Love

Love is not as easy or pleasant as it sounds. It is effortless to say “I love you” but so hard to demonstrate in real life. The Bible calls Christians to love “not with words or speech but with actions and truth” (1Jn.3:18). It is not that the words are wrong, but they are certainly not enough to qualify as biblical love. And the “actions” aren’t just any benevolent actions that please the giver, they are to be specifically aimed at the well-being and benefit of the recipient. They are actions and truths that build up, encourage, correct, challenge, and meet the need of the recipient. Such actions can be difficult, involve sacrifice and are sometimes downright painful.  Consider Christ’s ultimate demonstration of love. John utilizes its example as the definition of biblical love when he writes, “This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (1Jn.3:16a). But John doesn’t leave it there, he drives home the call for us to do the same: “And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1Jn.3:16b).  While the world turns love into an exercise in self-gratification and sentimentality, may we as God’s people continue to love as Christ did – doing the hard work of giving ourselves for the benefit of others. That is biblical love.

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Unwholesome Talk

God’s word commands followers of Christ to “not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths” (Eph.4:29). Often the Bible gauges our spirituality by our vocabulary (Jms.3:2-12). If our words are unsavory Jesus provides the needed diagnostic when he reveals that “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” because we should learn to see that “the good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart”, but “the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart” (Lk.6:45). While a case can be made that the Bible occasionally enlists graphic depictions and jarring words to awaken our minds in order to make an urgent biblical point (which English translations usually water down – e.g., Phil.3:8; Jude 23; Is.64:6, et al.), God is clear that his concern has to do with “obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking” (Eph.5:4). It’s the off-color comedy, the sordid expletives and the angry outbursts of vulgarity that God says are out of place among his people. So take note of your words, and the words of others, they reveal a lot about who we are and the state of our hearts.

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Rebellious Decisions

Recently the Supreme Court summarized another decision to move our country and its laws further from biblical principles by stating that their ruling epitomized “the progress of a maturing society.” As we often see throughout biblical history in general, and the book of Judges in particular, when society sees itself “casting off the fetters” of God’s moral precepts and his just dictates, they do nothing more than set themselves up for bondage, oppression and God’s passivity. Like the rebellion of a teenage son, when nations seek to establish their “maturity” by freeing themselves from parental ethics and mores, they always do so to their own hurt. It will eventually be clear that “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Pr.14:34) – “sin” defined not by the lowest common denominator of those who might be “offended”, but “sin” as defined by the Father of mankind. Unfortunately, it often takes a series of painful consequences for truly maturing teens to realize the wisdom of their parents’ forsaken rules. May that realization come quickly for us. While the church is not established for the purpose of corporately engaging in politics, it is our duty to continue to earnestly pray for “kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness” (1Tim.2:2).

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Truthfulness

In Psalm 15 David recounts key virtues of a godly character – a kind of character that he says will experience intimacy with God. At the top of the inspired list we find the attribute of truthfulness, as we might expect. How can one claim to have intimacy with the God of truth if one does not consistently “speak the truth from his heart” (v.2)? Because the truth does not always bring us advantage in life, many have become experts at twisting, contorting and embellishing the facts. In our hearts we may know the truth of a given situation, but from our mouths comes a story that is not entirely truthful. David says there is no place for such skill among those making a claim to godliness. Even when the facts may not serve our best interest, those who experience intimacy with God will speak the truth in love without compromising an accurate reflection of reality. To walk with God we will seek to capture the essence of that medieval phrase which has become commonly known, but not commonly practiced – we will tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” May God’s Spirit help us be truthful men and women as we become more closely aligned with the heart of our Father.

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