Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
This verse is pretty straightforward and very simple. In its essence, love means doing what God has commanded us. In other words, if we live out the commands that God has given to us as human beings, by doing this, we are honoring God and representing that we actually care about what He has given us in the way of instruction and guidance and direction. The real tell of whether or not this is true is shown not by what we say, not even by what we think, but how we live.
How You Live Is Your Real and Final Truth
I remember reading a quote a long time ago and it said, "How you live is your real and final truth. Not what you believe." In other words, we all have good intentions about a lot of good things and we might say we believe something, but it's only when it comes out of our lives that we put our money where our mouth is, so to speak. We begin to truly embody the thing that we espouse to.
The most simple way I could think about this comes to mind when I think about one of my kids. I imagine them sitting in the living room and they are watching television, and I come in and see some dirty laundry on the floor. I might say to one of my kids, "All right, you can't watch TV until you pick up the dirty laundry, pick it up, bring it to the laundry room, and then you can watch TV."
They may respond, "Okay, Dad," and I leave the room. Well, then I come back, look on the floor. Sure enough, there's the laundry. "Buddy, I thought I asked you to pick up the laundry and put it in the laundry room. Then you can watch TV. Okay?" "Okay, Dad," I leave the room, come back a third time. You guessed it. You already know. Some of you think I'm actually telling you what happened this morning at your house. But of course, the laundry is still there. I say, "Listen. Did you hear what I said to you?" They turned to me and said, "Dad, I heard you."
Hearing Versus Doing
Let's just pause. Clearly, we are at odds because their understanding of what it means to hear versus my understanding of what it means to hear is completely different. They think hearing means the auditory process of sound going into these holes on the side of your head and affecting your eardrums represents hearing. What I'm saying is that happens, and you actually get up and do what I told you to do. You see how there is a difference there where they may say, "I've heard what you're commanding me to do," but really the response, the belief that I see that they've heard me and they're responding and actually care about what I want them to do, is the action of them getting up and doing it.
This is what the verse is talking about. I mean, it really is that simple. The reason this is an important reminder in the Bible, although it might feel like I'm Captain Obvious, is so many of us have so many flowery words and things that we can say about what we think about God and how it should be to live for God. The reality is, sometimes the words that we say and the actions that we live don't necessarily line up.
Living Out What We Believe
What the Bible is reminding us is that in our own hidden places, in our own lives that are only known to us, are we responding to the commands of God in our hearts, that we would live in a way that is honoring to Him, and in doing so, showing our great love for God, because we are responding to what He is calling us to do for His glory and for our good.
Today, let's think about what this verse in 2 John means for our lives specifically.
