10 30 08 Truth in Action

“Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth.” (1 John 3:18 NET)

The NIrV version explains it this way: “Dear children, don't just talk about love. Put your love into action. Then it will truly be love.” Oh yes, there is a lot of talk going on these days. Talk of this promise and that promise. Talk of this man or that woman. Talk of what everyone else has done and how everyone else failed. Yet real truth comes in how we have lived and what we have done. I wish more folks would talk less about themselves and others and allow their actions to speak for themselves. It would settle a lot of debates!

It is so with those of us who call ourselves Christians…Christ followers. We talk about Christ. We speak His words. We teach His Truths. But what we lack most of all is TRUTH IN ACTION! I recently had to write a comment responding to a professor’s question in my communications class concerning St. Francis. He once said: "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary, use words."

Here is my response:

I believe that St. Francis was reminding folks that communicating the Gospel is much more effective in our day to day living: how we dress, how we drive, how we handle our situations, and how we live when the church is not watching, than our preaching! More people are turned off to Christianity by what they see than what they hear. Christians (I use the term loosely) have a bad reputation of "living like the world" Monday through Saturday and then picking up the Bible on Sunday morning and doing the Christian thing.

We communicate the Gospel by getting to work on time and working productively when there. We communicate the Gospel by encouraging someone when they are hurting, by volunteering to help with the PTA, or coaching our children's teams. We communicate the Gospel by shoveling off the neighbor’s sidewalk or taking food to a family we know is struggling. We communicate the Gospel by getting involved with local kids who have no father in their home. We communicate the Gospel by sitting down to lunch with a homeless man or making our family vacation a week rebuilding homes and families in a storm-wrecked city or town. Then when asked why, we can explain the Gospel in the Words from the Bible.

In today's challenging world where relationships come and go quicker than the latest fashions, people need to have people they can trust. They need to trust character. They need to experience Christ and His words in living color, not empty promises. Every gesture, every written word, every common action, every simple step we take in life is a possible witness for Christ to a watching world. So as we live, we preach the Gospel and then use words when necessary!

We live out TRUTH IN ACTION.