A few days ago, I watched a video of a sermon by David Jeremiah, senior pastor of the Shadow Mountain Community Church in San Diego, CA. [1] In this sermon he was giving advice on how to evaluate political candidates. One point he made was: “It is not what a man says that is important but what he does”.
I recently finished reading Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig. [2] Dr. Craig very ably details the evidence for the existence of God, for the reliability of the New Testament, and for the resurrection of Jesus. In his conclusion, he describes the ultimate apologetic which is someone who is focused on loving God and loving his neighbor as himself. Jesus stated that all the law and prophets were fulfilled in just these two concepts (Matthew 22:35-40) and these two concepts are action items, not just words.
With our words we can explore different ways that we should act. Words can motivate us; words can move us to action. However, “talk is cheap” is a phase with which we are familiar and its implication is that taking an action costs us more than just talking about something. Talking is just saying words; taking action means making a commitment. With our actions we use our will to actually change ourselves and our world not just speculate about the future.
Consider a young couple who say they love each other. If all they say is “I love you” and take no actions such as spending time together and doing things for each other, will either of them believe the other actually loves them? It would be a very unusual person who would answer “Yes”. “Actions speak louder than words”.
If actions are more important than words in our human lives, why do Christians believe salvation is obtained by believing in Jesus and his death for our sins? If we truly believed in Jesus, would we not need to make changes in our lives instead of just saying words?
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[2] William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008.
