Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. -Romans 12:9-10
The last couple of weeks we have talked about what it means to be the Body of Christ. We have talked about rejoicing with each other and mourning with each other. We have talked about using our spiritual gifts and fulfilling our part in the body.
Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians and in his letter to the Romans, follows his teaching on the spiritual gifts immediately by writing about love. In Romans, he writes “love must be sincere,” and “be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” In 1 Corinthians, he follows with what we know as the love Chapter (1 Corinthians 13).
We can rejoice with each other and mourn with each other. We can even use our gifts admirably, but if we don’t have love, we gain nothing.
I confess that I was not anxious to spend time with this passage to write this today. As I sought God for what to write about, I landed on 1 Corinthians 13 and thought, “ok, I’ll put that down as a possibility.” I wanted to move on, but God stopped me there.
I remember, as a child, they had us substitute our name for the word love in verses 4-7. Michelle is patient. Michelle is kind…you get the picture. I can’t say these things are true all the time. I am mostly patient (except when I’m behind the wheel of the car). I am not always kind. To be devoted to one another in brotherly love though, is to be these things to each other…to be patient and kind, not keeping a record of wrongs, holding each other accountable so that we do not delight in evil, but rejoice in the truth. It is difficult to be devoted to one another and be self-seeking at the same time.
Loving each other is the bottom line of being part of the Body of Christ. “They will know we are Christians by our love.”