Follow Up, Part 4: Living a Life of Love

This week my posts have been focused on fleshing out what our love should look like to people who are lost, broken, or outcasts. They may be inside your church family, or outside your church family. My primary reason to spend so much time on this question is because of the importance that Jesus placed on love. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:34-35). This is the main thing that distinguishes Christians from the rest of the world: they love each other with a radically different love than the love we encounter in the world day in and day out.

Jesus’ love for us was the perfect incarnation of grace and truth (John 1:14, 17). No one loved like that before Him. But Jesus’ final command to His disciples was that He not be the last. On the contrary, Jesus said, “If you are My disciples you will love one another as I have loved you.” It wasn’t an option. It wasn’t a debate. It was a command. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If we love Jesus, then His love is in us and we will love with the same some He has given us.

But God really doesn’t care about how well you “understand” love. He really doesn’t. What He cares about is whether or not you live what you know. Are you living a life of love? When you look at how you love one another, does it line up with how you know Jesus loves you? Because to know and not to do is not to know.

Spiritual love is proved genuine by our actions.

It is going to show itself in how you conduct yourself in your relationships towards one another by incarnating God’s truth in goodness, righteousness, truthfulness, wisdom, and the fear of the Lord.

It is going to show itself in how you respond to others by incarnating God’s grace in humility, confidence in God’s grace, peacemaking, forgiveness, and gratitude. You cannot show these characteristics any other way than by acting them out in relationship with one another.

As the Apostle John says in 1 John 3:18 ( NIV ) Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. Real love will show itself by its fruit. Love necessarily produces visible fruit.

By their fruit you will recognize them (Matthew 7:16). Jesus says the number one way to tell a genuine disciple is by what they do. Not by what they say. Not by their theology. By what they do. Anyone can talk the talk. Anyone can confess all the right things. Anyone can articulate good theology. But if what they do does not line up with what they say or claim to believe, Jesus says beware. If love is to be sincere, it will be seen in our actions.

The number one thing the Scripture tell us to look for to gain assurance that God loves us is that we are giving out that same love He is giving us in our relationships. God gives us His love so that we can live a life of love. If our love is sincere, it will prove itself by its actions.

Let me close this series of posts following up A Tale of Three Women with an exhortation, a comfort, and a challenge.

Exhortation.

Do your actions prove that you indeed love one another as Jesus loves you? When you look at how you respond to your husband or wife, your children, your friends, your coworkers, does God’s grace mark what you think, what you say, and what you do? When you look at how you conduct yourself in your relationships, is it marked by a commitment to live out God’s truth?

This is important because Jesus says in Matthew 25:31-46 (NIV)

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

If the fruits of grace and truth are not born out in your relationships you cannot love as Jesus loves. If you do not love as Jesus loves it is proof that His love is not in you.

Comfort.

Some of you reading this may be thinking this is very disturbing because you feel the weight of sin in your life. I join the Puritan pastor, Matthew Mead, in comforting you saying,

As there are none more averse than weak believers, to apply the promises and comforts of the gospel to themselves—for whom they are properly designed; so there are none more ready than they to apply the threats and severest things of the Word to themselves—for whom they were never intended. As the disciples, when Christ told them, “One of you shall betray me;” they those who were innocent suspected themselves most—and therefore cry out, “Master, is it I?” So weak Christians, when they hear unconverted sinners reproved, or the hypocrite laid open, in the ministry of the Word, they presently cry out, “Is it I?”

It is the hypocrite’s fault to sit under the trials and discoveries of the Word—and yet not to mind them: and it is the weak Christian’s fault to draw sad conclusions of their own state from premises which do not concern them. (Matthew Mead, The Almost Christian Discovered).

If you are sitting there reading this thinking, “I know that my life is anything but full of God’s grace and truth. I don’t know if there is any more than a drop in my heart!” Let me encourage you: the amount of grace that can fit on the head of a pin is more than powerful enough to bring you safely to heaven! God’s aim in this series of posts is to show you where God wants you to go and where He is taking you, not to knock the hope out of you. Do not judge your salvation by looking at others. You aren’t accountable to them. They are not your audience. God is your audience.

And let me take this opportunity to again remind us to be wary of judging others. We cannot see into the heart of anyone. If you are looking at those around you and making judgments about another’s spiritual state because you see (or don’t see) the fruits of grace and truth in their lives, you need to stop. You can’t see into your own heart! What makes you think you can see into someone else’s? You might not see the grace in their life because it is hidden by their sin. And, just as likely, you might not see the grace in another’s life because of your own sin!

The right use of that we have been learning together is to apply it to yourself. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Not your spouse’s. Not Your kids. Not the person sitting next to you. You work out your salvation! Just that one responsibility is enough to keep you occupied for the rest of your life!

Challenge.

And that leads right to my challenge. Be intentional about being people who are full of grace and truth. We all need to work together to keep growing in God’s grace and truth. Be intentional about studying the Word. Be intentional about spending time with God in prayer and meditation. Be intentional about pursing relationships in which you can be discipled and in which you can disciple others.

Be watching for the opportunities to show God’s grace: when you notice that someone is not in church, call them, when you see that someone needs help, offer it to them, when you come across someone who is discouraged or hurting, love on them. When someone hurts you, forgive them. When you hear of a need and you can help meet it, share cheerfully to meet it. When you see someone who you know has been doing good, take the time to thank them for it.

Be watching for the opportunities to show God’s truth: if your neighbor can’t mow their lawn, be good to them and offer to do it. When you are confronted with the temptation to misuse your authority, job, or information to your benefit, resist it—even when it hurts. When you make a promise to do something, keep it. When your friend shares with you a problem and you realize you could share some wisdom that could help them, offer it. When you are tempted to excuse your sin because you think God in His grace will forgive it anyway, repent in the fear of the Lord.

Be careful to do these things. Be careful to be intentionally growing habits that produce the fruits of God’s love. Be careful because people are watching us. But more than that, be careful because God is watching us.