Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:34-40
As I was reading through Paul's letter to the Romans the other night I was struck by a simple instruction that amplifies on what Jesus told us is the second greatest commandment: to Love people. It is an instruction that truly has the power to be life altering if we can figure out how to put it into practice. It is both obvious and elegant.
Are you ready? Drum roll please. Paul tells us that our "Love must be sincere." Romans 12:9.
I know, I know. That may not seem like an "earth-shattering" concept on first read. But I think it really is.
Jesus told us in His most well known sermon that loving our friends is easy. Loving our enemies, He instructs us, is the hard part. Matthew 5:43-48. Shortly after telling us that our love must be sincere, Paul reaffirms this notion by admonishing us to bless those who persecute us -- "bless and do not curse." Romans 12:14.
Will Rogers once said that he never met a man he didn't like. That's quite a thing to be able to say. I have not met too many people (including very many of my Christian friends) who can honestly claim that about themselves. Just about everyone seems to have at least one person in their life who they just can't get along with and who they just don't like all that much.
The truth of the matter is that for most of us -- maybe for all of us -- it is sometimes hard enough just to go through the motions of showing love to those people we have trouble loving. But getting to a point where we actually love the unloveable and where that love is sincere -- genuine -- may seem impossible. And, on our own, it probably is impossible.
To me, love is a gift. And, not just the love we get from others, but our capacity to love others is itself a gift from God.
I just don't believe that our flesh really allows us to sincerely or genuinely love our enemies and to bless those who persecute us. I think the kind of love that God desires that we show other people can only come when we let the Holy Spirit of God rule our lives. What does sincere love look like to God?
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 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 childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor 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.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
I often stop and ask myself whether I could really love someone who is determined to bring harm -- whether emotional, physical, financial, etc. -- to me or my family. And, I thank God that I have never really had to confront that situation.
How about you? Is your love sincere? Think about it.
How about you? Is your love sincere? Think about it.
1 comment:
Thank you for bringing forward such simple words but yet with a hugh meaning and very hard to follow through, I do question myself if my love is sincere at times, Thanks Pastor John.
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