How do we manifest God's love?
The poets and songwriters speak of love being a many splendid things. To the average person, love is candlelit dinners, roses and physical activities. But, is that the way God’s love is to be viewed?
If you want to know what love is from God’s point of view, you must go to His Word and allow it to speak for itself. Too many times in our rush to read the familiar record in I Corinthians 13, we forget the much longer and more detailed version of what love is found in Romans chapter 12:9-20. From the Williams translation here are the things mentioned which define loving behavior:
1. Your love must be true
2. You must always turn in horror from what is wrong
3. Keep on holding to what is right
4. In brotherly love be affectionate to one another
5. In personal honors put one another to the fore
6. Never slack in earnestness
7. Always on fire with the spirit
8. Always serving the Lord
9. Ever happy in hope
10. Always patient in suffering
11. Ever persistent in prayer
12. Always supplying the needs of God’s people
13. Ever practicing hospitality
14. Keep on blessing your persecutors
15. Keep on blessing and stop cursing them
16. Practice rejoicing with people who rejoice and weeping with people who weep
17. Keep on thinking in harmony with one another
18. Stop being high-minded
19. Keep on associating with lowly people
20. Stop being conceited
21. Stop returning evil for evil to anyone
22. Always see to it that your affairs are right in the sight of everybody
23. Stop taking revenge on one another
24. Stop being conquered by evil
25. Keep on conquering evil with good
Whew, what a list! Most people want things laid out for them and Paul certainly did that for us here in Romans 12. The question now is what to do with this list. Do we just look at it and go yea” and move on to the next list? Do we look at these 25 things as far too hard to do and move on to an easier list? Or, do we look at this list for what it is, a list of qualities and attributes of the love of God in manifestation. I think that would be the best thing to do.
The very first thing on this list in the King James Version says; Let love be without dissimulation”. Although it is very true that the word could be translated true”, there is far more to the meaning of it than just that. Without dissimulation” literally means unfeigned or without hypocrisy. Thus it means sincere or true. The very first thing that comes up in this discussion of love is that we are to love without hypocrisy or simply put—our love needs to real, sincere, honest and true.
Hypocritical love pretends to be real but it is all an act. Hypocritical love hurts people far more than it ever helps them. Hypocritical love is all show and no substance. That is why the first and greatest exhortation here is that our love needs to be without hypocrisy and thus genuine. In many respects, the next 24 things on this list define genuine non-hypocritical love.
Genuine, sincere and true love will turn in horror” from what is wrong or evil. Genuine love will keep holding on to what is right no matter what. True love manifests brotherly/sisterly affection to one another. On the other side of the coin; hypocritical love tolerates” that which is wrong, compromises what is right and takes brotherly/sisterly affection and turns it into eros” (sexual love).
The true and genuine love of God seeks to supply the needs of God’s people. Hypocritical love seeks only to please itself. True love practices hospitality while hypocritical love is rude and crass. True love blesses those who persecute while hypocritical love curses them. True love rejoices with those who rejoice and weeps with those who weep while hypocritical love is envious of those rejoicing and looks down upon those who are weeping.
God’s love in manifestation seeks to live in harmony with others by associating with lowly and humble people, while hypocritical love is high minded and conceited. The true and genuine love of God never returns evil for evil or seeks revenge, but hypocritical love does both. The true love of God in manifestation conquers evil with good while hypocritical love is conquered by evil.
There you have it. Romans 12:9-20 turned upside down and inside out. True, sincere and non-hypocritical love is not that difficult to understand or manifest. It all ultimately goes back to the two great commandments which are to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.
I pray that we all re-evaluate our lives in light of the standard set here in Romans. Is that which we call love” in alignment with what this section of scripture defined love to be? Is that which we manifest true and genuine or is it mixed with and corrupted by selfish desires and thus hypocrisy. Pure, sincere and genuine love covers a multitude of sins, binds us all together and brings healing to our minds and bodies. That is why we should strive to learn what it is and manifest God’s glorious love daily more and more.
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Author: blessings2you
Location: Warrenton Missouri USA
Gender: Male
Age: 57
Blog Entries: 827 (archive)
Blog Comments: 1357
god called me to serve him when i was 16 years old while on a church work trip in new mexico in 1969. in the 40 years since; i attended bible school/leadership training, been ordained to the christian ministry and worked full time for a non-denominational ministry for nearly ten...
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in 1969 god stepped in and transformed my life as a sixteen year old teenager. after a couple of years of intense emotional ups and downs, i decided i needed a firm foundation in my life that went beyond emotional experiences. it was the decision to become involved with a...
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