Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Thursday 02/17/2011)

If You Love Me I Would Know It…Wouldn’t I?

John 13:34-35 (Amplified Bible)

³⁴I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. ³⁵By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves].

John 13:34-35 (New Living Translation)

³⁴ So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. ³⁵ Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

            Have you ever had a friend, family member or been in a relationship where a person or people told you that they loved you, but their actions were contrary to the words that they spoke? Or have you been in a relationship where a person told you that they loved you but they never showed it or rarely expressed it?  It is odd and it is hard to believe the words of people who speak love but act in a way that encourages, doubt, mistrust or makes you question the character of love that they proclaim exists.  My family and friends can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, and without hesitation that when I say I love you and I have your back, my actions exhibit just that.  My actions will never be contrary to my words, because love, I have learned requires consistency and integrity that can only be seen through how we encourage, cultivate, protect and act according to the love that we say that we have, one for another.
            We say with such ease how much we love God, but yet we hate, disregard and hurt others so easily.  We say that we love God but yet we are in refusal to submit ourselves to God’s word, His will and His request for our lives.  We say that we love God and yet we see people in need and we will step right over them, trying to get more then what we already have and ignoring the place of desperation of necessity that they are in.  We say that we love God but we use His name in vain, and we call His creations out of their name.  We say we love God, but we do not follow the model of love and care that He placed before us to follow, because we are too busy ensuring we are all good.  How can we love when love in action is missing?  How can we say that we love God who we have not seen and hate our brother, who we see daily ( I John 4:20)?  If we truly love God, it should be easy to see, and even easier to identify, in the way we serve Him and in the way that we treat one another.  It should be evident in the way we live and the way respond to others, their needs and the love that they give us.  Love has little to do with what we say, and so much more with how we live and how we treat one another, because this is the identifier of whom we belong to, who abides in us, and who we serve.
            The minute we say we love God and that we are one of His, people are watching, observing, and in some cases trying to make us out to be a liar.  In some cases they do not have to try hard, because we don’t live abiding in love.  Our actions do not mimic the pattern of God’s love here in the earth modeled by His son Jesus, and we refuse to walk in obedience to God.  We should be aware that when we say we love God or anyone else that we are being evaluated, because love, garners evaluation and it tells the truth of whether love really exists or not and whether we are abiding in God and His love or not.  We should be of the mindset that we are going to do as we say, say only what we are willing to do.  Loving God is no small matter, it requires of us. It places mandates upon us that to be known as one of His, we must not only walk in obedience, but we must love one another and care for them, as He has done for us.  So the next time you get ready to say I love the Lord, or anyone else for that matter, ask yourself, am I willing to act in love, and validate my words by my actions?