The Language of Love – Part Four

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” I John 3: 18

Little known is the story of faith expressed nonverbally by oppressed persons to their oppressors.

It came about among people who didn’t even speak the same language, but one of the groups spoke the language of love fluently.

In the saga of the Cherokee People’s Trail of Tears, the Cherokee nation, trying to keep peace and maintain self-pride, reluctantly agreed to move from North Georgia and North Carolina to the Oklahoma Indian Territory.  Grief-filled stories of injustices and brutality against these Native Americans along with disease and starvation left graves all along the trail causing it to be called the “trail of tears.”

The soldiers assigned to guard and guide them on this grueling trail didn’t remain unmoved by the faith of these simple people. Every single soldier was converted to Christianity along the trail. The language of love demonstrated by the Cherokees was interpreted by the song they sang along the trail. The title of the song contains all the words of the song they sang repetitiously: “What Can We Do For You Jesus? What Can We Do For You?”

As told by Dr. Henry Raddle, Waco Texas District Superintendent, reported by Billy D. Strayhorn, Arlington, Texas, as found in “Parables,” Volume 14, Number 5, page 5, July 1994.

I have been fortunate through the years to have people say to me that they love me. Among the many who said it have been some who did not mean it. Many have communicated it most clearly, one so distinctly. A lady called my attention to my shoe being untied posing a risk of falling. She said it. Then she showed it laying aside all semblance of dignity she spontaneously knelt down and tied it.

I entered the home where there was a young man with severe limitations. He could only make sounds and gestures. He kept pulling on my coat for reasons I did not understand until his dad explained his action. He was trying to communicate that he wanted me to take off my coat and stay awhile. Thus, he spoke the language of love clearly.

If we all would seek how to communicate love as aggressively as he our world would be a better place. Evaluate your communication skills in light of this:
“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (I Corinthians 13: 4 – 7)        

You will find persons all along their trail of tears needing your visual and verbal love. 

The Language of Love – Part Three

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” I John 3: 18

Jesus was the “Word … full of grace and truth.”  The Bible tells us to “speak the truth in love.” Sometimes this mandates verbal communication. Sometimes it involves visual love. Do you know how to communicate the language of love.

Linus asks Lucy: “Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?”

Lucy: “I just think I have a knack for seeing other people’s faults.”

Linus: “What about your own faults?”

Lucy: “I have a knack for overlooking them….”

We speak the language of love when we reverse that and overlook the faults of others while working on our own.

Often the spoken word is intended to deceive while contrary action is planned. Jeremiah 9: 8 describes this: “Their tongue is an arrow shot out: It speaks deceit; One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, But in his heart he sets his ambush.”   Speak the truth in love.

“I love you,” can be one of the most encouraging and motivating expressions uttered.

“I love you,” can be one of the most deceptive and damnable lies spoken. As a lie it is a plea and ploy to lower the drawbridge of our heart to allow a traitor entrance.

“A flattering mouth….” (Proverbs 26: 28)

Many problems in life are caused by the tongue. There is no easier way to sin than with speech. The tongue is in a moist place and can slip easily.

Communication involves listening. You speak the language of love every time you are willing to listen to a friend who needs an attentive ear. Few speak as well as those who silently listen. For five years, the adult education department of Minneapolis Public Schools offered two courses in speech and one in the art of listening each term. The speech courses were always filled. The listening courses were never held because in those five years only two students wanted the course. Everyone wanted to learn how to speak and no one wanted to learn how to listen.

Parents listen to your children. Husbands and wives listen to your spouses.

Swiss psychologist, Dr. Paul Tournier, once observed, “How beautiful, how grand and liberating this experience is, when people learn to hear each other. It is impossible to overemphasize the immense need humans have to be really listened to.”

Comic Lily Tomlin did a spoof in which she posed as an old fashioned phone operator. The popular line was, “Have I reached the person to whom I am speaking?” May love prompt you to listen in love and reach the person.

