1 Corinthians 16:14 (ESV) Let all that you do be done in love.

The word love here is translated from the Greek word agape which is the love of God, perfect in all its performance. The key here is performance as the verse indicates “in all things that you do”.

Is your motivation in everything you do because God loves you? Is your motivation to prove to God that you love Him? In many ways I see those motivations as emotional responses of a live lived in the past. My mother loved me and I wanted to show her I loved her. Whatever she asked of me I did because I wanted to prove myself to her. When it came to other things she was not a consideration. I acted out by my own nature, who I was inside without her.

Now God dwells in our hearts by faith. Do you think our God can dwell in our hearts without knowing how we truly feel? My actions now cannot be to show God what He already knows but to show others that the God of love dwells in me by allowing Him to love them in ways I myself cannot. That can only happen if I have changed, not doing the agape thing by motivation but because that is now who I am inside.

Those charismatics that I once worship with were always telling me “I love you with the love of God.” When they said that all I could hear was “I don’t have any love of my own for you.” If they truly love me with agape love, then their deeds would speak about that love and words would not be necessary.

1 John 3:18 (ESV) Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.