When Love Is Genuine
Let love be genuine. (Romans 12:9)
Rom. 12 and 13:8-10; I Jn. 4:13-21; Jer. 31:3; I Cor. 13:4-7; II Th. 3:5
What Is God Saying?
God has spoken through the pen of Paul in Romans on the greatest of doctrines-justification by faith. In a mighty, moving sequence of explanations, Paul unfolds the riches of God's Word more clearly, deeply, and consistently in Romans Chapters 1-11 than anywhere else in Scripture. Paul was never ashamed to claim or proclaim the Gospel. Now, in Chapter 12 he begins his appeal for the practical application of all this doctrine out of the cloister and the classroom and into the world of human relationships and personal involvement. God's grace is not something to be enjoyed as an unshared gift in detached and solitary contentment. Grace is the strong root of love. ‘We love because he first loved us’ (I Jn. 4:19). It is a logical progression—from the root of grace comes the flower of love. So Romans continues from exalted words of grace to practical deeds of love. One leads to the other. As the flower belongs to the stem and grows out of it, so genuine love belongs to grace and grows out of it.
How Does This Apply To Us?
At the core of its message, there comes this simple but profound appeal, ‘Let love be genuine.’ Don't talk about loving God. Do it. Do it by loving one another. Do it by living peaceably with all. Do it by having true humility. Do it by not seeking revenge. Do it by overcoming evil with good.
Love is something we do. ‘Owe no one anything, except to love one another’ (Rom. 13:8). ‘Love is the fulfilling of the Law’ (Rom. 13:10). The momentum of love goes on because it is the way of God, the essence of God's being, the reason for Christ's coming, the great joy of Heaven's welcome, the fuel that empowers life, the cement that holds us together, the shelter in the time of storm, the shining goal to keep us looking up without giving up.
Pray With Me
O God whose love was truly genuine in the gift of Jesus Christ, who has revealed through word and deed that this love is both unfailing and eternal, lead me more and more to the possession of love that is genuine. A feeling of mild goodwill or a wave of sentimental benevolence is so easily confused with love. Such love tested will evaporate as the mist with the rising sun. Deliver me from emotion that is merely sentiment and from words that are spoken to avoid involvement.
Hold before me the love that suffers long and is kind. Help me to see Him who for the sake of genuine love endured the shame of the cross and drank His cup of sorrow to its last bitter dregs. Here I see Your love, Your genuine love, the proof that the unlovely need not remain unloved. As Your love is genuine, let my love live as a love that is also genuine. I am weary of that which passes for love-hollow words spoken as a courtesy, shallow emot10n that means well but does not wear well, the goodwill that lasts only until trouble comes. Let my love be genuine in terms of promises kept instead of promises made, in terms of comforts surrendered, in terms of avoiding evil, doing good, showing honor and serving the Lord. Can love that is less be genuine?
To the glory of Your name whose love gives me hope of life in Your presence forevermore. Amen.
Moving On In The Life of Prayer
We show our love for God when we reach out to others. Prayer is the seedbed. When we go into God bearing the names and the cares of others, we will surely go out in genuine love to care for others.
