Aug. 22, 2011
Romans 12:9
"Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good."
Paul writes to the Romans about the way to behave as a Christian. Because he speaks of the things of Christ, "love [be] without hypocrisy" could be interpreted as the way to love one another as Christ did. He loved, and taught, and lived without disobeying anything He ordained. In this He was an example of pure and true, self-sacrificing love for us. And the next part, "Abhor what is evil." What the rip, isn't that obvious? We already do. No one actually likes evil.. Right? What about when evil things are those that are not of Christ? Okay, now we have a problem. God knew that this was the case with the world, otherwise He wouldn't have inspired Paul to write such an "obvious" statement. He knew the world was and would turn toward things that weren't from Him, and weren't pleasing in His sight, even though they weren't straight up murder. Same as abhorring evil, clinging to what is good seems to be the obvious thing, but this isn't quite the way the world turns. We, as humans, are selfish by nature, so in that, we ourselves are evil. So how does that work? We're already hypocrisy within ourselves.. and if we're supposed to be without hypocrisy, and to abhor what is evil, shouldn't we abhor ourselves? Precisely. That's what it comes down to. Alone we have no way to follow these commands. But Paul follows with this relieving statement. "Cling to what is good." We can do that! We can cling to the solid rock and have a firm foundation on which to stand. Clinging to Jesus, brings us freedom from the bonds that are wrapped in the hypocrisy of our human, and sinful nature.
I need to cling to Christ with everything I am. I need to be in constant prayer to my Father, thanking Him, and building my relationship with Him, so I can truly live and abhor what is not of Him, and love through Him, without hypocrisy of the flesh.
No comments:
Post a Comment