There’s a delicate balance between letting your love show, and making a show of it.
Hidden love is of little value. Unless you’re aware of someone’s love for you it won’t have an impact on you or your life. It doesn’t need to be expressed by expensive gifts, true love is best expressed in a relationship committed to the other person. It is much more than merely saying the right things. True love is shown by what we actually do.
Today’s verse says:
THESE PEOPLE MAKE A BIG SHOW OF SAYING THE RIGHT THING, BUT THEIR HEARTS AREN’T IN IT
You probably didn’t have the chance to read the will of a man named Russell Herman; but if you had done so, I’m confident that you’d have been impressed. When he passed away in 1994, Mr. Herman’s will included bequests of more than two billion dollars for the City of East St. Louis where he had lived most of his adult life. He bequeathed another billion and a half dollars to the State of Illinois. Herman was a carpenter, and so appreciated the value of wood; so he also left two and a half billion to the national forest system.
The only problem was that the sum total of all his assets upon his death were a nine year old used car and a small amount of cash in his wallet. His will sounded amazingly generous. But it was all fluff and nonsense. There was no real generosity involved because his promises were meaningless. He had no ability to stand behind his words.
God, on the other hand, stands behind His promises and delivers.
It all begins when we become aware of His love, because unless you’re aware of someone’s love for you it won’t have an impact on you or your life. But as we become aware of His love, His sacrifices for us, and His commitment to developing a relationship with us, His divine power delivers on His promises, and He gives us everything we need for life and godliness. As we learn more and more about Him, the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence brings about changes within us. Changes driven by the OF God and our love FOR God.
His awesome power combines with our knowledge of Him like a catalytic reaction. God shows us His love, and gives us His precious and magnificent promises. Real promises, not empty ones like Russell Herman made. Those promises change us from the inside out. Through His promises He pours His life into us, so that through them you and I become partakers of the divine nature. (Not that we become gods, of course; that’s not possible. There is only one God, and He’s made that abundantly clear.) No, what He delivers through His promises working in us is that we escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires and get drawn closer to Him and His holiness.
His goal is that our hearts lead us closer and closer to Him. Not just saying the right things, but DOING the things that demonstrate our love and commitment. You can’t ever confuse the cause and the effect. We don’t do things or not do them to become holy. Our choices about what we will and will not do are driven by our relationship with a holy God who loves us. Since we love Him, our love constrains our choices. Our actions are ruled by love, not law.
THESE PEOPLE MAKE A BIG SHOW OF SAYING THE RIGHT THING, BUT THEIR HEARTS AREN’T IN IT
When our hearts are truly “in it” – our actions demonstrate it. And sacrifice of time, talent and treasure are just expressions of our love. They aren’t demanded and grudgingly given; they are willingly offered with true joy.
In October of 1962 Robert Lee Kidd was sitting on death row in San Quentin having been convicted of first-degree murder. His wife Gladys, convinced of her husband’s innocence, had no money to hire a lawyer for the appeal. So she decided to give the only thing she had to give – herself. She placed a classified ad in the San Francisco Examiner which read, “I don’t want my husband to die in the gas chamber for a crime he did not commit. I will therefore offer my services for 10 years as a cook, maid, or housekeeper to any leading attorney who will defend him and bring about his vindication.”
Vincent Hallinan was one of San Francisco’s premier lawyers. He had a well-earned nickname – “the Lion of the Courtroom.” Hallinan saw the advertisement, felt pity, and contacted the woman. After hearing her story, he decided to take the case. Kidd was cleared of all charges when Hallinan’s expert defense caused the supposed evidence against him to unravel. Kidd was the first person in California’s history to be acquitted after being sentenced to death. It is worth noting that Hallinan refused the ten years of servitude; he said his reward was saving an innocent man from death.
You and I are also on death row, the only problem is that we are guilty! Someone will pay the price for our sin. If we choose to die in our sin without Christ, then that burden will be charged to our account.
But we, too, have a lion who is ready to step up to our defense. He is known as “the Lion of Judah” and He has an unbeatable defense for us. He can point to all of our sin and announce to the Court – “Paid In Full!” His true love was best expressed in His commitment to you and me; a commitment that brought Him to the cross. It was much more than merely saying the right things. His true love was shown by what He actually did. He gave Himself.
Then He gave us His promises. Promises through which we escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires and get drawn closer to Him and His holiness. And as we come closer to Him, those promises lead us into lives of love-driven service and sacrifice; joyfully given with full hearts. In other words, we let our love for Him show.
THESE PEOPLE MAKE A BIG SHOW OF SAYING THE RIGHT THING, BUT THEIR HEARTS AREN’T IN IT
But we’re not “these people” – we are HIS PEOPLE. And our hearts are “in it.”
There’s a prayer in the Book of Common Prayer that is said on Thursday of Easter Week. It says, “Almighty God, you show those in error the light of Your truth so that they may turn to the path of righteousness. Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth with their lives what they profess with their faith.”
Hidden love is of little value. We need to let our love show. It is much more than merely saying the right things. True love is shown by what we actually do. We need to SHOW IT.
Hidden love is of little value. Unless you’re aware of someone’s love for you it won’t have an impact on you or your life. So we look for every opportunity to let others know about Christ’s love, Christ’s sacrifice, Christ’s offer of forgiveness. True love is shown by what we actually do. We choose to SHOW IT by our words and our actions.
We SHOW the love of God.
For you and me, it’s SHOW TIME.
THESE PEOPLE MAKE A BIG SHOW OF SAYING THE RIGHT THING, BUT THEIR HEARTS AREN’T IN IT
