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Love Is an ActionShareToday at 12:42pmLove Is an Actionby Rick Warren

Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions. 1 John

3:18 (NLT)

*** *** *** ***

Love is something you do. Do you really love someone? Let's see how you act toward that person.You show love by what you do, not just by what you feel.

Love is more than attraction and more than arousal. It's also more than sentimentality, like so manyof today's songs suggest. By this standard, is love dead when the emotion is gone? No, not at all.Because love is an action; love is a behavior.

Over and over again, in the Bible, God commands us to love each other. And you can't command anemotion. If I told you "Be sad!" right now, you couldn't be sad on cue. Just like an actor, you can fakeit, but you're not wired for your emotions to change on command. Have you ever told a little kid, "Behappy!" I'm trying, daddy!

If love were just an emotion, then God couldn't command it. But love is something you do. It canproduce emotion, but love is an action.

The Bible says, "Let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions" (1John 3:18 NLT). We can talk a good act: "I love people." But do we really love them? Do you reallylove them? Our love is revealed in how we act toward them.

Tell God You Love Him by SingingShareYesterday at 6:41pm

Tell God You Love Him by Singing

by Rick Warren

"Sing to God a thanksgiving hymn, play music on your instruments to God"

(Psalm 147:7 MSG).

When you express your love for God, it's called worship. One way you can express your love is bysinging to him.

You've probably noticed that music and love go together because music comes from the heart. It'snot something you do intellectually; it's something that comes out of your soul and your emotions.

And because of that there are many love songs in the world. It's also the reason more songs havebeen written about Jesus Christ than any other topic in the world. Nothing even comes in as a closesecond.

Christianity is a singing faith. Why? Because it's not about religion! It's about a love affair; it's abouta relationship with GodGod loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you and He wantsyou to love Him back.

Nothing will make you more aware of God's love and God's presence in your life than singing andpraising. I know you may be thinking, "But you don't understand. I can't sing." That's okay, becausethe Bible says, "Make a joyful noise" (Psalm 66:1 KJV). You can do that. When we go to footballgames or when somebody is getting married we make a joyful noise. So just let it out! You don'thave to hit the right note; you just have to make a joyful noise.

Since you can sing anywhere, you can express your love of God anywhere. That means you can

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worship in the shower; you can worship when you're working in the garden; you can worshipwashing dishes; or you can worship driving to work.

How often do you sing your thanks and love to God? Daily? Regularly? Occasionally?

If you really think about what God has done in your life, you won't be able to help yourself. Yourpraise for God will burst forth and your worship will flow to God.

Jealousy

Luke 15:25-32"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. Sohe called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'andyour father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But heanswered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yetyou never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours whohas squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

"My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrateand be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'

James 3:13-18Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humilitythat comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast aboutit or deny the truth. Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full

of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest ofrighteousness

Love Is an Action

by Rick Warren

Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our

actions. 1 John 3:18 (NLT)

*** *** *** ***

Love is something you do. Do you really love someone? Let's see how you act towardthat person. You show love by what you do, not just by what you feel.

Love is more than attraction and more than arousal. It's also more than sentimentality,like so many of today's songs suggest. By this standard, is love dead when the emotion is

gone? No, not at all. Because love is an action; love is a behavior.

Over and over again, in the Bible, God commands us to love each other. And you can't

command an emotion. If I told you "Be sad!" right now, you couldn't be sad on cue. Just

like an actor, you can fake it, but you're not wired for your emotions to change oncommand. Have you ever told a little kid, "Be happy!" I'm trying, daddy!

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If love were just an emotion, then God couldn't command it. But love is something you

do. It can produce emotion, but love is an action.

The Bible says, "Let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our

actions" (1 John 3:18 NLT). We can talk a good act: "I love people." But do we really

love them? Do you really love them? Our love is revealed in how we act toward them.James 3:13-18

"13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meekness ofwisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealously and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false tothe truth. 15 This wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. 16 Forwhere jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdomfrom above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, withoutuncertainty or insincerity. 18 And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace."

James has just been writing at length about how we use our tongues and the destruction that can occurwhen our own double-mindedness towards God and others is allowed expression through our words. James

now turns to the deeper issue of wisdom. "Who is wise and understanding among you?" James asks.Wisdom is the knowledge we need to live in this life and to interact with our circumstances and with thosearound us. James compares the two basic sources for wisdom--from God or from the world around us.

