Lovely Love

LOVE - four little letters that can get us into a heap load of trouble! In Romans 12:9-11 Paul uses a couple different words to express what is really love. "Let love be genuine", Paul writes. This love, in Greek a-ga-pe, cannot be false because it is the love that cannot be separated from faith. When Paul says to let it be genuine he is reminding us that we cannot saddle agape love with our own sentimental feelings. Being "slothful in zeal" is just that, cheap sentiment. We've all seen the weepy preacher or the overly emotional worship leader. We're supposed to believe that it is their tears that validate their devotion. Paul goes on to talk about what real love looks like - it's so important that he uses two similar words to get the idea across to us - "love one another with brotherly affection." Philostorgos and philadeliphia - love one another like family, with brotherly love! This is real and genuine, to outdo one another in showing one another that we love one another! Wow! Loving out of faith in the one who loved you and gave Himself up for you is a love that can never be faked! Read the rest of Paul's words in Romans 12:12-21 to see what a life centered in the agape of Christ and the philadephia toward community really looks like! Look at your faith, look at your love and then, friends, live them both!