Which is more important – words or actions?
The old saying “action speaks louder than words” come to mind?
How about the gospel itself…I mean you can do all the good deeds in the world, but the gospel is a message…so at some point you will have to speak.
So which is it? It’s both words and actions. Here…let’s let John tell us:
“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18 ESV)
Now…this isn’t saying that we should never speak, but that our words should be accompanied by actions. As James says – faith without works is dead.
This means that the church is not just the purveyors of intellectual truth, but also truth in action. Helping people. Getting dirty. Spending lots of time with people doing stuff, moving stuff, painting stuff, cleaning things, or fixing things. And while doing it, speaking the truth as we have the chance.
Just today, I had the chance to help someone move a freezer to their new apartment. On the way back he told me what he had been thru. He teared up, talking about a long time in his life where it was “dark.” I was able to share the light of Christ – but only because I had agreed to move a freezer.
We don’t know when the opportunities will arise to share the good news with someone, but we do know, if we aren’t around them it never will happen. We also know that people won’t care how much we know until we show them that we care.
God, please open our eyes to the needs, let us act when we see them, let us love deeply, and let us speak in love when you give us the opening.
