Let love be genuine

"Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers."

(Romans 12:9-13)

 

Let (ho) love (agape) be genuine (anypokritos). How do I do that?

 

I read the following from "Our Responsibilities Under Grace - Part 6" by Dr. Wayne A. Barber. Here I quote the parts that are the most helpful to me along with my comments in () and emphasis:

    "I want to tell you, when you come out of 11 chapters of the marvelous grace of God, you begin to realize that the only logical thing to do is bow down before Him and give yourself back to Him. He gave Himself for you. Let your life become a vessel, just something He can live His life through. It is then that you start seeing things in a different way.

    I want to say one more time, until you are surrendered to Christ, until the Word of God is renewing your mind, transforming your behavior, you are still in the fog. But when you start living like you are supposed to live the fog begins to lift. You get to see for your very own self what was there all the time. All of a sudden, you see the church as a body and you see yourself as an important functional part of that body. You are spiritually gifted. Now these spiritual gifts are different than talents and abilities. God, being the sovereign God that He is, certainly orchestrates them all together. But we are talking about what the Holy Spirit brings when He comes to live in your life. He gifts you, and the gift that He has given you is to enable the body to grow up into unity and of the faith and to become that picture, that image of Jesus living His life on this earth through the bodies of people that are surrendered to Him. (see the immediate preceding verses 4-7)

    Paul says in verse 9, "Let love be without hypocrisy."

    Really it is "love without hypocrisy." That is the statement. Now, the love the Holy Spirit produces in you and me, when we are surrendered to Him, is a love that must house all the service gifts that we have. Everything we do for one another has to be done out of love. There is no ministry; there is no anything if this love is not there. This love is the signal that we are living under grace; that God truly is working in and through our lives. And this love will be without hypocrisy.

    The word "hypocrisy" (anuopkritos) there means without any pretense, without any dissimulation. In other words, there is no put on with this. It is pure. It is right. It is God’s love being manifested in you and in me...It is like a chain with different links all the way down... I think he is describing this love without hypocrisy with the participles that he sort of hooks on to it down through verse 13. The whole thought here is relationships in the body of Christ—how we treat one another. We know we are gifted differently and we are going to serve one another through those gifts, but what is it that houses all of that service? What is the house that all those gifts live in? It is this love without hypocrisy."

And here is the list:

1. hate what is evil - "Abhor" means to detest with horror. In other words, you tremble at the thought of... This love will be without hypocrisy and this love will cause me to tremble and to abhor with horror that which would be injurious to someone else in the body of Christ. I can’t even tolerate it."
2. hold fast to what is good - "At the same time he clings to that which is good. The word "cling" is the word for glue... The love that is being manifested in you glues you to that which is good... It means that I am glued to the attitude that whatever I do for you or for whoever out of the gifts that God has given is done for your best benefit, your spiritual help. "
3. love one another with mutual affection - "The word "devoted" there comes from two Greek words (philostorgos). One word is philos, and the other word is storge (another word for love, family kind of love, even people without Christ have it)... Paul told Timothy in the last days people will be unloving. The word is astorgos. It comes from "a", without, and storge, this kind of family love. Do you wonder where abortion comes from, folks? God’s Word has already told you it is going to be that way. Women will not even love their own children. This is what the word means... Then he says, "with brotherly love"(philadelphia)... So the Holy Spirit of God who lives in us opens our eyes and helps us to realize that we are all gifted differently. We are all in the same family, but there are going to be different degrees of maturity. He will give us the discernment of how to treat each one where they are and how to minister to them. It is that kind of love that permeates the family of God. You see the family like you have never seen it before. "
4. outdo one another in showing honor - "outdo, or give preference (proēgeomai) comes from two Greek words. One means before, pro, then the word hegeomai means to take the lead...  I don’t wait for them to love me or to serve me?... This is the Spirit of God in you leading you and motivating you to take the lead. Don’t wait on somebody to come to you. You go to them...  When you present your body a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), then whatever agenda you had is dead under the blood at the cross and now it is His agenda and now you take the lead in it. Who is it that I can show love to today? Who is it that I can serve today? ... The word honor (timē) means to put them higher than yourself. The Apostle Paul says almost the same thing in Philippians 2:3"
5. do not lag in zeal - "don’t be lazy, don’t fall behind... That is where your joy is. It is gone when you start looking at others and what they are not doing. It is there when you are busy doing what God says. The word "diligence," spoude, means with great urgency and without delay. "
6. be ardent in spirit - "ardent or "fervent" means to boil. The word for "spirit" is the word pneuma, and here it has to do with one’s attitude... It is that boiling inside that is causing something to spill over on the outside—zeo, fervent in spirit. Go over to Acts 18:25 and you find a very similar example to show you that what is going on in the inside here. It spills over in your attitude. And oh, how contagious this in the body of Christ.."
7. serve the Lord - "As you are ministering to others, not lagging behind, taking the lead, fervent in spirit, remembering that you are serving the Lord. This is the motivation of showing this love... Let’s go back. Filled with the love of Christ which is without pretense. Detesting with horror anything that would be injurious to others in the body. Glued to that which only does things which would benefit others. Focused on treating others in the body as family and taking the lead in showing this brotherly love. Not in any way becoming lazy in this matter. Feeling the urgency, like being a pot of water ready to boil over in your attitude to serve others. Motivated by the fact that everything you do to serve others is in reality serving God. "
8. rejoice in hope - "as you love that brother who is not very lovable, but you are serving God in doing it. As you love him, you are taking joy in doing good for him and you are rejoicing in your expectation of what that good is going to do in his life somewhere down the road... don’t give up on people in the body of Christ."
9. be patient in suffering - "There are going to be people in the family of God who just don’t enjoy being there. And you are going to start trying to love them and serve them and they are going to give grief to you. But persevere (hypomenō), bear up under (thlipsis)."
10. persevere in prayer - "have you ever noticed how hard it is to talk about a brother in trouble when you have spent time praying and talking to God about him? It is almost like the Holy Spirit of God shuts your mouth and says back to you, "If you are going to love this person, you are not loving them because of what they do back for you. You are loving them because of Jesus. You are loving them because of His love in you. You are not expecting anything from them at all anyway. So, keep your mouth shut. Just keep praying for them. But for the grace of God, you would be just like them. Just keep praying for them. Just keep praying for them"
11. contribute to the needs of the saints - "When you start loving, even the unlovable, bearing up under whatever they throw back at you, rejoicing in the good you believe God is going to bring out of that, devoted to prayer so you are not talking about them, you are talking to God for them, what happens is, you start noticing needs in the body of Christ like you have never seen them before. And all of a sudden, you just want to participate in meeting the needs of the body of Christ. "
12. extend hospitality to strangers - "we are not going to learn to love people outside the church until we learn to love people inside the church. The only way to love people inside the church is to love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your body. Present yourself to Him. Then God in you turns on a love without pretense and that love without pretense is what does the good. It is what does the work. Contributing to the needs of the saints is something He begins to form and motivate within your heart..."

There is more in Romans 12:14-19. This blog is already too long. Will have to do that another time.

"14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”"