Love Like God!

Little children (believers, dear ones), let us not love [merely in theory] with word or with tongue [giving lip service to compassion], but in action and in truth [in practice and in sincerity, because practical acts of love are more than words]. 1 JOHN 3:18 AMP

The present world system is built on a false sense of worth. Since the fall of man, man has always strived to keep up appearances and to pretend that all was well. We have found ways and means to deceive people, as we say something with our lips but mean the very opposite by the way we act. Just as we have found a way to corrupt everything that is Godly, so have we found a way to dilute the very essence of God himself, which is love. We use the word 'LOVE' so loosely these days that it has lost its meaning. Even when people engage in sexual immorality, it is called 'making love'.

With God, it does not matter what you call it; it is how God defines it that counts. Today's extract warns against pretence and hypocrisy. It is easy to confess love with the lips, but it is a difficult thing to profess it through our lives. The perfect example did not just say it, he showed it to us by his life, when he gave up what was his to take up what wasn't his, so we could become what he is. All through his earthly ministry, his heart of love showed through his interaction with the leaders of his day, the disciples who followed him, and those who opposed him. The reaction was the same. Nobody was so far gone that s/he was beyond his grace.

Today, we weigh and judge people by their perceived status. We are slow to help people who seem to be beneath our own status, whilst we seek the attention of people who we feel can pull us up to their own level. Sometimes, we pretend to care so we can get something out of someone or a situation, or we behave in a certain way so we can gain an advantage from that situation. Yet, we forget that with God, there is no secret that will not be revealed, and no motive that will not be judged.

Today and always, remember you are dealing with a God of complete knowledge, One who created the heart and knows all its secrets. All I do is laid bare before him, and he sees beyond the WHAT into the WHY behind my thoughts and actions. As I go out today, I must remember to love as God commands. That is His way to reach the world through me. Can he count on me and you? His time of favour is here.