Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
- 1 John 3:18
The author and professor Dallas Willard tells the story of a man who lost his composure and cursed in the presence of his pastor. After an embarrassed silence, the man looked sheepishly at the pastor and said, “Oh, it’s all right, pastor. I cuss a little and you pray a little, but neither one of us means anything by it.”
Hypocrisy—it’s one of the most common sins, and one of the deadliest to a believer’s witness. Those who do not know Christ nevertheless know about him; they’ve heard the stories of his grace and his love, and they recognize when one of his followers is falling short of those virtues. People can tell when, despite your professions of faith, it looks like you don’t mean anything by it.
It
is with your mouth that you confess Jesus is Lord, but it is with your actions
that you show the world you mean it. So in Jesus’ name, may you love not only
with your words but with your works.
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