Today we’ll continue with some of your favorites (or the passages you have questions about). Email (andy@stm-umc.org) or message me with any passages you’d like added or that you have a question about!

Today we are looking at 1 John 3: 18:

18 Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.

One of the things that we are told is that we are to love.  Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love neighbor  We are told that where love is, there is God.  In fact, we are told that God is love.  Love is a constant refrain in scripture, and our command to love is a constant command within scripture. 

So today’s passage is of utmost importance.  We are told today that we are not to love only in speech but to love in deed and truth.  In other words, we are to walk the talk.  

It isn’t just enough for me to say that I love someone; I must actually love them.  Love is more than speech; love is more than emotion.  Love is action.  Love is a choice. Love is not something we say or feel; love is something that we do. 

And that’s hard y’all.  When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, we are to do more than just say we love them but serve them. And here is the thing about that.  It’s hard to hate those you are serving.  It’s hard to resent those you are serving. 

When we serve others, we are taking our love from merely words or emotion into action.  That is when things change.  That is when love becomes real.  That is when love changes others. That is when love changes us.  

For us as Christians, when we walk the talk, things change. When our faith, our love, goes from something we simply say or feel to something we do, we are changed.  Others are changed. God is glorified.  

When we walk the talk, our faith truly becomes real.  So, today let’s not simply say that we love others.  Let’s love with our hands and our feet, let’s love with our actions, let’s love with all that we are. 

That’s when love becomes real.  Let’s love with all of being.  Let’s walk the talk. 

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