The Language of Love – Part Two

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” I John 3: 18

Jesus is called the “Word.”  His very actions were the expression of the heart of God the Father. In essence, our actions are a language. What we do is what people hear. What people see is what they hear.

Love is a language which the blind can read and the deaf can understand.

You speak the language of love without opening your mouth when you write a note of encouragement, help someone perform a difficult task, bake a cake or cookies, open a door, give a cool drink on a hot day or a warm drink on a cold day, share a mutual sorrow, or give a love offering to meet a spiritual need.

A kind look, a thoughtful act, or a warm smile can be ammunition for a friend fighting his unseen battle.

Observers of speech estimate that approximately 75% or more of our message is communicated nonverbally or in the tone of our voice. 

The language of love is a sign language.

Circumstances can make life a burden or a blessing. Circumstances can make life a burden or a blessing. Our works and words can help make it a blessing for others.

Jesus, the Word, was full of “grace and truth.” Every grace act and every truthful utterance is spoken in the language of love.

Grace is God’s kindness and favor shown to people who don’t deserve it.  Are you willing to do kind deeds and bestow favor on persons you know don’t deserve it?

Kind words are the music of the soul. They have a power which seems to be beyond nature, as if they were some angel’s song that found its way to earth. No person has ever been helped or corrected by sarcasm — crushed yes, if the sarcasm is clever enough, but never drawn nearer God.

One of the greatest things you can do in the name of your Heavenly Father is to be kind to some of His other children.

Visual grace needs to be complimented by verbal grace. Do you know how to speak the language of love with grace? So many people don’t know how to pay a compliment without including in it a barb. Others don’t know how to comment without having a cut in it. 

A new language can be learned. To become a model of love, begin by evaluating your words and actions and making an honest evaluation. Are you visually and verbally speaking the language of love?

The Language of Love – Part One

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” I John 3: 18

Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13: 35)

This was His litmus test for love.

The Bible or New Testament has been translated into all of the world’s major languages. The entire Bible is translated into a total of 293 languages spoken by 90% of the world’s population. The New Testament is available in another 618 languages. Currently 3,000 Bible translators are working on 1,400 translation projects.

However, there is a strategic translation that needs to be made by you which only your friends will read. At the funeral of a man who had the good fortune of living all of his life in the North Georgia mountains.  Also participating was a retired minister who had lived as the neighbor of the deceased for years. He commented of his friend and neighbor: “He lived next door to me for 31 years and never once told me he loved me.” 

After only a momentary pause he continued, “But, I never doubted he loved me for he showed it in so many ways by the things he did.” Then he quoted: “…let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (I John 3: 18)

Let that reverberate in the echo chamber of your heart.

“A light that doesn’t glow,
A spring that doesn’t flow,
A seed that doesn’t grow,
All are analogies of a faith that doesn’t show. 

The Bible says, “God is love.” That might have been doubted until “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1: 14) That was show and tell time. Jesus told us of the love of God and then went  to Calvary and showed us the love of God. Like Jesus we must combine words and deeds.

“In this is the love of God manifested toward us, that God sent His Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” (I John 4: 9) 

The language of love isn’t always verbal. Often it is communicated by physical actions and attitudes. Ideally love should be show and tell love. 

“Let love be without dissimulation.” (Romans 12: 9) Dissimulation means to hide or disguise one’s thoughts or feelings. It is hypocrisy. Let love be without hypocrisy. Hypocrisy isn’t real love at all. Bogus love that masquerades as “love” is laced with hypocrisy. Avoid it while exercising the language of authentic love.

