Let's Be Honest

How many of you grew up hearing your parents say, “Actions speak louder than words?”

Right. Just about everybody, I guess.

Now, let’s see how much like your parents you are. How many of you remember hearing yourself as an adult saying the same thing to a child or somebody else?

Maybe we all DO turn into our parents at some point in life. Or maybe this is just a good proverb that teaches us something important about life.

I can remember as a child, getting in trouble about one thing or another, and my standard response was, “I’m sorry.”

And I guess it didn’t take long for MY parents to turn into THEIR parents. Because, at some point — probably after I’d repeated whatever disobedience that led to the initial rebuke — I distinctly remember hearing Mom say, “Sorry isn’t enough. Actions speak louder than words.”

And I don’t think it’s likely I’d remember this so well if I’d only heard it once. I haven’t asked Mom about this, but I imagine this proverb was something that was repeated to me over and over again.

What can I say? I’m a slow learner.

Well, today, as we continue our study of 1 John, we’re going to hear the Apostle’s take on this old proverb. He doesn’t use the words, “actions speak louder than words,” but what he says is essentially that.

John tells us at the end of chapter 4 that our actions will reveal whether it’s true when we say we love God.

Indeed, this short passage is one of three tests in this letter of the truthfulness of one’s claim to know God, to have fellowship with Him, and to love Him.

Let’s take a look together at the last two verses of chapter 4. Then we’ll see how this test of truthfulness fits with the other two.

And then we’ll take a look at another passage that gives the key to understanding the action that John tells us reveals the truth about our claim to love God.

We’re picking up in verse 20 of 1 John, chapter 4.

1 John 4:20–21 NASB95

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

These are pretty strong words, aren’t they? I suspect it was no less insulting to call someone a liar during the first century A.D. as it is today. It’s a provocative accusation to make. It’s incendiary. It’s like throwing a hand grenade into a relationship.

But remember that this letter was written, at least in part, to respond to the false teachers that had infiltrated the churches of Asia Minor.

The only way they could have gained traction among the new believers in these churches would have been to try to discredit the Apostles who had come before them.

They were trying to undo the sound doctrinal teaching. And part of their approach would have been to slander those who had brought that good teaching.

They claimed to love God, but they demonstrated little but contempt for those who wouldn’t follow their false teaching.

And so, John gives these churches a test to use to see whether someone’s claim to love God is truthful.

And that test is this: Do they love others, especially others within the body of Christ?

He makes a simple and obvious argument — from the lesser to the greater — to demonstrate why those who claim to love God but don’t show love to others are liars.

If you can’t love the people you can see and interact with right in front of you, how can you love the God who is UNseen?

The truth is that lots of people who call themselves Christians love the IDEA of an unseen God.

But when you press them on what that idea looks like, you find that it doesn’t really align with the God who has revealed Himself in the Bible.

They love the idea of a God who is love. But they don’t love the truth of a God whose perfect love includes perfect justice.

They love the idea of a God who saves, but they don’t love the truth of a God who offers one and only one way to salvation.

What John is saying here is that loving the one true God whose character we know from Scripture, but who nonetheless is someone we’ve never seen with our eyes, is a harder thing to do than loving the people around us whose characteristics might not always be to our liking.

But, as he says in verse 21, this is the commandment we have from God. It’s the commandment we have from Jesus. Love God and love one another.

Remember that Jesus gave this as a singular commandment. In other words, they’re two parts of one commandment. You can’t have one without the other.

Anybody who truly loves God will love what He loves. And that’s people. “For God so loved the WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son....”

So one of the tests of whether someone is being truthful when he says he loves God is whether that person also loves people, and especially others in the body of Christ, the church. This was a test of action.

The other two tests were mentioned earlier in this letter, but it’s worth taking a minute to look at them again. And both of them, like this one, are marked by John’s use of the word, “liar.”

Look at 1 John 2:4:

1 John 2:4 NASB95

4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;

If someone says he’s walking in fellowship with God, but he’s still walking in sinfulness, then he’s a liar. You might recall that we said righteousness is a test of whether you’re in true fellowship — whether you’re in a right relationship — with God.

Certainly, even devoted followers of Jesus will continue to sin. We all do. But the pattern of a life devoted to Jesus will be one of increasing righteousness and decreasing sin.

Sometimes that will look like two steps forward and one step back. Sometimes it will look like one step forward and two steps back. But the general arc of such a life will be toward greater righteousness. If it’s not, then there’s a problem.

And in the context of the culture into which this letter was delivered, the pattern of false teachers’ lives wasn’t toward increasing righteousness. So, this was a test of morality.

Look at 1 John 2 22:

1 John 2:22 NASB95

22 Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.

Remember that the false teachers were denying the truth about the person of Jesus Christ. Some were denying His deity. Others were denying His humanity.

