Sincere Love

To give your podcasters time for vacation, the following 10 weeks will include some Wilderness Wanderings Reruns. Certainly not every day, but often enough to give us space for spiritual rest. If you have tagged an episode as particularly meaningful for you, let us know so we can consider sending it out again. To follow up on Pastor Anthony's reflection yesterday, here is a rerun rooted in Romans 12.          Love must be sincere (Romans 12:9a).         One might argue that this little phrase, "Love must be sincere", is the heart of Romans 12. Everything that has come before--the stuff about personal transformation: "…in view of God's mercy…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God…be transformed by the renewing of your mind…discerning God's good, pleasing and perfect will…" and the stuff about the relationships within the church, "Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment…in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others…we have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us…"--all of this leads into the command, "Love must be sincere."         Yes, it is written as a command. Actually, the phrase has no verb. Its as if the apostle is saying, "Love that is sincere will…" and then he spends the rest of the chapter telling us what sincere love is all about.         In our culture, the word love has become rather vague. It's lost its crispness. We love sweaters and the weather and we love each other. It's a feeling that comes and goes like a wave in the bay. We also claim to make love. So, what is love and what makes it sincere?         The word used for love here is agape. So far in Romans all references to agape have been to the 'love of God'—as demonstrated on the cross (5:8), as poured into our hearts (5:5) and as doggedly refusing to let us go (8:35, 39). This is a pursuing, wooing, winning back kind of love. The lover is willing to sacrifice himself unto death to express his love. So that is our reference point, our example. But it is also our source. This love has been poured into us. Now it must flow out. Here the focus shifts to agape, that is, love, as the essence of Christian discipleship. Romans 12-15 are a sustained encouragement to let love govern and shape all our relationships. At the end of the chapter, Paul will write about love for our enemies (17-21), but first he portrays it as pervading the Christian community (9-16).         The word 'sincere' means 'without hypocrisy'. In the ancient world, hypocrite was the word for actor. Thus, Paul starts by saying that acts and words of love must not be pretend. We should not tell someone we love them, when we really don't. Neither should we act in love, when in reality, we despise or even hate someone. For early Christians, the primary example of non-sincere love was Judas, betraying Jesus with a kiss. This was hypocritical love in its vilest form.         It is in this matter of sincere love that Christian discipleship is counter-cultural. Feelings are paramount among us. "If I don't feel like it, I don't have to do it." But for Christians love is the law (13:8-10). When Paul says that love must be sincere, what he means is that if we don't feel loving, we need to change our attitude; our hearts need to change. We need to love like God loves us. How does that happen? The cure for a non-loving heart is not to try harder. It is to look to God, to see his love for me. For Christians, confession is not primarily about feeling bad, it's the road to experiencing God's mercy again. Love begins with a view to God's mercy. Only with our eyes fixed on Jesus, can our love become sincere. So, let us fix our eyes on him.   As you fix your eyes on him, go with the blessing of God:   May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.