All along James has been focusing on how to live as Christians in the midst of continuing, ever-present trialsin a twisted and fallen world. The Christians he is writing to are struggling and their struggles have led themto be tempted to even question God's presence, care, and activity in their lives. How are they (and we) tohandle the pressures of devastating health or financial problems, loneliness, manipulative relationships, orthe daily frustrations that pile up and so easily lead their (our) gaze away from the presence of their (our)heavenly Father? To know how to cope is to be wise.

Of course, James is clear from the start that the only true wisdom he believes exists is wisdom from God, or"from above" as he puts it later in the passage. To the one who is wise and understanding, James says, "Byhis good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom." What is a good life? Is it one free of trial?No, it is a life that is lived out of the meekness of wisdom. So, first of all James is saying that wisdom ismeek. What does he mean by this? Well, if we look back to the first chapter James encourages his readersthat if they are ever lacking wisdom to ask God, "who gives to all men generously and without reproaching,and it will be given to him."(1:5) God is the true source of wisdom and is always willing to give it to us whenwe ask. In fact, the beginning of wisdom for James, is to be wise about the character of our good God andso to be willing to receive from Him.

This is why there is a meekness to wisdom. We are not wise on our own. We are God's children--dependenton our heavenly Father to give us life, love, peace, joy, and wisdom to live. We are to allow this generous,giving God to give to us. This is the wise thing to do--to recognize that we are children who receive our life

from our Father. James touches on this point later in the first chapter when he encourages his readers to"put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word,which is able to save your souls."(1:21) Remember that passage? The word is already implanted in them,not by themselves but by God. But they need to receive the word, make room for it, live by the truth of itsliving presence. And they receive it with meekness. I think one way to talk about this is to say that we are toreceive from God what we know we cannot give ourselves. We are trusting, not in ourselves, but in Hisgood, generous, loving character. So the person who is wise is able to show his works in the meekness ofwisdom. True wisdom is not just good advice, good ideas or ideals, or knowing which side of a debate is theright side. Wisdom is real when it is in motion. What are his works? Not even just acts of charity but, all ofwhat goes into how he lives--how he deals with his family, friends, acquaintances and business associates,how he handles his finances and spends his time, how he approaches the ordinary tasks of the day. To live

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in the meekness of wisdom is to go about our lives in a light-handed, self-forgetful manner because we knowthat we are not receiving our life and our identity from the relationships and tasks at hand. We are receivingmoment by moment our life from God. We do not look to those around us or to our present circumstances(be they currently good, okay, or horrible) to tell us who we really are, to give us a sense of worth, or our lifeand livelihood. To be wise is to see that our present circumstances do not and indeed cannot tell the story ofour real worth or limit our real ability to receive full life from God even now. Paul gets at this very point whenhe says, "For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor

things to come, nor powers, nor height, now depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separateus from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."(Ro.8:38-39)

This is so radical and not at all easy in this world. Everything is always so uneven, isn't it? It is always sotempting to notice all that is out of place in our lives and to feel therefore that we are not yet able to live inthe fullness that we could be. And, it is so very difficult not to compare our lives with others and to use thosecomparisons either to puff ourselves up or tear ourselves down.

James now turns to these dangers: "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do

not boast and be false to the truth." When we are jealous or selfishly ambitious, we are not trusting in God'sability to give us life in the midst of our trials, and to lead us, through these very trials to become "perfect andcomplete, lacking in nothing."(1:4) Our jealousy and ambitious plans for ourselves do not reflect the realtruth about who we are and where real life is to be found. As I read this I frankly was really struck by howmuch of my life is battling with these things. Every day, the temptation to be jealous of someone else comesup. We can be jealous of another's spouse, looks, children, financial situation, personality, happy childhood,good health, even their faith! And it is so easy to maneuver myself in ways to make me look good, wise,humble, attractive in others' eyes.

James is aware of this. He knows that his readers are constantly bombarded by the temptation to comparethemselves and so be jealous and selfish. He knows that when we are struggling with trials, this temptationis increased. So the first thing he is saying to his readers here is if you have these feelings in your heart, "donot boast and be false to the truth." No wisdom, especially the wisdom of meekness, can come out of a

jealous and ambitious heart. This will put a wedge between us and God and between us and others,especially those nearest and dearest to us. These motivations are grounds for the charge of foolishness notconfidence, much less pride and boasting.

