Love, love, love

by Jo Corney

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

Read 1 John 3:11–18

Love – a word that is used in various contexts. In thinking through this devotion, my ears have been attuned to where I hear the word in use. While doing the shopping, I overheard a toddler tell his mum, ‘I love you so much, Mummy!’ During the same trip, I heard a person exclaim to their shopping partner, ‘I love this sauce brand!’ What contrasts! With the common broad use of ‘love’, I wonder if the word and the depth of what it means is served an injustice?

Thinking about love in human relational experience, we recognise different forms of it – familial, romantic, mateship, and the fatherly love of God for us and our reciprocal love for God. I am aware that we are instructed and reminded many times in the Scriptures to ‘love one another’. It’s obviously very important for us – perhaps we must be reminded often as we get distracted or forget. This passage reminds us of God’s love for us in Jesus and directs us to act on it.

In writing this devotion, I am particularly taken by John’s tender address for his audience when he starts this directive sentence in verse 19. He is not using a big stick for what you must do! He addresses his letter’s recipients with care and tenderness as ‘dear children’. In this, I sense a heart of care seeking to remind its audience that love given and shown in ‘actions and in truth’ is the way to go.

But I am also curious about the power dynamic of giving by those with the resources to those in need. Pity is named in this passage – the feeling of sorrow and compassion caused by the suffering and misfortune of others (Oxford Dictionary) – it serves as the alarm within us to sense the need of another. I’ve had the experience of a significant need and the resultant pity, with no action but lots of words, and it has been humiliating. However, I have also had great kindness and generosity, prompted by others seeing and having compassion for my need, resulting in actions to meaningfully help me, with no words offered (or very few). I have learnt how to show love in action from these experiences from my siblings in Christ. I have learnt to say little but offer what I can when my ‘pity alarm’ goes off.

Life has many chapters and overflows with varied experiences – perhaps you have been the one moved to show love in action, or, at times, you may also have been the recipient. From both perspectives, I am grateful for John’s tender direction: ‘Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.’ Every blessing to you in your journey.

Gracious God and Heavenly Father, thank you for knowing us and what is needed for our best. Thank you for reminding us of your love through your gift to us in Jesus to love one another and to do so with actions. Please grant us grace and wisdom as we respond to the needs of others. In the name of Christ, Amen.

Jo is a wife and mum who serves in various roles in her local Lutheran church community and as a chaplain within Lutheran Services.

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