimes but we all crave it that we may grow. Let us not just love to people please, which is a false love, but be maybe the only voice or action of truth that one may ever hear or see. For if we don't we will be restless in our hearts and regret not stepping up when we had the chance. Like telling your best friend right before she gets married that she shouldn’t marry her soon to be husband, may be the hardest thing to say it’s better than seeing them divorce a year or so down the road realizing you could have possibly saved all that heartache. What is some hard act of love of the truth to someone you need to step up to right now?
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