Love In Action

In the past few posts we discussed the first four of the Ten Commandments and how they demonstrate for us the way in which God expects us to love and worship Him.  We've seen that the Commandments are not just about love but love in action.  It is not enough to say ‘I love you;’ you must demonstrate that love in your behaviour, in the way you live out your daily lives.  God expects us to demonstrate our love for Him in our behaviour towards Him and in the final six of the Ten Commandments He shows us how we are to demonstrate love in action towards each other.

It is perhaps not surprising that there are four Commandments showing us how to love God and six that show us how to love each other.  You only have to look at the multitudes of self-help guru’s, our Oprah’s and Dr. Phil’s, the many, many  books written on how to get, have and keep a good relationship.  Go into any bookstore and you will find shelves filled with books that try to tell you how to love each other.  Yet in spite of all this, in spite of all the marriage counsellors and therapists we still, and I'm speaking generally here, can’t get it right.

There are families so broken and damaged that certain members haven’t spoken to each other in years. Divorce rates continue to rise, friendships form and dissolve and there are millions of people out there who have, literally, no one in their lives they can truly count on to be there for them.  Every single day you are likely to see the homeless, the marginalized, the drug addicts who at heart are only trying to medicate their pain, the lost, the damaged, and the broken.  I'm not suggesting you take these people physically into your lives and your homes; unfortunately our society is too dangerous to be able to do that, but we can take them into our hearts.  We can love them inside and pray for God’s intervention in their lives even though you will likely never know the outcome of your prayers.

God’s rules for loving each other are so simple yet are so often broken or discarded.  God said to ‘honour your father and mother’ yet we see so many parents and children that are estranged.  Some of us will say ‘but my particular parent is not deserving of honour’ and all too frequently you will, on the surface, be right.  Perhaps you have an absent or even a bad parent, a neglectful or abusive parent, God doesn't expect you to honour them to the point of putting up with bad behaviour or abuse – simply honour the fact that they gave you life.  You may never be able to have a relationship with that parent but honour their position as the one who brought you into the world.  Furthermore for those of you with parents that are less than desirable remember that you will always have one perfect parent, God.

God also says in the Commandments ‘thou shalt not murder’, although that is sometimes rendered in certain translations as ‘not kill’.  Not to murder is closer to the original wording, do not wantonly take another human beings life, you do not have that right.  But if, for example, someone breaks into your home and threatens your loved ones with a weapon and you have the ability to defend yourself, this is something that God understands.  This is not cold-blooded murder, it is self-defence.  

The same holds true for the soldier who is sent into the battlefield.  God does not hold him or her guilty of murder.  But just as there are times when ‘killing’ is acceptable God also has a tougher definition of murder than our courts would ever hold us to.  For example, God says if you have hate for someone in your heart you have murdered them.  It is not enough to just not commit cold-blooded murder you must also free your heart from hating anyone – even if you think they deserve it, even if maybe they do deserve it.  The same holds true for adultery; it is not enough to just not sleep with someone outside the marriage bond but you must not lust after anyone either.

How do we know that God holds us to this higher spiritual standard?  Because He spells it out clearly in two of the other Commandments.  Not only does God say ‘do not steal’ but He goes further and says ‘do not covert’.  It is not enough to say I won’t steal my neighbours’ brand new plasma television but you must also have no desire for that item in your heart.  You must not envy the belongings of others or begrudge the achievements of others.  If you love someone you’re happy for them if they get that promotion at work, happy when they buy that new couch they've waited for or go on that long awaited trip.  Love in action means so much more than just ‘not’ doing certain things, it means having the right attitude as well.

It’s like not telling lies, it’s not enough to just not speak a falsehood or, as the Bible puts it ‘give false testimony’ but you mustn’t lie by omission either.  And that includes our ‘little white lies’ as well.  If your friend asks if you like her new haircut and you honestly don’t then say so but you must learn how to do that in a way that will not cause any deliberate hurt.  Saying ‘I think it looks awful’ is not loving but you could say ‘I preferred the old style’.  In this way you are being honest and loving.  

Furthermore ‘false testimony’ against your neighbour is also an injunction against gossip.  So many times we think we know the truth of a situation and ‘share’ that truth with other friends when in fact all we are doing is being nasty and hurtful.  Think hard about what you say before you open your mouth and think about God’s principals of loving – if what you are about to say follows God’s laws of love then speak but if it doesn't  far better to keep your mouth closed.

If we truly followed all of God’s Ten Commandments, and the principal of love that lies behind them we would soon find that we have longer-lasting, more fulfilling and far more successful relationships.  Jesus summed it up very neatly when He said ‘love your neighbour as yourself’.  Make that your filter for everything that you do.  Not so much What Would Jesus Do, not that there is anything wrong with that sentiment, but ask yourself would I like it if someone did this to me?  

In that way you truly will be loving your neighbour as yourself and you will soon find the way to begin living one of God’s most difficult Commandments, ‘love thy enemy’.  But it starts with loving your friends, then loving strangers and then you can love your enemy because you will soon begin to see every single human being as a child of God, with the same potential for eternal life in the Kingdom that you have.

In Sincere Love,

Tracey