Demonstrating Our Love

Greg Gwin

Here’s a challenge for you: Try to explain what love is without stating what it does. Consider that for a minute, and you will surely agree that it is nearly impossible.

Husbands and wives, think back to when you were courting you mate. Feelings of love were on your mind continually. Agree?  But what do you remember most about those days?  Almost certainly you will recall quiet walks in the park, “love letters” in the mail, a bouquet of flowers, etc. You were “in love”, but what you remember is what you did, and what was done for you.

So it is with love for God. It can only be explained or identified by the action it produces. You say that you love God, but love (as we have just observed) demands that you prove it by the way you act. Jesus put it in unmistakable terms, when He said: “If you love me, keep my commandments” ( John 14: 15). The apostle John stated this truth succinctly when he noted: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments . . .” (1 John 5:3).

Consider this: husbands/wives would you have “caught” your mate if you had done as little for her/him as you sometimes do for God?  In connection with this, maybe we ought to reflect more seriously about the simple question that Jesus asked: “What do ye more than others?” (Matthew 5:47). Think!