Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
I feel like this verse probably hits to the heart of many of us, because we know what it feels like to experience fake love. It's when you have an expectation from somebody who is close to you, somebody you trust to have your best interest in mind. They may even express with their words that they love you, only for you to find that feeling of disappointment. That realization that what you thought was real love ended up being fake love.
Words Without Actions
We can also resonate with the idea that there are times where we have words to say about certain things—we can talk—but we never actually back it up with our actions or the way we live. I bring these two examples up simply to show that the writer in 1 John is tapping into what is a core understanding of the human experience. It has always been true that there is the possibility of doing one thing with my words and another thing with how I live. We know the disappointment of experiencing that in our lives. If I'm honest, I also know what it feels like to be the one who exhibits this—to have words that say one thing and a life that does another. What we call that is hypocrisy.
The Play Actor
Now that's a heavy word to drop in there, because when you hear it, it feels like a cutting accusation. But when you see it in its true essence—when you look at what the word actually means at its root—it feels a little less abrasive and a lot more revealing. A hypocrite in early times, in the days when this would have been read, would have been understood historically as a play actor. In other words, it's somebody who throws on a costume, has some lines, does a performance—and then when they're done with the performance, they're done with the character.
We know in our current day and age what it means to be an actor, someone who is putting on a performance. They have a character they are playing, but we know that the character they're playing and the person playing that character are two different people. This is the idea being communicated here in this verse. Let's not merely say that we love each other—let's show the truth in our actions. Don't just be a play actor exhibiting love in the way that we talk. Let's back up those words with the way we live.
Be About It
Where I grew up in New Jersey, a phrase that used to be thrown around was, "don't speak about it, be about it." In other words, you can talk all day, but unless you show up with what your life says to back it up, it doesn't really matter. Now why is this really important? Well, it says in the Scriptures that the world will know that we are the disciples of Jesus by the way that we love one another. It requires that we don't just say we love others or just talk about loving others, but that our lives would exhibit love toward others in such a way that people would see that the great love and grace of Jesus has affected us in a way that changes how we serve others. We don't want our talk to be the end of our faith journey. We want the words that we say to match the actions that come from our heart, in the way that we live.