Where Does Love Come From? 10/26/03

I Timothy 1:5

JESUS CHRIST said, “…love one another…”

He also said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God…”

Some years later one of His immature young followers wrote to give insight as to the fountain head of love. As a refreshing fountain has to have a source so must love. Our text uses that principle to illustrate the origin of love in a life. The illustrative fountain has three heads:

THE HEART, THE CONSCIENCE, AND FAITH.
Once while flying out of Cairo I was impressed by a large dark area in that vast expanse of sandy desert. As we neared it I could tell it was vegetation. Upon inquiring, I learned the government had drilled for oil and had simply dug a very expensive water well. The water was conserved and used to irrigate this region of about one square mile in size. All they did was let the water be dispersed over the dry sand and vegetation sprung up. For centuries the seed had been collecting needing only water to grow. Perhaps the best seeds of love are yet to spring up in your life.

We live in a spiritually dry and thirsty world needing love. You can be that fountain of love. I beg you, don’t be a mirage.

The meaning of the word “love” needs to be established before considering its source. AGAPE is the Greek word translated love. It speaks of full loyalty to God and boundless good will to people. The Greeks had various words for love. PHILEO was one used for brotherly love. Combine it as a prefix to ANTHROPOS, the word for man and you have the word philanthropy, meaning the love of mankind. PHILEO combined with SOPIAS the Greek word for knowledge and you have the word philosophy, the love of knowledge. Combined with the Greek word for city, POLIS and you have Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

There was the Greek word EROS which spoke of physical or sensual love.

At the time of the New Testament there was no Greek word adequate to express the love of God. They took a little used word that appears only four times in classical Greek writings and gave it a new meaning, AGAPE. It is the selfless self-giving love of God. There is nothing physical or sensual about it. Love as used in this regard means to desire and devise the best for others.

Love for God prompts us to let go of whatever we are holding to and latching on to God. Let go and latch on. There is no good in holding on to anything in time of a storm if it isn’t tied down. In the storms of life the only real and sure anchor is Jesus Christ. To love Him means to let go of the unanchored objects offered by the world and latching on to Him.

Some of you I am reminding, others are perhaps gaining this perspective for the first time. A baby isn’t born knowing how to love. It is born with the capacity to love but learns to love or hate by the way the parent relates to it. Perhaps you were deprived of one or both parents who didn’t show you proper love as an infant and loving is difficult for you. There is good news. Along comes the Heavenly Father to show us love and thereby teach us to love.

“We love Him because He first loved us” (I John 4: 19).

Once we love Him and know how He loves us we are well on our way to knowing how to love one another. He loves us with all of our faults, frailties, and failures. How are we to love others? As He loved us.

Only in America has love become so mixed up. Only in America have so many things become so mixed up. ONLY IN AMERICA – – – – –
Can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.

Only in America … are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.

Only in America … do people order double cheese burgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

Only in America … do banks leave both doors open and chain the pen to the desk.

Only in America … do they put brail lettering on drive-in bank windows.

Only in America … do we leave expensive cars parked in the driveway and leave useless things and junk in boxes in the garage.

Only in America … do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we don’t want to talk to in the first place….

Only in America … do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

Only in America … do we use the word “politics” to describe the process so well: “Poli” in Latin means “many” and “ticks” means blood-sucking creatures…”

Only in America … do we use the word “love” when we mean “lust.”

Satan subtly wants to divert our love if not deceive us into not loving. In the intriguing “Screwtape Letters” by C. S. Lewis Satan gives his servant Wormwood advice on how to reduce the effectiveness of Christian love. He suggests dividing a persons life into concentric circles. The inner circle represents a person’s will. Next is the intellect. Last is one’s fantasies. It is “out there” he suggests keeping a person’s love. The deceiver says to his disciple:
“Do what you will, there is going to be some benevolence, as well as some malice, in your patient’s soul. The great thing is to direct the malice to his immediate neighbors whom he meets and to thrust his benevolence out to the remote circumference, to people he does not know.”

In other words, it is easy to talk about loving people in other countries or different locales than we. That does little good. In doing so the deceiver channels our love into lakes of unfulfillment.

