Perhaps the most telling portion of the key verses is next. God knows full well that we like to say more than we like to do. He knows we like to brag when we haven't truly done anything worth bragging about. Let us not merely say we love each other -- let us show the truth by our actions! Words not backed by matching actions is known as hypocrisy. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth of God and then we can be confident when we stand before Him. This is the crux of the argument about superficial relationships. In a superficial relationship, we are all words and no actions. Love is an action verb. It requires something from us. Our relationships with each other should require something from us. Something beyond a post and a tweet. Because what we have lost sight of is what our life is supposed to be. Our life is not our career, our ministry or even our church. What provides the value to our lives should be the people that are in it. The people we love. The people we care about. The people we will be in eternity with. There shouldn't be anything superficial about that. There really shouldn't be.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- August 20, 2012
