1 Corinthians 16:14 (MSG)
13-14 Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping.

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

Matthew 24:45-51 (ESV)
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time?

Luke 16:19-21 (MSG)
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19-21 “There once was a rich man, expensively dressed in the latest fashions, wasting his days in conspicuous consumption. A poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, had been dumped on his doorstep. All he lived for was to get a meal from scraps off the rich man’s table. His best friends were the dogs who came and licked his sores.

I bet the rich man thought he was full of love. He loved his brothers enough that he asked Abraham to send Lazarus to comfort him and then warn them of the errors in their ways (Luke 16:24-31). Nice. Notice though the subtlety – the rich man didn’t ask to go save his brothers, he was too busy perhaps. He wanted Lazarus to serve him. Even though Lazarus was in heaven and the rich man was burning up in Hades, the rich man wanted Lazarus to serve him. The rich man might have been full of love, but it didn’t extend to far – it didn’t even extend to his door step. He couldn’t do loving actions himself.

Who is the wise and faithful servant? The rich man (who probably tithed the proper amount) or Lazarus, hungry, covered in weeping sores? Looks like Lazarus based on how the story turns out. I wonder if Lazarus was asking to go help but was told no, it’s to late?

Let all you do be done in love. It’s more than tithing and paying taxes. It’s more than doing “enough”. It’s acts of love given freely, given sacrificially, without conditions, without expectations, without thinking of yourself and your comfort first. It’s denying yourself and your wants to help others. That’s love. That’s doing “it”, whatever “it” is, out of love.

So, what are your convictions? Can you hold onto them in the face of the worldly distractions and contrary pushes? Can you hold onto love the way Christ showed us?

Psalm 130:5-6 (ESV)
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.