This Day in History: 0000-05-10

May 10 – Romans 12:9-13 

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard to serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality. 

Oh how we, as the body of Christ, fail to honor these commands of our Lord and Savior! We easily pour out words of love and affection for our brothers and sisters, but our actions do not reflect that love! 

We’re quick to hate the sinner and tolerate the sin, when the Bible teaches the exact opposite. We’re to hate what is evil, and hold tightly to what is good. So if we believe what the Bible says about our identity in Christ, then what is evil will never be a fellow believer. Every member of His body has been covered with His blood and declared righteous. From that moment on, it is only our sin which is evil. We should hate our sin while holding tightly to one another! 

Our love for each other should be genuine. It should not be empty platitudes. Genuine love is selfless. It gives of itself for another. It is far less interested in declaring its own ideas than in gaining an understanding of the ideas of others. It would rather let go of a meaningless argument to preserve a relationship than stubbornly hang on to its rights for the sake of pride. 

Love takes delight in honoring others. The accomplishments and triumphs of the people we love will fill us with joy. Jealousy won’t have a place. We won’t feel like we have to question every move of the people we love, checking and double checking that they have acted perfectly and left no room for improvement before rejoicing with them. In other words, love trusts the Holy Spirit to do His work, and simply finds reason to be on the team of the objects of its affection. 

Speaking of acting like a team, if we, the church, were living in obedience to the Word of God, we would be working hard TOGETHER to serve the Lord. We would be enthusiastic about it. We wouldn’t be quibbling over unimportant details of doctrine. Once again, we would trust the Holy Spirit to do His work, and we would simply be able to walk in obedience. 

Can you imagine the praises we could lift to our Lord if we would set aside our differences and simply rejoice together in our confident hope? We’re the redeemed of the Lord! We’re going to share eternity. There isn’t going to be a separate part of heaven for each denomination. Whether we get it right on this side of eternity or not, when we get to the other, we WILL be one church. 

Oh friends, how much power we’re missing out on because we choose to quibble instead of unite. We should be praying for each other. We should be helping one another. We should be sharing our lives! Not just within the four walls of our own church building, but with the worldwide body of Christ! 

Anything less is disobedience, and it is sin. May we repent today!