SWORD OF THE SPIRIT                                                                                               1388

“Genuine Love”

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. – Romans 12:9

I was given pause in my study of the Word recently by the words, ‘let’ and ‘genuine’ in our reference Scripture.

This command directly implies that God has given us the capacity to choose to love or not. We have the capacity to choose to offer counterfeit, hypocritical love or allow the genuine love of God to flow through us to others for His glory.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. – John 13:34

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. – 1 John 3:16-19

Let love be genuine. This command literally means to choose to not be hypocritical in love. Referencing the ‘love chapter’ of 1 Corinthians 13 let’s explore what genuine love looks like in our day to day lives.

Selfless – Love is… not self-seeking – 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NIV)

This is characterized by a true caring for the wellbeing of others.

If you are on the dating scene, is your ‘I love you’ proclamation really an ‘I lust you for my own pleasure’ statement? Husbands, does your ‘I love you’ statement truly speak of the sacrificial love that Jesus has for His bride, the church?

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. – Ephesians 5:25

Professing Christians, do you wear the ‘cloak of Christian love’ to make a show for others with your charitable acts and prayers, only to take it off and blend into worldliness when outside the church context?

Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others; And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. – Matthew 6:2,5

Unconditional – Love… keeps no record of wrongs. – 1 Corinthians 13:5 (NIV)

We will always be faced with interpersonal conflicts from time to time. Husbands and wives, do you have a ‘bag of past offenses’ from which you hurl ‘stones’ at your spouse when in a verbal conflict?

Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. – Colossians 3:13-14

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. – Matthew 18:21-22

Steadfast – It (love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. – 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NIV)

The marriage covenant vows of for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health: These must not be empty words. They must be words imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit and spoken before God and man. They are words of steadfast love.

Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. – 1 Timothy 6:11

Respectful – Love… is not rude – 1 Cor 13:5

The root word translated ‘rude’ means to behave improperly or act unbecomingly.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples…- John 13:34-35

When we act unbecomingly, i.e., out of our professed Christian character, we testify loudly of our hypocrisy rather than of our faith in Christ.

Genuine Love is Not in Our Flesh – We have the capacity to be hypocrites, but we do not have the capacity in our humanness to conjure up genuine love through our will.

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ – John 3:5-7

Genuine love is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Of all the gifts of the Spirit, genuine love is the greatest.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13:13

May your Christian walk be characterized by the genuine love of Christ.