Jesus said, “Love your neighbor…”

Three characteristics of the foundation of love are mentioned. Explore this triad:

I. A PURE HEART (present motives)
HEART in the Hebrew language was used in the O.T. because there is not a word for mind or brain. To understand a word in the Hebrew it is proper to define it in association with words with which it is linked.

PURE comes from the word KATHAROS meaning clean as opposed to dirty. The word was used for separating the chaff and dirt from the wheat.

A “pure heart” belongs only to the person made right by the right relationship with Christ. Such a heart can then manifest the fruit of the Spirit, which involves love.

Psalms 139:23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.” In this verse heart and thoughts are linked.

Satan subtly suggests sin is a better alternative than love for the Lord as the path to the good life. The wages of sin can be quite good in today’s competitive market, but there are no benefits and retirement is pure hell.

Matthew 15:19, “For out of the heart proceedeth evil thoughts…” Thus, from Hebrew and Greek it is seen that heart and thoughts are equated. Therefore, Timothy is appealing for followers of Christ to have pure thoughts, the right motives.

This is needed for:
“Out of the heart are the issues of life” (Prov. 4:23).

“Man looketh on the outward appearance but God looketh upon the heart” (I Samuel 16:7).

God alone cleanses the heart (Psalms 51: 10, 11).

PURE means not double minded. It was a word used to describe purging an army of all potential traitors. It described milk with no water added to dilute it.

If there is bacteria in a substance it will grow. If there is yeast in bread it will multiply. If there is impurity of thought in a life, it will grow. The mind must be cleansed. It must be cleansed from self-centeredness if it is to have love for Christ.

Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart.” Literally, He said HAPPY are the pure in heart. You will never find happiness apart from having an undivided mind, that is, God controlled thoughts. Only a pure heart produces love for Christ.

Sir Galahad said, “My strength is the strength of ten because my heart is pure.”

II. A CLEAR CONSCIENCE (past action)
Huck Finn said, “Sometimes a fellow’s conscience takes up more room than all the rest of his insides.”

Sir Arthur Doyle, author of “Sherlock Holmes, sent a telegram to ten acquaintances anonymously reading: “All is discovered. Fell at once.” All ten left town at once. A guilty conscience torments.

The assistant principle picks up the intercom, clears his voice, and your automatically pick up your books and start for his office.

You are riding down the road and hear a siren. You automatically slow down and reach for your drivers license.

Your wife in the next room answers the phone: “Hello. He did what? Who told you?” You are climbing the wall. Conscience strikes again.

The Greek word used in our text and translated “conscience” is SUNEIDESIS. It literally means “a knowing within.” How what is known within is programmed is the critical issue. To have a good conscience it must be programmed by God’s value standard, the Bible.

Our English word CONSCIENCE comes from the Latin CON-SCIENTA, meaning joint knowledge or co-knowledge, knowing together with. A conscience is a poor guide unless it knows the Word of God.

Hearts not informed and influenced by the Word of God can become insensitive. We are seeing this increasingly in America. An illustration of it comes from the Japanese conquest of China. Christians were herded into trenches, bound and put on their knees. Youth were forced to watch initially as soldiers shot them. The youthful response was one of abhorrence. Next the students were forced to do the shooting. Eventually students were forced to enter the trenches and complete the act with knives. They were then highly rewarded and bragged upon. Soon they began to relish the task in order to obtain the rewards.

In America youth watch violence while enjoying their favorite treats of candy, popcorn, and preferred beverage. Their conscience is dulled and has become insensitive. Then we wonder why there is so much violence by youth who seem to feel nothing. They have a conscience seared by a hot iron. A cauterized conscience is a non- feeling conscience. Once they enact violence and are shocked back into reality they have to live with the incubus of their act.

A clear conscience is one:
A. Guided by God’s special revelation as a norm.
B. Makes wise judgements and issues instructions which are obeyed.
C. Produces “Godly sorrow which works repentance unto salvation” (II Cor. 7:10).
D. Not only condemns the bad but commends the good. Hence the result is faith.

