Sincere Love

Evil can mean many things for each of us.  Google defines it as profoundly immoral or wicked.  What is immoral or wicked may be drastically different for each of us.  Our life situation, our surrounding environment, the people we encounter - all of those things and more can determine what we find as evil.  It could be an addiction - to food, to drugs, to alcohol.  It could be people who treat others with a lack of respect or value.  It could be slander and gossip.  Unfortunately, our lives can introduce us to evil every day - we live in a world of sin.  What a way to start a blog post!

Evil can be dark and full of despair.  Our world can seem like that.  Our lives can seem like that.  The situations of 2020 can reveal a dark place, one that is filled with disease, hatred, and evil.  In walks the one that conquers evil.  God always amazes me!  He takes what is wrong and makes it right.  He takes the ordinary and makes it extra ordinary.  He takes the simple and makes it profound.  He takes words written on a page and touches our hearts.  I often find myself asking why - why does He do all of this for us?  Yes, the answer is because He loves us, but not as we love on Earth.  He loves us with a love that is unconditional and sincere.

Romans 12:9-21 was our reading for worship last week.  These words seemed to drive deeper  into my heart each time I read them.  The heading for that section is "Love in Action"!  We typically turn to 1st Corinthians 13 - love is patient, love is kind, for a love chapter.  I believe this has become my new "go to" love chapter.  Here Paul writes and describes how we need to act, when we talk about love.  We need to do it with a level of sincerity - turning back and hating what is evil, clinging to what is good.

To love with sincerity is not easy.  To be sincere means feeling and acting with no deceit, dishonesty or hypocrisy.  We may feel this is how we love, yet if we are truthful, we may not always love that way.  I'm sure we all short of loving sincerely.  When someone hurts us or disappoints me, words may come out of our mouths or we may act in a way that doesn't portray love.  Once again, it is because we find ourselves in a sinful world and we are part of that.  How do we turn ourselves to love on an entirely different level?

We do as Paul suggests in this chapter - we cling to what is good.  There is only ONE who is good every minute of every day - God!  There is only ONE who can turn evil into good.  There is only ONE that can always show us how to act with love.  When we turn our eyes and intentions to God, the outcomes will always be better.  Our actions become less about us and more about God and His saving grace.  Our actions become more sincere because we can love knowing that God loves us so much He gave His one and only Son for us.  Our actions become filled with the Holy Spirit.

Let's put our love into action!  Let's cling to what is good and right.  Let's turn our back on whatever may be evil in our lives and put forth actions filled with God's love.  We've got this - with the help of God!!

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your unconditional and sincere love.  Help us to turn away from all that is evil and focus our actions on all that is good, loving with sincerity!  May we cling to your love and your word always!  Amen.