Sincere Love

Romans 12 says,  Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.  Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Don’t you hate insincere “love?” When someone is doting on you, bringing you gifts, flattering you with kind words, all for the sake of getting something for themselves, it stinks…doesn’t it?  

Sincere love, however, the kind that shows up on your doorstep in the form of a basket of goodies with no name attached is sincere.  Nothing is expected in return, the only thing desired is for you to feel loved.

Right after we are told in these verses that love must be sincere, we are also told to hate evil and hold onto good.  Insincere love is evil. Being devoted to each other is good.

Honoring someone above yourself is good.

Keeping your spiritual fervor (intense passion) is good.

The only way to love sincerely is to be loved sincerely by Jesus. 

When we are secure in the knowledge that Jesus loves us, we have no problem extending that love toward others.

Is your love sincere?  His love is.  And he loves you.

By This...

John 13

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Jesus was about to leave his disciples through his death, resurrection, and ascension.  They didn’t understand what was about to take place.  But he left them with a “new” directive – to love one another.

He was about to demonstrate the ultimate sacrifice of love – dying for the sins of the world.  His example was to lay down his life in obedience to the Father’s plan for his life. 

Jesus instructed those who followed him to love others as he did. In other words, put others and their needs ahead of your own.

Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish any difference between those who follow Christ and those who do not.  But Jesus says here that everyone will know who it is you follow IF you love one another.

Loving others takes work, forgiveness, patience, and humility, just to name a few of the heart issues necessary to love…as he loved.

As we approach the day of love on the 14^th, let’s be mindful of how to love – sacrificially, not knowing the return – except to know we’ve pleased our Father.

The Greatest

I Corinthians 13:13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Who says 13 is unlucky?  This love chapter is #13, and there are 13 verses – full of life and love!

Faith, hope, and love.  I suppose these three words are engraved on more mugs, plaques, and jewelry than any other. 

We all want faith. We desire something to be worthy of our faith, and we want to be worthy of the faith of others. 

We can’t live without hope.  We must have hope beyond that which we see and experience here on earth, or we are miserable. Hope keeps us going.

We will not be complete without love.  This must be why it’s the greatest.

Faith grants us the ability to see what which is not, as though it is.  Hope is the expectation of good things to come.  But love is the binding agent that holds all of that together, the love of God that runs over our heart like warm honey on a stack of hot pancakes.

11 days left until the 14^th of February – is it just another day to you?  Or do you celebrate love?

I pray that the love of God fills your heart so that you are complete in Him.

Then I Shall Know

I Corinthians 13:12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

I don’t know about you, but the mirror is not usually my friend.  It all depends on the lighting (the darker the better, right?), whether or not the mirror is made of good quality (we don’t want to look short and squatty), and if the mirror is cracked – forget about it!

We look into the mirror and see our physical reflection, with all of its flaws, or perhaps we see beauty as well.  But that sort of relationship is nothing like when someone takes our face into his hands and gazes at all of our imperfections, and loves us completely.

That’s what Jesus does.  And one day we too will see him face to face.  And our lives will be complete.

Those who see us here, see but a mere reflection of Christ’s love in us, because it’s often tainted with our own shortcomings, wounds, and agendas.  But he who fully knows us, he who created us, and he who completes us, will reveal all – one day.

I can hardly imagine the kind of love that looks at me, past all of the outward beauty and flaws that pass away, and loves the very soul of who I am, and who I am yet to be.

That excites me.

Behind Me

I Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

It’s funny, in another part of the bible we are told to come to the Lord as a child.  But here see that we are to mature into manhood.  Of course, we are to always retain that childlike faith and trust in God, but we cannot remain as a child in our thoughts and what comes out of our mouths.

Children blurt out what they feel at the moment, with no filter.  They think and reason on a very elementary level, unable to solve large problems because they don’t yet have the knowledge to use to solve those problems.

However; if children do not mature and learn how to manage money, how to care for a home, how to walk in truth, and how to love their neighbor, then we see what those children become in our society – the ones who contribute nothing and take it all.

The same happens to us spiritually, if we never mature and learn to walk in the truth we learn when we come to him in our childlike faith.  We must grow in maturity in our love for God and for others so that we function healthily in the body of Christ.

Children are beautiful gifts from God, and their antics and silliness are a delight.  But adults who play on the floor and babble without ever rising to serve will miss out on the completeness that comes to those who know what it is to be loved…and to love.

But when...

I Corinthians 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

This love chapter explains the endurance of love a bit further.

All of the knowledge we attain, and all of the prophecies we speak into the future, are all incomplete.  There are things too lofty for us to understand, items too intricate for us to comprehend, and ideas and visions too big for us to ever grasp.  We are human flesh and blood, with limits.

I love the “but” in this verse because of what comes after it – completeness.

When completeness comes, all that limited us will be gone.

I John 2 says, But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. 

As we obey the Lord daily, love him and love others, completeness comes.

Completeness is defined as the state of having everything needed.

We’ve got it all wrong.  We are seeking after things that don’t last.  And that’s why we’re weary.

Never Fails

I Corinthians 13:8  Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge – these things people flock after throughout their lives – to know the future, to speak eloquently, and to gain information and wisdom.

However, all of that seeking will come to an end, our mouths will be silenced, and all of the knowledge we store up will be gone as we pass.  

I see my mother-in-law in a nursing home, as she sits with Alzheimers, a disease that robs the mind of all that has been stored.  However, her love for others is intact.   Her compassion is real.  And her prayers for her neighbors continue.

Love doesn’t reside in the mind, or the tongue.  It resides in the heart.  And even when the heart fails and eventually stops, the soul lives on forever, loved by God.