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. (Romans 12:9-11)
I stopped yesterday
before I reached today’s passage (obviously.) Sometimes we seem to think that each verse is
complete within itself, or that what is discussed in one passage is not
continued in the next. I don’t think that’s the case here. I think we’re still
discussing gifts; they’re just (perhaps) a different kind of gift. If that’s
the case, I think we’re also still discussing how to exercise those gifts.
The how of love is sincerely. Sincere comes from two Latin terms: sin meaning “without” and cere meaning “wax.” Disreputable vendors of clay pots used to fill in tiny cracks with wax. Reputable vendors advertised their wares as being sin cere. Buyers could hold the pots up to the light and see that there was no wax, and therefore no cracked pots. Our love is to be without wax fillers, unflawed, unadulterated, pure.
Part of that loving is to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. People are quick to say that we shouldn’t hate or judge, but here I believe we must do both. We are commanded to hate what is evil. What is evil? Anything that disagrees with Scripture about what is good. How can we accomplish that without studying Scripture and then judging whether something agrees with it or disagrees? I’m not saying we should hate people, but that we should hate the philosophies of the world, and sin, and other forms of evil. Instead, we’re to cling to what is good. That phrase reminds me of the poster of a kitten, dangling from a knot in the end of a rope. The tagline underneath was “Hang in there, Baby, Friday’s coming.” Good is our rope with the knot in it.
Another piece of love is devotion. Again, the kitten on the rope comes to mind. Like so many other ideas in Scripture, devotion involves something done over time. One can’t be devoted for a split second. Devotion requires continuation.
Honoring one another above ourselves is a tough. All of these are tough, but honoring others? I don’t think we understand the idea of honoring others. Oh, we give prizes once in a while. We think highly of people who are famous for being famous, or who entertain us, or who think the way we want them to, but how about honoring the person who walks past you down the hall at church? A tangential thought comes to mind that at the very least, we might honor those folks with our presence.
Another gift: zeal. This one takes me back to yesterday’s post. Our service to the Lord is to be marked by zeal and fervency. We’re to be excited about, diligent about, over the top about our service to God. This is another area that is difficult for me. I have known people who spent more than five hundred dollars on Christmas presents for a boyfriend or girlfriend who had only been such for a few months. I know of people who have to find a good venue for their child’s first birthday party, as if the kid is going to remember it. For some people “over the top” is standard operating procedure. An ad comes to mind in which a man and women are standing in the center of a large courtyard, and the man suddenly throws his arms wide and shouts, “I love this woman… I love this woman….” That’s zeal. The woman steps in close and whispers, “I love this man… I love this man.” That’s me. I suspect there is quite zeal, and quiet fervor, but if there is, then we need to find ways to be quietly excited, quietly diligent, and quietly zealous.
The how of love is sincerely. Sincere comes from two Latin terms: sin meaning “without” and cere meaning “wax.” Disreputable vendors of clay pots used to fill in tiny cracks with wax. Reputable vendors advertised their wares as being sin cere. Buyers could hold the pots up to the light and see that there was no wax, and therefore no cracked pots. Our love is to be without wax fillers, unflawed, unadulterated, pure.
Part of that loving is to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. People are quick to say that we shouldn’t hate or judge, but here I believe we must do both. We are commanded to hate what is evil. What is evil? Anything that disagrees with Scripture about what is good. How can we accomplish that without studying Scripture and then judging whether something agrees with it or disagrees? I’m not saying we should hate people, but that we should hate the philosophies of the world, and sin, and other forms of evil. Instead, we’re to cling to what is good. That phrase reminds me of the poster of a kitten, dangling from a knot in the end of a rope. The tagline underneath was “Hang in there, Baby, Friday’s coming.” Good is our rope with the knot in it.
Another piece of love is devotion. Again, the kitten on the rope comes to mind. Like so many other ideas in Scripture, devotion involves something done over time. One can’t be devoted for a split second. Devotion requires continuation.
Honoring one another above ourselves is a tough. All of these are tough, but honoring others? I don’t think we understand the idea of honoring others. Oh, we give prizes once in a while. We think highly of people who are famous for being famous, or who entertain us, or who think the way we want them to, but how about honoring the person who walks past you down the hall at church? A tangential thought comes to mind that at the very least, we might honor those folks with our presence.
Another gift: zeal. This one takes me back to yesterday’s post. Our service to the Lord is to be marked by zeal and fervency. We’re to be excited about, diligent about, over the top about our service to God. This is another area that is difficult for me. I have known people who spent more than five hundred dollars on Christmas presents for a boyfriend or girlfriend who had only been such for a few months. I know of people who have to find a good venue for their child’s first birthday party, as if the kid is going to remember it. For some people “over the top” is standard operating procedure. An ad comes to mind in which a man and women are standing in the center of a large courtyard, and the man suddenly throws his arms wide and shouts, “I love this woman… I love this woman….” That’s zeal. The woman steps in close and whispers, “I love this man… I love this man.” That’s me. I suspect there is quite zeal, and quiet fervor, but if there is, then we need to find ways to be quietly excited, quietly diligent, and quietly zealous.
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