Is It Really Love?

Scripture

 Romans 12:9-16b

⁹Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹²Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. ¹³Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.  (NRSV)

Devotion

What makes love genuine?  This question plagues my mind every June as we find ourselves in the midst of both wedding season and Pride month.  Does that couple really have the kind of love that will last, or have they been misled by a strong (and ultimately fleeting) infatuation?  Did that company add a rainbow to its logo and sponsor some floats because it really loves LGBTQ+ people...or because it sees doing so as a good marketing tool?   And when people who claim to love others only to treat them in ways that are unjust, unmerciful, or cold-hearted, I find myself cynically wondering if there is any true love to be found here on Earth.

Those moments of cynicism and disillusionment are why I need scriptures like the one found in Romans 12.  Here, Paul gives us an example of what the love of God--the love that is supposed to flow through us thanks to Christ's sacrifices on our behalf--should entail.  To genuinely love someone is more than to have some warm feelings or to say some pretty words.  It is to truly connect with others by celebrating with them when they celebrate and grieving with them when they grieve.  It is to put aside our own desire for honor and reputation in order to ensure that others are cared for and honored as they deserve...especially those who we are tempted us to regard as beneath us.  It is to sweep aside our discomfort and desire for self-preservation by jumping in and helping friends and strangers alike with their needs.  It is to do our utmost to live in peace and harmony with one another.   And if our love for Christ is genuine, then we should do all of this not out of a begrudging sense of duty but with eagerness and enthusiasm.

Paul sets a high bar for us to live up to.  I mean, how many of us can honestly say that we truly love God and one another like that?  Judging by what we know about Paul's volatile temper, there were plenty of times when he couldn't even do so himself.

The Good News is that doesn't Jesus doesn't require us to be perfect.  He just asks us to try our best as we continue to grow in faith, understanding, and service.  The more we practice living into genuine, Christ-like love, the more second-nature such expressions of love become.  Over time and with a great deal of effort, we can demonstrate that we can genuinely love others as Christ loves us.  And that is the kind of love that can move even the most cynnical and world-weary of hearts.

I challenge each of us to spend the next month making a conscious effort to love others in the manner that Paul describes in Romans 12:9-16.  Let us work every day to honor others, contribute to one another's needs, welcome strangers, bless those who persecute us, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, associate with those the world sees as "lowly" or beneath us, and live in harmony with one another.  I cannot say what such demonstrations of such genuine love will look like in your specific context, but I can promise that there are opporunities all around you...and that living into those opportunities is transformative.  They turn us into better Christians, better neighbors, and better people.  And once the genuine love that is within us takes root and begins to spread, it can help transform the world around us.

My hope is that when June comes to a close, those of us who spent the month committed to loving genuinely will discover that it is easier to keep on doing so throughout the rest of the year.  After all, practice makes permanent; and I truly believe that the more we love others the way that Christ taught us to love, the better the world becomes.  So let us commit to loving deeply.  Actively.  Genuinely.  And may that love transform us in ways that help our often cynical and self-serving world come to know the joy of God's deep and abiding love for all Creation.

Prayer

Jesus, make me an instrument of your love.  Amen.