“If You Love Me” – Why Talk Is Cheap

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 14:15 ESV

Have you ever heard the saying: “Talk is cheap”?

It’s a great way to summarize today’s devotional verse.

Jesus was spending his last night with the disciples before being crucified. They still didn’t fully understand what was happening. But with all his talk about loving one another, he was about to show them what ultimate love looked like on the cross.

Jesus doesn’t love the way our culture typically defines it. He didn’t simply say, “I love you!” and rely on warm fuzzies to prove it. He went beyond emotions, denying his own desires to obey the Father (Luke 22:42) and love the world by saving us (John 3:16).

People make promises and break them all the time. I’m guilty of this, too! Remember what Peter did on Jesus’ final night alive? He assured Jesus that he loved him and would never deny him. Yet before the rooster crowed at dawn the next morning, he had denied him three times!

Jesus wasn’t saying that God bases our relationship with him on good works. Instead, he said your actions will prove your love.

Disciples aren’t all talk. We’re action-oriented, faith-filled people obsessed with fulfilling God’s mission.

So our question today, am I all talk? Or do my actions of obedience show my love for Jesus and others?