Love Is A Verb

Alba 8-11-2024

LOVE IS A VERB

I John 3:11-18

We are subjected to so much rhetoric these days, especially with the elections coming. But much of it is just empty words. There are politicians who just ramble on and on without seemingly saying a thing. Unfortunately that problem can happen within the church. We need to be careful not to just repeat words without thinking.

Otherwise a situation could happen like the Lutheran minister who always started each service with "The Lord be with you." The people would respond, "And also with you.” But, one Sunday, the PA system wasn’t working, so the first thing he said was, "There’s something wrong with this microphone." The people responded, "And also with you."

They say “words have meaning” so perhaps there was more to that response than one might think. But maybe they just weren't thinking. Still, if someone would want to express care and concern for another, they should choose their words wisely. But sometimes even words are not enough, because...

1. Love Is More Than Words

A teenage boy and girl were sitting in a swing on her parents front porch in the mountains of North Carolina. They spent a lot of time there away from everyone, just the two of them. They would talk about all kinds of things. Things about their future, and what they might like to do if they were married.

Every Friday evening it was the same. He really liked coming to see her, but her mother's cooking was another good thing about the visit. When he got ready to go he would hold her hand and tell her he would see her next Friday and hug her. But this night he was feeling especially tender towards her. So he hugged her and said at the bottom of the porch stairs: “You know I love you so much I would fight the biggest man, swim the deepest ocean, climb the highest mountain because I love you so much.” He kissed her for the first time and turned to leave. Looking back at her as he opened the gate to leave he said, “I’ll see you next Friday, if it don't rain.” Does that sound like love?

Of all the apostles, John is known as the Apostle of Love. However, that is not how he started out. He had been rugged, unbending, reckless, impetuous and brash. Just as you would expect one of the “Sons of Thunder” to be. Love is a quality and characteristic he learned from the Savior. It took all of Jesus' three-year ministry on earth for John to learn it. But learn it he did. And he wants all of us to learn it too.

That is why there is so much about love in his gospel and his letters. And he wants us to know that real love is more than just words. This is what he writes in I John 3:11-18.

“For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

“Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”

A person can use words of love continually but love is more than words. Even if the words sound right, they can ring hollow if not backed up with action, because...

2. Love Is Shown by Actions

Janine's brother-in-law, Russell McCracken, told me that when he counseled a couple before their wedding, he would always tell them that love is a verb. That they needed to put their love in action, not just words.

That is true of husbands and wives in marriage. But it is also true of Christians in this world. That is John's point. And he makes that point using the example of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He says this is how we know what love is!

Jesus laid down His life for us. That is the ultimate example of love, that Jesus died on the cross for us. Not because we are so good that He was compelled to do so. No, it was while we were still sinners, basically enemies of our Lord, that He willingly went to the cross to take the punishment for our sins. No one made Him do it.