Expressive

In Galatians 5, Paul is writing to the church and refuting some of the legalistic actions that have been imposed by leadership. The argument here is over the practice of circumcision and whether or not the Gentiles who are coming to Christ must be circumcised before they can join the church. Paul makes a clear statement that if they are going to enforce the "law" that they must enforce all of it, but that Christ came and essentially made circumcision null and void. In verse 6 he says, "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

The question that rolls through my mind this morning after reading this is, "How am I expressing myself?" If this is truly what counts as believers, then I should make it a focus to show love to those around me as a reflection of my faith in God. What happens instead is that I get focused on how I am feeling that day, whether I like something or not, how people treat me and my ideas, the value that I think others place on me, and the impact that I can have other people. These are all expressive emotions, but certainly not ones that reflect my faith in Christ.

Imagine how different our families would be if we focused on expressing our faith through love to each other. Think of how different our communities would be if we would show the same passion for sharing faith through love that we do for our hobbies, careers, favorite sports teams, TV shows or our children's athletics. How powerful and far-reaching would God's church be if we prayed each day for our faith to be expressed in love and then acted on it?