Romans 12:9
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
“Love must be sincere” - There is nothing that I can think of that is worse than someone who acts or pretends that they love and care for you.
To me that is the biggest betrayal that a person can inflict on another. It can be a crushing, life shattering experience.
In contrast there is nothing that I can think of that is more powerful than someone who has a love for you that is so genuine and strong that nothing else can overcome it, a Christ like love.
Romans 12:9 states two specific things about love. First, true love is genuine “Love must be sincere.” Second, love must be discriminating “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”
Keep in mind that we are coming out from last week of Paul telling us about being a part of the body of Christ, the church. Paul here is telling us to love each other as good brotherly Christians should.
We must remember that this letter was being written to the church in Rome where there were both Jew and gentile Christians, and I am sure that there was plenty of tension that was brought about from this.
We all come from different backgrounds, all from different parts of the country but yet we have one very strong tie, we put our faith in the work of Jesus Christ for our salvation. That one thing should be enough to overshadow anything else that could cause conflict and a lack of love among us.
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Love must be sincere – Sincere is an English word based on the two Latin words sin cera, meaning without wax, and it refers to the ancient practice of using wax to hide cracks in inferior pottery so the vessels could be sold for a higher price. Quality pottery was stamped sine cera (without wax) to show that the pottery had not been doctored. In regard to people, this says that a sincere person is one who is not hiding his true nature by hypocritical words or actions.
In the Greek text the word translated sincere is anupokritos, the latter part of this word is derived hypocritical. Anupokritos means without a mask, and refers to the way in which, in the Greek theater, actors would carry tragic, comic, or melodramatic masks to signal the role they were playing. So here Paul is saying that those who love are not to be playing a role but rather are to be genuine.
Love is discriminating – For some people it may come as a shock to discover the word hate immediately after the words love must be sincere.
First love then hate! The two almost seem incompatible. But they are not, and this verse teaches us an important truth; love must be discriminating. Real love does not love everything, but it hates what is evil.
Proverbs 8:13 - To fear the LORD is to hate evil
“God is love” (1 John 4:8). That is one of the most sublime statements in the Bible, but God Himself is not only love. He is also hate in the sense that He hates what is evil with a proper, righteous hatred. God is a complete God with attributes of both love and hate.
Many people would never acknowledge this fact, they would tend to just skip right over this and tech that God is an all loving God and has no hate within Him.
Proverbs 6:16-19
16 There are six things the LORD hates,
seven that are detestable to him:
17 haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
19 a false witness who pours out lies
and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.
If we love as God loves, and as Christians we are called to, then there will be things and people that we will hate. We cannot only love or else we would also love evil.
Luke 14:26 - "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
The Bible tells us how great love is
1 Corinthians Chapter 13 - If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Within these verses we just read, it is within the verses of 4-7 that we see fifteen things about love.
1.Love is patient – People can be difficult, exasperating and slow. Love understands this and so waits patiently. It knows that God is patient and that He has been wonderfully patient with us.
2.Love is kind – The world is filled with hurting, suffering people. Love knows this and does what it can to help, uplift, serve, encourage and otherwise embrace them in their misery. It is quick to speak an encouraging word, quick to offer everyone a willing, outstretched hand.
3.Love does not envy – The first two descriptions of love have been positive. Here is the first of eight negatives statements, saying what love is not and does not do. Love is not jealous. It is glad when other people win honors, achieve fame, strike it rich, and are praised. This is because love knows God and is content with the life God has given. Only a believer can be truly happy when others are preferred before himself.
4.Love does not boast – The world is filled with boasters, people who in one way or another are calling attention to who they are, how important they are, and how much they have achieved. Love does not do this, because love does not think highly of itself and because it is glad when others are exalted. A wise man once said, “There is no limit to what a man can achieve if he is not worried about who gets the credit.”
5.Love is not proud – The opposite of pride is humility, and love is humble. Love does not have inflated ideas of itself. Love is gracious.
6.Love is not rude – The opposite of rudeness is courtesy, and love has good manners. It thinks of others. It holds its tongue and waits for others to speak. Love listens. Love does not dominate a social setting and will not blurt out things that wound another person.
7.Love is not self seeking - The world looks at something and aks, “What’s in it for me?” Love does not seek for self, because it is not thinking of self. Love thinks of the one it loves. Jesus did not seek his own advantage when He came to earth to save us. Rather, He “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant,… He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross.”
8.Love is not easily angered – It does not have a short fuse. It is not irritable, not easily provoked. It is not touchy. Love is patient and kind.
9.Love keeps no record of wrongs – Some people have a knack for bringing up mistakes we have made and wounds we have inflicted even decades afterwards. Love forgets these wrongs. It does not compile statistics. It is not resentful. It is not vindictive.
10.Love does not delight in evil – Love is not amused by wrongdoing. It is not attracted by vice. It does not find trash intriguing. Dishonest schemes do not please it. Love hates wickedness.
11.Love rejoices with the truth – This is the other half of the only two part description in this section. It shows that the evil Paul is thinking of when he says “does not delight in evil” is chiefly the evil that tells lies. Love loves the truth, above all the truth that is God’s.
12.Love always protects – These last four descriptions say what love always does. First it always protects the other person. It sides with the weak. It rallies around the one who has been oppressed, attacked, abused, hurt, slandered, or otherwise made a victim.
13.Love always trusts – Love is never suspicious but Love always thinks the best.
14.Love always hopes – Love does not stop loving because it is not loved in return or because it is deceived. Love hopes for the best, and it forgives not once or even seven times, but never even begins to count.
15.Love always perseveres – Love never gives up, it is unconquerable. Love can outlast hate, evil and indifference. Love can outlast anything. Donald Barnhouse wrote “It is the one thing that stands after all else has fallen.”
