Practice, Practice, Practice

I heard about a man who was visiting New York City and asked a cab driver, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?"  The Cabbie responded, "Practice, practice, practice:"  probably not what the tourist wanted to hear but still very good advice. 

           

The Bible calls us who follow Christ to love, "in deed and truth" (I John 3:18).  How do we go about doing this?  Practice, practice, practice.  We take the call seriously, and we give ourselves to do whatever it takes for us to live this way.  It may not come easily, but it is the call.  Shall we take it seriously?  Absolutely!   How could we not when "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16)?

           

Here is an important reminder, however.  The call to love does not stand a lone.  It is a part of a two-fold call.  I John 3:23 says, "This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us."  Believe in Jesus and then we are able to love with God's kind of love. 

           
Love is defined by what it means to live in response to Jesus Christ, by living in His mind and spirit. It is in getting in step with Him that we are enabled to live in a way that may or may not come naturally to us, but in a way that is of the essence in being truly human and truly alive.   When we get our own inner selves in order we are then in a place where we can begin to "love one another."

           

Jesus said to His disciples one day, "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35).  Isn't that interesting?  Its not simply that we believe in Him that enables us to model to the world that Jesus lives in us.  It is that we love one another.  Francis Schaeffer said the mark of Christian is love.  Belief is important but it is love that reveals just how important.