1 John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

There are many places in the Bible where I am at a loss to say which verse speaks to me most, and this is certainly one of those. John is rightly called “the Apostle of love,” and his Gospel, his letters, and yes, even Revelation, teach us a great deal about what agape love is all about. Not having the distinctions in English (or Japanese, for that matter) between the different kinds of love, it’s very helpful to have not only passages like 1 Corinthians 13, but also this verse, in order to understand just what God’s kind of love is like. The emphasis here is on practicality, on follow-through, much as James stresses in the area of faith. Faith, hope, and love are famous as a trio, courtesy of 1 Corinthians 13:13, and all three are far more practical that we often give them credit for. Hope seems perhaps the most ephemeral of those, but when our hope is as solid as it should be, people around us will take notice and ask us about it, leading to effective evangelism. (1 Peter 3:15) When it comes to love, I think everyone has experienced “love” that was no more than words, and it is empty indeed. The “gold standard” for love is of course John 3:16, from the pen of this same writer. If we ever wonder whether we are loving properly, we need to think of Jesus! So much love is self centered, for what the one loving can get out of it, but that isn’t agape, it’s eros. We tend to associate eros entirely with sex, but it is much broader than that, and it contaminates many of our relationships. This verse should be a good check on whether we are loving properly, allowing God’s love to flow through us.

Of course I need to be careful of this in my own life, and as a pastor and counselor I have many opportunities to communicate it to others. Many people are actually surprised to learn of what God’s love is like, and that He wants to pour it through them. In marriage counseling, most of the problems I deal with come from people operating in eros (in the broader sense) without agape. They are focused on what they see as their own wants and needs, and can’t see that there is far more fulfillment in meeting their partner’s wants and needs. In marriage there needs to be mutuality, but agape love can be entirely one-sided, just as God loved us before we ever cared anything about Him. That’s the challenge for me personally, and how I need to lead the believers in this church: to love others with God’s love, in the most practical terms, even if there is no reciprocity, because we are no more than responding to how God has loved us.

Father, thank You for this very clear Word. Help me not stop with words, but follow through in practical obedience to You loving people with Your love so that they may be drawn to You, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!