Skip to main content

Let Love Be Genuine

Let love be genuine. (Rom 12:9a)

True love, Paul tells us, is genuine.  It is sincere and unfeigned.  It is, more literally, without hypocrisy.  

Hypocrisy is deceptive.  It leverages and manipulates the truth for it's own agenda.  It hides itself, as the Greek word originally implied, behind a mask.

This is not what love does.  Love is honest.  Love is vulnerable.  Love seeks the benefit of others, even at the cost of self-exposure and self-sacrifice.

We are often reminded that love is not just a feeling; it is not merely emotional.  This is good and true, but our love certainly should engage our emotions.  It should be heartfelt and genuine.

If you are pretending to love, you are not loving.  Even if your actions are outwardly appropriate--even if you're abiding by the letter of the law--you're not truly loving if your heart is not properly oriented.

If your love is manipulative, it's not real love.  

If your love is wearing a mask, it's not real love.

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Tim 1:5)

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Reasons I Want my Wife to Start Wearing a Head Covering during Corporate Worship

    Of late, the issue of head coverings has come up in my circle.  Okay...my cousin and I have been discussing it, but the point is, the issue has been bouncing around my head for the past few days.  It is a topic that I have avoided for some time.  Every time I read through 1 Corinthians, I would tell myself, "We'll get around to that."  The reality is that I didn't want to be "that guy"...that guy who people view as a chauvinistic jerk who wants to make sure everyone--especially his wife--remembers that he's the head of his home.  I think I'm beginning to respect "that guy"--those men who have cared enough to stand for what they believe.     Let me be clear that I am referring to head coverings for women (those old enough to leave them on...)  DURING CORPORATE WORSHIP.  I am not advocating head coverings at all times.  Though I see nothing necessarily wrong that practice, I don't see any command for it either.   ...
15 comments
Read more

Paedocommunion: Consistent Covenantalism or Anti-Confessionalism?

    Being raised as a paedocommunionist (that means our kids get to eat Jesus, too), I have always been amazed by how passionately credocommunionists (that means their kids don't get to eat Jesus until they articulate a "credible" profession of faith) dislike the practice.  I would think that they could look at paedocommunion and at least respect it as an attempt to live out Covenant Theology in a consistent way.  Instead, paedocommunionists have been widely viewed as being on the fringe of the fringe (yes, that far) of Reformed Theology.  I like to think that I have been able to agree-to-disagree in an amicable way with my credocommunionist friends.  However, I will admit that being discounted as "unconfessional" (trust me, I've been called worse) has made many paedocommunionists (you'd have to ask my friends whether or not that applies to me) act in a manner that lacks Christian grace.     So, the question remains, is paedocommunion a view hel...
4 comments
Read more

Halftime Shows, Kid Rock, & Celebrity Conversions

Conversions are often for the sake of expedience.  Android users adopt Apple products.  Energy drink drinkers start drinking coffee.  Fair-weather fans join the bandwagon for whatever team seems to be building a dynasty.  People are always changing their allegiances when it is convenient to do so. Religious conversions are no exception.  Such a conversion is often costly, as Christians in places like Nigeria and Pakistan can attest, but it is just as often done for power, money, or respectability.  Christianity, especially the quaint, neo-conservative kind that opposes Commies, supports Israel, and produces alternative entertainment content, is kind of in right now, so it's fair to question celebrity conversions at this particular moment in American history. Much has been made of the fact that Kid Rock headlined a conservative, religious alternative to Bad Bunny's halftime show.  If you don't know, Kid Rock hasn't exactly spent his career creating fa...
Post a Comment
Read more