Love is worthless unless it acts out



Our culture is full of false interpretations of love. Day by day, true love is being buried under an avalanche of selfishness and confusion.

If we continue to steadily feed upon a diet of confusion and distortion, we will lose sight of true love completely. As we view love through the world’s lens, soon we will also begin to believe that those who really love us, including God, will do what we want them to do.

Many people view love as a warm affection or desire. There are times when love can produce warm affection and desire, but these can also be selfish feelings. When the feelings fade, those who view love this way move on to the next warm embrace. In contrast, Biblical love is selfless. True love is more about giving than receiving. True love is about sacrifice. True love casts aside pride and self-conceit.

Galatians 6 tells us, as we have opportunity, to bear the burdens of others, especially to those who are of the household of faith. We can affirm, appreciate, and approve of others by the way we treat them. We can bear their burdens. Love is worthless unless it acts out, unless it's expressed in deed and behavior.

True love is supernatural. It is impossible to fuel true, sacrificial love on our own for very long. Instead, we must allow Jesus to pour His love into our hearts to love and serve those around us.

In Psalm 139, we see that our God is omnipotent, able to create life itself: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139:13-14). How amazing is our God who designed everything from the tiniest cell in our bodies to the grandest star in the universe!

God loves His children enough to purify and to refine their hearts: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).

The thought that there were those who had not yet received their inheritance reminds me of the idea that God has an inheritance for many people throughout the world which they have not received because they do not realize they are heirs. This should provide us with missionary zeal. How wrong it would be if two brothers had an inheritance but only one knew about it and he did not make great efforts to find his brother and inform him of what he could receive. Let us be zealous in telling others they can be heirs of God.

Therefore, take the risks that you sense God calling you to take so your life will have the full creative impact on others that God intends it to have. Ask God to give you the courage you need to live dangerously out of your freedom in Christ, embracing the opportunities God gives you to push back against the status quo and influence people to think in fresh ways about faith. Spend some time regularly engaged with the culture in which you live so you’re well-informed about it, but also make a habit of spending time in solitude so you can best hear the Holy Spirit speaking to you about how to help shape the culture in ways that fulfill God’s purposes.

Blessings,

Raj Kosaraju

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