Genuine Love

Rom. 12:9

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

 

Genuine love binds everything together in harmony (Col. 3). For that reason believers are to put on love as our clothing,. It becomes what we are known by and what people see immediately. It characterizes us as people. No matter how great any achievement is, if love is lacking, nothing is gained. Strong words! Love is patient and kind; and does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.(I Cor. 13) As I read this passage, I wonder if I will ever be loving, or if I can put it on as the clothing of Christianity. Certainly if I had this kind of love, it would have to be genuine. It could not be faked. Love never ends...So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Certainly, I can see Christ in this description of love. His love is never ending and unfailing, but by contrast human love is paltry, partial, insincere, and short-lived. Obviously, I can not have this kind of love in my own strength. It must be divinely planted in me through Christ. It comes as a gift when Jesus and the Holy Spirit indwell me. The more that I abide in Him, the more I will love as He would have me love. I must pursue love, go after it with all my being much like Paul who struggled with all His energy that He powerfully worked in him. He worked harder than any of them, though it wasn't him but the grace of God that was within him. There is the rub! How do I understand my struggling but with Him powerfully working in me. I think it speaks to desire and motivation. I must have my mind set on the things above not on the things of the earth. Certainly the greatest of these is love. It was God's love that sent Jesus to die for my sin and to reconcile me to the Father, to give me new life and a transformed nature, and to give me a place in His body making me a child and an heir. What love is this!

 

 

Father,

Thank You for such great love. Grow this love in me. Teach me what it means to struggle with all my might but through Your working in me.

In Jesus name,

Amen