A guilt conscience motivated Swietzer to go to Africa and Bunyan to write “Pilgrim’s Progress.”

After all Paul had done how could he have a clear conscience? Verses 12-15 explain. The same principle applies today. In I Timothy 1: 12 – 15 Paul bursts into joyous celebration over what Christ had done in his life. His story is that if Christ could change him Christ can change anyone. Jesus Christ is the personification of the Christian gospel. The essence of a Christian witness is telling others what a change Christ has made in your life. Paul was a blasphemer, a persecutor of the followers of Christ, and a man of aggressive violence who enjoyed unleashing pain on others. He was a bad dude.

Even the best listeners have a tendency to fade out occasionally in following a thought. Fine tune your mind in order to retain what now comes.

In verse 13 Paul makes what appears to be a statement that conflicts with the idea of grace. He says, “I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly.”

Superficially that makes it appear ignorance was the basis of his forgiveness. That is never true.

In listening to persons give testimonies sometimes it appears they are glorifying their sinful past. Often this leaves the impression that the only way to have a good testimony is to go live a life of debauchery and drug abuse and then “get converted.” Not so.

What Paul was saying in this statement of his ignorance was there is nothing chic, cool, or glamorous about living in sin. As a matter of fact doing so is grounded in unbelief and is utterly stupid. Sin is always the product of conscious refusal to obey God. It is always the mark of ignorance.

How can a person with a carnally complicated and corrupt past gain a clear conscience? By having a cleansed life. How is it possible? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).

Simple isn’t it? Yes, but not costless.

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6).

III. A GENUINE FAITH (projected goals)
GENUINE means without hypocrisy. Are you living on a pretend faith? Faith produces works. Faith is consistently expressive. Is your faith a mirage?

The test of your faith is does it prompt obedient action? If what you call faith doesn’t, it isn’t faith its froth. It is a religious front that is a fake.

There are some very special times that can be used to demonstrate faith. Use the difficult times in life as occasions to demonstrate your faith in the living Lord. Instead of complaining and whining use those difficult moments as meaningful times to exhibit your faith and thereby prove His faithfulness.

John Wesley was making his way to Georgia from England aboard the ship “Simmonds” in 1735. He watched in total amazement as a community of Moravian passengers continued to worship God and sing in the midst of a violent Atlantic storm as if nothing were happening. Wesley marveled at that kind of faith. It motivated him to ask God to help him develop that kind of faith for the big storms of life. If people see that kind of faith in you they too will be motivated to place their faith in our Lord.

In love our Lord has discretely established faith as the means by which we obtain life’s greatest blessings and numerous other valuable ones. We are saved by grace through faith. Faith is the positive means by which we respond to the offer of salvation through Jesus Christ.

There are some things that we might like but can’t obtain on our own. For example, if there were a cube of pure gold measuring 13″ X 13″ offered to you would you accept it. If you were told that for it to be yours all you would have to do is come pick it up personally and take it with you, would you do it? A thirteen inch cube of pure gold! Would you like it? It is yours if you simply take it. Most persons would love to have such a quantity of gold. Regardless of how badly you would like it you could not meet the requirement for obtaining it. You could not pick it up for it would weigh one ton. You couldn’t meet the standard of picking it up.

For you to pick up the gift of salvation God has made it possible for the “whosoever” of John 3: 16. All that is necessary is faith in Christ.

It can never be spelled out too simply or too frequently. There are four basics we do well to learn.

Use the personal pronoun “I” to refer to yourself and repeat within yourself the following:
1. I am not God.
2. God is God.
3. I sin when I get #1 and #2 reversed.
4. Jesus Christ came to help me get #1 and #2 in proper order and to forgive me of #3.

When we, by faith, put those four in proper perspective we are in position to obtain the wonderful gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

You will never truly live until you have established a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

When you have you shall never die.