Sue J Love
Loyal
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2015
- Messages
- 3,514
“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” (Romans 12:9-13 NASB1995)
What does love WITH hypocrisy look like? It is fake, it is not honest, not sincere. It is superficial only, not from the heart, perhaps to give a particular impression which is willfully and deliberately false to the truth. It is duplicity, like the person who is double-minded or two-faced who says one thing but does the opposite, in practice, who speaks kind words to a person’s face while he/she (they) gossip and slander the person out of sight. For it is words spoken, but followed up with actions going in the opposite direction.
So, love without hypocrisy is the opposite of that. It is honest, sincere, trustworthy, kind, with no pretense, no fakery. It does not speak words of love and then do the opposite. And we are talking about biblical agape love here which means to prefer what God prefers, and to choose his choices, and to obey them in his power. So this love prefers what is holy, righteous, godly, morally pure, honest, faithful, and obedient to our Lord and to his commands. But it doesn’t fake love. The love is sincere and godly.
So, it will mean that we love others in the same manner in which Jesus loved others. So this is not “love” based in our human flesh and conditional upon our emotions or the actions of others. We love even when we are hated and reviled and persecuted in return. And we speak the truth in love to others, which is for their good, and not the lies which may make them feel good but which will not go well for them in the end if they believe and follow them. So sometimes this is exercised in what we refer to as “tough love,” of God.
And when we love with this kind of love we will hate evil, and we will cling to what is good. We will not hate good, and cling to what is evil, which is what many professing Christians have come to accept as the standard of what their lives will look like. And this is because they have been convinced that they don’t have to repent of (forsake, die to) their sins and that they don’t have to obey God as necessary components of biblical faith, which is of God, not of us, and which results in salvation from sin and eternal life with God.
Now if we are to be devoted to one another in brotherly love, and to give preference to one another in honor, this has to be in agreement with the nature, character, and divine will of God for our lives. We do not devote ourselves to nor give preference to anything which is sinful, and which is contrary to God’s will and purpose for our lives. So, we don’t blend in with and join in with what is worldly, of the flesh, ungodly, immoral, and anything which keeps us from obeying the Lord and serving him with our lives.
For, as members of the body of Christ, we are to be serving the Lord and one another in love. And we are to be utilizing the gifts of the Spirit given to us by the Spirit in encouraging one another in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord. And all of us are to be speaking the truth in love, one to the other, so that none of us are being taken captive by sin’s deceitfulness or by liars, deceivers, and schemers who speak lies to us and who try to lead us to follow after a false gospel. And all of us are to be doing this, out of love.
And even if others reject, persecute, chastise, and otherwise shun us who are speaking the truth of the gospel, in love, we are to keep persevering in loving them, in speaking the truth, in refuting the lies, in praying for them, and in showing them love and kindness and mercy, even if they treat us with hate, in return. For that is how Jesus loved. And if we are contributing to the needs of the saints, these could be legitimate physical needs, but they also could be spiritual and emotional needs, but all done with propriety, in love.
[Acts 2:42-47; Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]
Walk With Me
By Al Langdon and P.J. Zondervan
Walk with me, walk with me,
Lest mine eyes no longer see
All the glory, all the story of Your love;
Talk to me, talk to me,
Like You spoke so tenderly,
When You talked there,
When You walked there by the sea.
Talk to me, talk to me,
Lest mine ears no longer hear
All the wonder, all the beauty of Your grace;
Walk with me, walk with me,
As You walked so lovingly,
When You walked there,
When You talked there by the sea.
Let me follow in the footsteps
That trod the shore of Galilee,
Let me learn to pray like He did
In the Garden of Gethsemane;
Take my hand, take my hand,
Teach me Lord to understand,
All the duty, all the beauty of Your love.
Caution: This link may contain ads
Love Without Hypocrisy
An Original Work / April 16, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
What does love WITH hypocrisy look like? It is fake, it is not honest, not sincere. It is superficial only, not from the heart, perhaps to give a particular impression which is willfully and deliberately false to the truth. It is duplicity, like the person who is double-minded or two-faced who says one thing but does the opposite, in practice, who speaks kind words to a person’s face while he/she (they) gossip and slander the person out of sight. For it is words spoken, but followed up with actions going in the opposite direction.
So, love without hypocrisy is the opposite of that. It is honest, sincere, trustworthy, kind, with no pretense, no fakery. It does not speak words of love and then do the opposite. And we are talking about biblical agape love here which means to prefer what God prefers, and to choose his choices, and to obey them in his power. So this love prefers what is holy, righteous, godly, morally pure, honest, faithful, and obedient to our Lord and to his commands. But it doesn’t fake love. The love is sincere and godly.
So, it will mean that we love others in the same manner in which Jesus loved others. So this is not “love” based in our human flesh and conditional upon our emotions or the actions of others. We love even when we are hated and reviled and persecuted in return. And we speak the truth in love to others, which is for their good, and not the lies which may make them feel good but which will not go well for them in the end if they believe and follow them. So sometimes this is exercised in what we refer to as “tough love,” of God.
And when we love with this kind of love we will hate evil, and we will cling to what is good. We will not hate good, and cling to what is evil, which is what many professing Christians have come to accept as the standard of what their lives will look like. And this is because they have been convinced that they don’t have to repent of (forsake, die to) their sins and that they don’t have to obey God as necessary components of biblical faith, which is of God, not of us, and which results in salvation from sin and eternal life with God.
Now if we are to be devoted to one another in brotherly love, and to give preference to one another in honor, this has to be in agreement with the nature, character, and divine will of God for our lives. We do not devote ourselves to nor give preference to anything which is sinful, and which is contrary to God’s will and purpose for our lives. So, we don’t blend in with and join in with what is worldly, of the flesh, ungodly, immoral, and anything which keeps us from obeying the Lord and serving him with our lives.
For, as members of the body of Christ, we are to be serving the Lord and one another in love. And we are to be utilizing the gifts of the Spirit given to us by the Spirit in encouraging one another in our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord. And all of us are to be speaking the truth in love, one to the other, so that none of us are being taken captive by sin’s deceitfulness or by liars, deceivers, and schemers who speak lies to us and who try to lead us to follow after a false gospel. And all of us are to be doing this, out of love.
And even if others reject, persecute, chastise, and otherwise shun us who are speaking the truth of the gospel, in love, we are to keep persevering in loving them, in speaking the truth, in refuting the lies, in praying for them, and in showing them love and kindness and mercy, even if they treat us with hate, in return. For that is how Jesus loved. And if we are contributing to the needs of the saints, these could be legitimate physical needs, but they also could be spiritual and emotional needs, but all done with propriety, in love.
[Acts 2:42-47; Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]
Walk With Me
By Al Langdon and P.J. Zondervan
Walk with me, walk with me,
Lest mine eyes no longer see
All the glory, all the story of Your love;
Talk to me, talk to me,
Like You spoke so tenderly,
When You talked there,
When You walked there by the sea.
Talk to me, talk to me,
Lest mine ears no longer hear
All the wonder, all the beauty of Your grace;
Walk with me, walk with me,
As You walked so lovingly,
When You walked there,
When You talked there by the sea.
Let me follow in the footsteps
That trod the shore of Galilee,
Let me learn to pray like He did
In the Garden of Gethsemane;
Take my hand, take my hand,
Teach me Lord to understand,
All the duty, all the beauty of Your love.
Caution: This link may contain ads
Love Without Hypocrisy
An Original Work / April 16, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
