Let love be without hypocrisy...

Romans 12 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

³ For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. ⁴ For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ⁶ Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; ⁷ if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

⁹ Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; ¹¹ not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; ¹² rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, ¹³ contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. ¹⁷ Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. ¹⁹ Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. ²⁰ “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Many today say that Christians are hypocrites. They say that Christians do not live and love as they should, that not being tolerant of other people’s lifestyles, not accepting the actions and choices of others is unloving and so hypocrisy. Paul says:   Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.     According to Paul, Christians are to love without hypocrisy by abhorring what is evil and clinging to what is good. If one who says they are a follower of Christ, accepts, tolerates and even condones what is evil, what is sin, are they not then being a hypocrite toward Jesus? If we say we love Christ but we also love what cost Him His life, are we not a hypocrite? In John 12:42-43 it speaks to this type of hypocrisy:     Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue;  for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.    Jesus speaks about the result of that hypocrisy, the result of being more concerned with the opinion of man rather than the opinion of God. In verse 44-50 He says:   “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.  He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.  I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness.  If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.  He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.  For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.  I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”          Again in John 3:16-19 Jesus says:     “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”   1 John 2:15 says:       Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.     We are to love others regardless of their background, beliefs or choices, but if we embrace evil, tolerate sin, then our love is hypocrisy. If our love concerns itself with being loved in return, if we are more concerned with the approval of man than pleasing God, then we are not loving them unconditionally as God does. God loves us in spite of sin, not because of sin.    

In today’s text Paul also says:  If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. If we will love without hypocrisy we will:     Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.  Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.  Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men.       To respect what is right in the sight of all men, is not to respect what they see as right, but rather to respect God’s righteousness for all men to see.  Jesus says:     “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;  nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16) 

The extent to which we should live at peace with all men is to:  Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.  “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”      We need to understand that the burning coals we heap on the head of others are not coals to cause them pain. They are coals like that referred to in Isaiah 6:1-7:       In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”  Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.  He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”     Our love without hypocrisy, our living righteously, shining the light of Christ to the world should cause the world to recognize and feel conviction over their condition. The coals we heap on the heads of our enemies are to be coals from the alter of sacrifice, a revelation of the cross of Christ and the love of God.   The text says:   Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.    That is love without hypocrisy.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; Holy Spirit my desire is to truly:  present my body as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is my spiritual service of worship.  And to not be conformed to this world, to not love the opinions or the praise of man more than the opinion and praise of God. May I truly be transformed by the renewing of my mind, so that I may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. That through my good deeds, my love without hypocrisy they will see: “the King, the Lord of hosts,” and glorify You.    Amen