Love in Action

It is not enough to state one's love for another, it must be acted upon. True love involves action. I was refreshed with this truth last evening as I was speaking with the deacon in my church. True love will not, indeed cannot, stop at simply expressing the truth in word, it must be followed by action. In the same way that faith must be followed by action or else it is not faith, so it is true of love. To state that I love my wife but never act upon that truth by loving her in action, my statement is false and empty. The greatest act of love in history is revealed to us in an ACT of Jesus dying upon the cross on our behalf; on behalf of His enemies. This act of love is and will always be the greatest act of love. Hollywood loves to show the act of heroism that involves somebody dying in the act of saving someone else. This person that they are saving is usually a loved one or one they deem worthy of life; so worthy that they are willing to give up their very own life in order to give them life. However, I have never seen Hollywood portray someone dying for their vilest of enemies. I have never seen anyone die for the bad guy in the movies. No, rather, it is usually portrayed that when the bad guy dies or gets what he deserves, there is a sense of satisfaction and delight over the outcome. So that truth that Christ died for us, His enemies, and the implication that we should do the same for our enemies, flies in the face of everything this world teaches us is right and good. It is contradictory to the philosophies of the world. And sadly, it reveals to us how much of the world has seeped into our churches that we often espouse the same view as the world. The truth is that we should be willing to pursue and love our enemies at all costs in order to win them to Christ and to save them from their own destructive paths. Christ pursued His enemies and what did it get Him? Ridicule; mocking; Spit in the face; Beatings; Humiliation (from hanging naked on the cross); the burden of our sins; the weight and wrath of God's anger and vengeance on sin; separation from His father; and a cursed death upon the cross.

ALL FOR AN EMEMY.

Do we not think that we should also love our enemies this way?

Do we not think that God wants us to love them this way?

Do we not think that God will enable us to love this way?

And the truth is, when we do love this way, we may not ever see it reciprocated or returned. We may love like this, at great personal cost and loss to ourselves and never see it reciprocated by them. However, when we love like this, God is pleased. God is glorified. And God, who sees all will reward in His own time and way. We do not love people for their sake. We love people for God's sake and with God's love. Thus when we love like God loves, even if it is never returned, it is okay because we were not doing it for them anyway, we were doing it for God. And God's approval is the only approval that we should be seeking.

True love requires action. True love and the deepest love is manifested when we love at 100% cost towards the unlovable, the ungodly, our enemies. This is when true love is revealed.