More Than Pretending (Friday Devotional)

“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

- Hosea 6:6

“How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”

- 1 John 3:17-18

At least twice a day, my son walks up to me with a metal pot in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other, pleading with me to try his latest culinary masterpiece. When I peer inside the pot, it is, of course, empty, but that doesn’t stop him from begging me to take the outstretched spoon and lift it to my lips. What’s happening is as obvious as it is adorable: he’s pretending. There’s no food inside the pot, but it’s fun for him to mimic the behavior he’s seen from me and his mom.

But I’ve noticed something else. Despite the fun he has pretending there’s real food in that pot, when he’s actually hungry he doesn’t go near it—he goes straight for the fridge or the pantry, where he knows he can get a snack. Pretending is fine sometimes, but when he’s hungry, only real food satisfies.

It occurs to me that when it comes to the Greatest Commandment—to love God and love your neighbor—sometimes the best we’re willing to do is pretend to love. Aware we need to love God, we’re willing to go to church occasionally, to read our Bible, to drop a dollar in the offering plate when it’s passed around—but instead of doing so as outward expressions of inward devotion to God, these actions are merely masks we put on to maintain appearances. Aware we need to love our neighbors, we publicly send them thoughts and prayers, but we’re unwilling to quietly do the work of caring and helping.

The Bible is clear that God calls us to more than such ‘pretend love.’ The love Christ demonstrated on the cross was sacrificial and steadfast; Jesus’s concern was not how his death would be perceived, but who it would save. As Jesus’s disciples, we must learn from his example, loving both God and people with selfless sincerity, less concerned with how we look than with whom we love.

Pretending to love is easier than the real thing—it takes less time, less energy, and less patience. But ultimately, pretend love is as empty as my son’s pot of pretend food. So as you seek to follow the Greatest Commandment, remember this: only real love satisfies.