You Have got to Show it
Solomon said,
Better is open rebuke
- Proverbs 27:5
Than love that is concealed.
I think that both are required in life: correction and love. There are times when a friend or saint in the church needs correction and discipline and I believe that we are usually quick to see that it be applied.
Unfortunately, we tend to be a little slower in recognizing when someone needs love and slower still in making an effort in showing love. Correction is more useful than hidden love but greater things are produced from expressed love than well-applied discipline!
God has never been slow in the correction of His people. Sin has always been dealt with surely and severely, but God has also recognized the value of expressed love. That is why Jesus dies in such a public way: to demonstrate clearly, emphatically and eternally the great love that God has for every one of us.
Correction and discipline are tricky things.
We are not always sure of how much, who and why, and the Bible gives only limited information about how to go about doing it (Matthew 18:15-18; Romans 16:17; Galatians 6:1-6; I Thessalonians 5:12-14; II Thessalonians 3:6, 12-15). However, time and space do not permit me to print all that is said on behalf of the examples and benefits of expressed love.
My father died when I was fifteen. He corrected me often during my youth and yet after he dies, during those first terribly lonely years without him, I never once remembered the disciplining, only the times when he showed me he loved me. To this day those pictures remain with me as my only memory of him.
No matter if you love little or a lot, the key is to show it for only expressed love has the power to ignite love in another.