And in both cases, what they asserted about Him flew in the face of what Jesus had claimed about Himself. They were calling Jesus a liar, but John says the real liars were the false teachers.

To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, if Jesus isn’t fully God, then He was deluded, because that’s exactly who He claimed to be. And if He isn’t fully man, then He couldn’t have represented mankind when He gave His life at the cross. We would still owe the debt we have incurred for our sins against God.

WHAT we believe about Jesus matters. And so, we have the third test of a person’s truthfulness when they claim to love God, to be in fellowship with God, the be in right relationship with God.

We have a moral test, a doctrinal test and a test of action.

Do their morals reflect the morality of God? Do their doctrines line up with what God has revealed about Himself in Scripture and in the person of His Son? And do their actions speak the same as their words — do they love their neighbor?

Now, maybe it seems like we’ve covered this ground before. And if it seems that way, that’s because we have. John returns to this theme of loving one another over and over again throughout this letter.

There’s a reason for that. And the reason is that Jesus made it pretty clear that this was half of the great commandment: to love God and love one’s neighbor.

This test of actions comes right from the mouth of Jesus. We’ve talked about the exchange before, but I want to spend a few minutes now looking at it in its context, because that will give us further insight into the commandment.

Turn with me to Luke, chapter 10. We’re going to pick up in verse 25.

Luke 10:25–29 NASB95

25 And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” 29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Now, it’s important to note that the term, “lawyer,” here refers to one who was schooled in the Mosaic Law. He might’ve argued cases before a court, but many of the Hebrew “lawyers” of this time were actually priests.

At the very least, this man was well-versed in the Old Testament Scriptures. And so he knew very well not just the Shema — the first part of verse 27 — but also the commandment in Leviticus to love one’s neighbor as himself.

He clearly understood the foundation of all the 613 Old Testament commandments.

We also can know that his intentions when he questioned Jesus were not pure, because Luke writes that the lawyer “stood up and put [Jesus] to the test.”

He was trying to trip Jesus up, to get Him to say something that could justify the religious leaders of Israel in their hatred of Jesus.

But what we learn in verse 29 is that this lawyer was also trying “to justify himself.” He wanted to declare his own righteousness for himself.

That was the problem for many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. They wanted to say for themselves that they were righteous.

They wanted to be able to stand before God and say they’d kept His commandments and therefore deserved a place in His kingdom, a place in heaven.

But righteousness comes only through faith. We see this in Scripture all the way back to Abraham. He believed — he trusted in — God and God counted it to him as righteousness.

The problem with OUR righteousness is that, compared to God’s, it’s all filthy rags. We want to think we’re good because we do good things from time to time.

But ALL of the good things you and I might do cannot make up for even ONE of our sins against a perfectly righteous and holy God.

And what Jesus wanted this lawyer to see was that the uncleanness of his heart had already disqualified him from the Kingdom of God, no matter what good things he had done.

And so, Jesus told a parable designed to reveal to this lawyer/priest his own unrighteousness and cause him to turn to Jesus in the faith that would impute to Him the righteousness of Christ.

Look at verse 30.

Luke 10:30–32 NASB95

30 Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. 31 “And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 “Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

Now, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is 17 miles long through the desert. It descends more than 3,000 feet, and it was treacherous, with many places to hide, which made it a favorite place for robbers.

In the parable, the man is attacked, beaten, and stripped of his clothing, which would have been valuable at the time.

And then, along comes a priest. If the lawyer actually WAS a priest, then it makes a lot of sense that Jesus would have used a character in this parable that resonated with him. Perhaps the lawyer could identify with the priest.

And maybe he would have understood just why the priest moved to the other side of the road, instead of helping the man.

It was a dangerous place. The robbers could still be lurking nearby. Maybe the man was even dead. If so, touching him would have made the priest unclean and unable to perform his duties in the temple for a time.

Whatever the reason for the priest’s actions, Jesus leaves it to our imagination. In fact, if his reasons had been relevant to the parable, Jesus would have stated them.

Instead, we’re left with the simple information that the priest passed the beaten man on the other side of the road and kept on going.

And then comes a Levite, one of the helpers in the temple. He might’ve had the same reasons for passing by on the other side. But again, Jesus doesn’t tell us why he did so, just that he did.

Now, look at verse 33.

Luke 10:33 NASB95

33 “But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,

Here, we have a couple of new things. First, the man who stopped was a Samaritan. We don’t know the race of the man who was beaten, but it’s likely that Jesus’ audience would have thought of him as a Jew, since his race isn’t mentioned.

So, here comes a Samaritan — a race of half-Hebrew people who were hated by the Jews — and he stops to help this injured Jew.

Actually, the text doesn’t say yet that he stops, only that he felt compassion. Which is light years ahead of what it says about the two Jews, who passed by on the other side.