The second way James seeks to encourage his readers who are wrestling with these temptations ofjealousy and selfishness is to state clearly where this kind of "wisdom" comes from and where it leads. "Thiswisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish." The wisdom of the worldwhich comes by way of comparison with others is really "anti-wisdom" as it leads to nothing but destructionand death. Yet, it is regarded as sophisticated, advanced, adult and so, well, worldly wise. James is clear,however, that there is nothing good that can come out of our trying to justify our jealousies. Sometimes wewant to make exceptions for ourselves because of our difficult trials. "Yes," we may think to ourselves, "weknow that God is the source of life, but my marriage, finances, state of affairs, etc. are so bad or unusualthat I can't help but have envy and jealousy towards others right now." Or, we may want to acknowledge that

while God is present in our life right now even as it is, He can't be fully my source of joy, peace, and life untilI make my life change. But James wants to remind his readers that this kind of thinking, or "wisdom" is fromthe world. It is not coming from our "Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due tochange."(1:17) James encourages his readers to turn away from all thinking that is hindering their receivingwisdom from their always good, loving heavenly Father.

"For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice." These are thefruits of worldly wisdom. And we have all seen and experienced the truth of this statement in our lives. Therecan be no good result when we are motivated to protect, advance, focus on ourselves at the expense of

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others. There is no security or peace in an environment where everyone is primarily concerned for their owninterests. It is hard to find rest here! Being jealous of others, or selfishly ambitious is "a big deal" Jamessays. Don't be fooled, but be wise. When we are preoccupied with these things we are, at that time, notenjoying, resting in, soaking in, our wonderful Father from whom "every good endowment and every perfectgift"(1:17) comes.

Now that James has exposed the true poison of worldly wisdom, he turns his readers attention again to thewisdom God gives. You notice he uses the same phrase "from above" here that he uses in the verse I partly

just quoted: "...every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights..." This wisdom is partof the good and perfect gifts our Fathers wants to give us. There is a lot you can meditate on in this list.First, James says God's wisdom is pure. He actually comes back to this at the end of his list when he says,"without uncertainty or insincerity." God's wisdom is not double-minded. He gives us all one thing--Himself.As He enables us more and more to grow in wisdom, more and more we are filled with His one real life. Thisperfection He is working out in us is a perfection where there is no longer any double-mindedness in useither--we are through and through pure--who we were created to be.

Wisdom from above is peaceable. When we know and live in the truth that we receive our lives andidentities from God, then we have nothing to prove, or manipulate for here. We can be in His peace and so

be peaceable. God's wisdom is gentle, not violent. God's wisdom is open to reason, not threatened. And, thewisdom from above is "full of mercy and good fruits." Wow, how delightful!

This wisdom is from God because this is God. James is describing the wisdom that God has first towardsus! This is who He is: pure (not double-minded), peaceable (Christ is our peace), gentle ("Come to me, allwho labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I amgentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."Mt.11:28-29), open to reason ("Come now, letus reason together, says the Lord"Isa.1:18), and good fruits ("Of his own will he brought us forth by the wordof truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures."1:18--not to mention that He is the Creator,and all the good fruits of this world are His), without uncertainty and insincerity ("the Father of lights withwhom there is no variation or shadow due to change"1:17). How wonderful God is! He is wise in all theseways towards us, and His implanted word in us, that we are to receive with meekness, is at work to shareHis very heart with us.

James ends this section with this thought, "And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those whomake peace." With this, James is summing up his whole point. Envy and jealousy can never lead torighteousness, but only strife. True wisdom from God, given as the gift of God, bears fruit and that fruit is theharvest of righteousness which has as its roots peace with God and peace with others. Wisdom and peacealways go together, for the wisdom of God always creates right relationship since God Himself is a triunecommunion of holy love. God shares with us Himself and His wisdom about right relationship which aims forreconciliation and restoration and so brings peace with God and with each other. No wonder Jesus said Heoffers us through Himself His own peace, a peace that the world cannot provide or accomplish.