Love in Action and in Inaction

Still studying the seven churches in Revelation … I again read this admonition to the first church in Ephesus “… you have abandoned your first love.” Followed by this exhortation “… perform the deeds you did at first.” Therefore allowing for the interpretation that love, the kind that God is referring to “agape love” is characterized by action. What actions?

When I read the “Love is” list in 1 Corinthians 13 I do not see love in action as one might think.

  4“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. 6 Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

1.      is patient

2.      is kind

3.      does not envy

4.      does not boast

5.      is not proud

6.      is not rude

7.      is not self-seeking

8.      is not easily angered

9.      keeps no record of wrongs

10.   takes no pleasure in evil

11.   rejoices in truth

12.   bears all things

13.   believes all things

14.   hopes all things

15.   endures all things

In this list “believes all things” stands out since we are never told to believe lies or untruths, this must be referring to how we love God. If we love God then we love others as explained in 1 John 3

1 John 3:18 Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.

Can inaction be love in action? Perhaps and perhaps not. “Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart.”

Once I was struggling with the accusation that I lacked love for others because someone was offended by my manner of not being enticed or drawn into their emotional need. I struggled with this a lot because 1 John is definitive on this -- vs.10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil can be distinguished: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

When seeking counsel I was reminded that Jesus waited to go to his friends Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus was ill even though it caused them emotional pain. And another Mary Martha example was when Jesus was not sucked into Martha’s anxiousness but refocused her to the truth. These are examples of God loving with inaction. Certainly I need to check my heart; is my inaction motivated by God’s love? The reverse is also true.