"Little children, may we not be loving with word nor the tongue, but rather in work and truth."
-Lip-service. We all need to move to Missouri, the "show-me" state. Anyone can say "I love you". Three little syllables which slide over our lips with all-too-relative ease. But no - show me your love. Just do it - right? Don't just say it. That's what he's saying. Indeed, loving in deed means we show people we love them, we back up our words and demonstrate our love in real time. Love is a verb, not a word. It IS work. It is a choice, not a feeling. To that point, we never really “fall” out of (or into) love. "You've lost that loving feeling" makes for good music, but it rings hollow, just like those feelings which come and go. No, we stop loving. Or we (begin to) do it. Love dwells in the land of deeds and truth, not with pretense and empty sentiment which fluctuates and flutters in the breeze like so much chaff. Love means I get off my donkey and do deeds which meet needs in the body of Christ. What am I doing? What are you doing?
-Loving in truth is the other side of the same coin, in that love-which-is-true is love which backs up words with deeds. It is one and the same, same song, different verse. Same verse here, tho... :) Again, love (and faith) which is merely professed is not true love (faith). It is ultimately false. The one who speaks words with their tongue which profess a love for their brother, but who does not follow thru with deeds which demonstrate true love is a liar. A goat. God demonstrates His love... (Romans 5.8). He shows it. God so loved...that He_______. He DID something, He finished it (John 19.30) - and then He kept on showing it, kept on giving - to this day, to infinity and beyond! We know this truth by heart. But do we?
-This is precisely what Jesus is saying in the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25.40, 25.45). And that is exactly what John is getting at here. So he's calling out like a caring concerned dad to his readers, these little children - and to us, to all true believers - and saying, hey, little brother, little sister, we all need to take this (new-old) command to love one another seriously. We need to DO it, really and truly do it, back it up with real deeds which meet real needs, and work at it, get really, really good at it. I think sometimes with all our church growth and capital campaigns and strategic plans and programs that we can lose sight of what is most important. It's people. We can forget about the least of these, move beyond them, fail to see them, hurry right past them, sometimes run right over them! And we forget the basics - like love. Basic things like food and drink, shelter, clothing, taking the time to visit and care for one another - it's so simple. Maybe we need a refresher course! You know, back to the basics. Gentlemen, this is a football. 'Cuz so much depends on it, this right here. Our brothers-in-need need to be able to depend on it. They should, at least. And so should the Lord. Can He depend on me, can He count me in and count on me, to love the least of these...?
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