Genuine Love

Genuine Love

Romans 12:9-13

            At first this title might seem silly.  What is fake love?  Is there such a thing?  What would it look like?  Would it be hypocritical, looking like love on the outside, but in reality being some other emotion?  Would it seem to be genuine but only out for what it could get for itself?  Would it be manipulative, conniving, greedy, instead of giving and caring?  Fake love could be all these things and more.  In fact, there is probably more fake love in this world than genuine love.  How do we know the difference?

            Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians does a good job of telling us what genuine love looks like.  After criticizing his audience for their failure to love each other genuinely, he beautifully and succinctly shows them true love in Chapter 13.  Anyone who reads this chapter carefully can’t miss knowing how they should love.

            This isn’t the only place Paul talks about genuine love.  Sooner or later he gets around to it in most if not all his letters.  His epistle to the Romans is a good example.  Paul has written extensively about his people, the Jews.  He grieves because they have rejected Jesus, who Paul sees as the next logical step in Judaism—the Messiah for whom they have been waiting for hundreds of years.  But he assures his readers that the Jews will be saved, that God will keep the promise made in the wilderness of Sinai.

            Paul then tells his Gentile readers not to become smug because God has accepted them and seems to have rejected the Jews.  Not only will the Jews be restored if they accept Christ, but those Gentiles who have been “grafted in” can, if they become egotistical or careless about their newfound status, be cut back out.  So Paul says, “I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think,” because conditions can change.

            Then Paul gives his readers some good advice.  In one translation this passage is headed, “Marks of the True Christian,” and it begins with the words, “Let love be genuine.”  Perhaps realizing that this statement is likely to raise questions (such as those we asked earlier) he describes what genuine love should look like.

·         Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

·         Love one another with brotherly [and sisterly] affection.

·         Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

·         Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

·         Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

There’s another paragraph which continues the list.  I encourage you to read it.  The further Paul goes in this list the more he sounds like the Jesus Christ to whom he gave his life.  By the time he gets to the end of the second paragraph he is essentially quoting Jesus’ words.

What is genuine love?  Paul tells us in terms that are so clear and concise that he cannot be misunderstood.  This love calls us to give, to forgive, to spend and be spent serving those who need us—in other words, to live as Jesus lived no matter what it costs.  That’s what real love looks like.

We need to remember what Jesus taught us about neighbors in the parable of the Good Samaritan.  It’s easy to love those who love us, who behave like us, who look like us, who think like us.  When we offer genuine love we extend it not just to the few who are close to us but to the least of these, to the ones we consider not worthy of our love, the ones who are completely unlovable.  This is where love becomes difficult—but this is how we must love.