And compassion is one of the key aspects of love. Compassion is the quality of showing kindness or favor, of being gracious, of having pity or mercy.

In the Bible, God is described as a compassionate father. And in the Old Testament, God’s compassion isn’t simply a feeling or an emotion. It’s always demonstrated by action on behalf of those He has compassion FOR.

And the same thing happens in this parable. Look at verse 34.

Luke 10:34–35 NASB95

34 and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 “On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’

So, this Samaritan man stopped. He felt compassion and ignored all the reasons he might’ve just moved to the other side of the road and kept going. He endangered himself to take care of a man who probably would have hated him.

He didn’t just feel bad for the man. He stopped and helped. He poured wine on the wounds to disinfect them and oil to soothe them.

He bandaged the victim up and put him on whatever animal he’d been riding, which would have meant HE had to walk alongside them to the inn.

Then, he stayed with him the night, only leaving the next day after giving the innkeeper two days’ wages to pay for his care.

Historians tell us that it would have taken one-twelfth of a days’ wage for a person to live during this time. And THAT tells us that the Samaritan wasn’t just compassionate, but incredibly generous.

What a contrast between the priest, the Levite and the Samaritan!

Now, do you remember the question that had prompted this parable? Regarding the commandment to love one’s neighbor as oneself, the lawyer had asked, “Who is my neighbor?”

Well, instead of answering THAT question, in the next verse, Jesus flips it around.

Luke 10:36–37 NASB95

36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” 37 And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

I think the point of Jesus flipping the question around is this: The Samaritan man responded to the situation as we would expect someone who knew he was loved by the victim to respond.

We wouldn’t expect someone to provide such compassionate and generous care to someone he knew hated him. And that’s what makes the parable so profound.

Considering that the lawyer and others who heard the parable would likely have identified the victim as a Jew, then what the Samaritan was doing was absolutely out of character from what they would have expected.

He showed compassion and generosity — he showed LOVE — to one who never would have done so for him if the circumstances were reversed.

He was acting as if there were nothing but love between them, as if none of the hatred of centuries of prejudice existed, as if the Jews had not victimized and demonized the Samaritans for many long years before.

And the lawyer seems to have understood the point. He gives the right answer to Jesus’ question, and Jesus tells him to go and love others the same way the Samaritan loved the victim in this story.

Sacrificially. Without regard to past hurts. Without regard to repayment. Making love a CHOICE, rather than a simple emotion. Not just feeling sorry for someone, but taking ACTION to help them when they need it.

That’s what loving one another in 1 John, chapter 4, looks like. That’s the kind of action that speaks louder than words. That’s the kind of evidence that points to truthfulness when someone says, “I love God.”

And it’s no coincidence that this is just how Jesus loves us.

He gave up the glory that was His in heaven to live among us as a man. Going to the cross without any sin of His own, He gave Himself as a sacrifice for us and on our behalf.

He took upon Himself your sins and mine, so that all who turn to Him in faith can be reconciled to God and have life the way it was meant to be — in the eternal presence of and in fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

He didn’t wait for us to love Him; He loved us first. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” When we had nothing in us worthy of His love, He loved us anyway. He saw how we suffered under the curse of sin, and He took action to save us from its grip.

And He did this all, knowing full well that there would be many — perhaps most — who would reject this gracious gift and therefore reject Him.

If you’ve accepted God’s gracious gift of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone, then the lesson for you today is that you should be demonstrating the truth of your love for Him by loving others in the risk-taking, sacrificial, self-denying, and generous way the Samaritan loved the Jewish victim in today’s parable.

THAT’S what loving a brother or sister looks like.

But if you’ve never accepted this gift of salvation, then let me ask you today: Why not?

Are you, like the lawyer in Luke, chapter 10, wishing to justify yourself? It doesn’t work that way. It CAN’T work that way, because God is perfectly righteous and perfectly holy.

There is NOTHING you can do to justify yourself. Because, just like that lawyer, you’re not as good as you like to think you are.

Jesus knew that lawyer’s heart. He knew the prejudice that lawyer held within Him. And He knows YOUR heart, as well.

No matter what other good things you might do, He knows the secret sins, the secret prejudice, the secret thoughts that betray who you really are: a sinner, set apart from a holy God and destined for an eternity apart from Him.

But Jesus came and lived and died and rose again so that you could have LIFE. That gift is yours to take. All you have to do is admit who you are to Him, turn from your sins, and follow Him in faith that only in Him will you find eternal life.

You don’t have to clean up your life before you turn to Him. The moment you place your faith in Jesus, He’ll begin doing that through His Holy Spirit.

But you DO have to admit that there’s no way you can justify yourself. There’s no way you can come before God in your own righteousness. JESUS is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Him.

Will you meet Him today?