Love in Deed and Truth

John will not let love remain a feeling or a fine speech. Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. It is easy to say "I love you," easy to feel a warm glow of goodwill, easy to assure people of our care. But love that never moves from the tongue to the hands is not yet the fruit of the Spirit; it is sentiment dressed up as love. Real love costs something. It shows up. It does the practical, often unglamorous thing the loved one actually needs.

This is a searching test, because words are cheap and deeds are expensive. We can feel loving toward the poor and never lift a finger; feel warmly toward a struggling friend and never make the visit, the meal, the call. John's standard is higher: love in deed and in truth, concrete, costly, real. The fruit of the Spirit always eventually shows up in the hands and the diary, not just the heart and the mouth.

Find one way today to move your love from word to deed. Do the loving thing, not just feel it.