HIdden Love

For Friday, November 16, 2007
Proverbs 27:5

Better is open rebuke
than hidden love.

Open rebuke is painful and shameful. It is difficult enough to receive rebuke well, but to receive such in the presence of others naturally leads to shame. We then want to defend ourselves, and especially prove the rebuker wrong. Whether we are able to or not, we no longer trust him or regard him as a friend.

But as painful as such an incident may be, even worse is to withhold love, to keep it hidden. Hidden love does not shame or offend; it discourages. It does not shock; it quietly demoralizes. Open rebuke, as painful as it may be to receive, can awaken us to what has been lacking or offensive in us. It can spur us to change that is good. Hidden love reinforces our faults because it is love that motivates us to good.

Hidden love is offensive, for it is a lie. To love someone and keep that love hidden is deception. How then does one display love? God gives the model. He showed his love by sending his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for us. Christ showed his love to the Father by willingly obeying. Jesus has told us that we show love to him by obeying his commandments. We know that the Father delights in our worship. And so then, we learn to show our love to one another - when we gladly make sacrifices for one another; when we listen to one another and do what matters for the other; when we praise one another. And even when we rebuke (privately) each other, for the other's good. Love is to be displayed, as God displayes his love to and for us.