A Crucified Life - - Loves Sincerely

2 Corinthians 6:6

In purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness; in the Holy Spirit, and in Sincere Love.

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 505

Sincere: unfeigned, unhypocritical, unselfishly

From the Greek word 'anupokritos' (pronounced an-oo-pok'-ree-tos): free from hidden agendas.

Love: benevolence, good will, love-feasts

From the Greek word 'agapé' (pronounced ag-ah'-pay): divine love [what God prefers].

    To love sincerely is to love the whole person, not just their best qualities, but to love them in spite of their faults: the way God loves us. So how does God love us? What is this Sincere Love?

               God loves us with an Everlasting Love: Jeremiah 31:3. 

God loves us with a Forgiving Love: Ephesians 4:32.

          God loves us with a Generous Love: Exodus 20:6.

        God loves us with a Faithful Love: Isaiah 54:10.

      God loves us with an All Encompassing Love: Psalm 32:10.

     God loves us with a Fair Love: John 3:16,17.

The first thing we need to do, before we can love one like God loves us, is to have the love of God living in us. For love is of God and it's Alive, an actionable Love. It pursues a person relentlessly until that person accepts the Love. Therefore, knowing love is of God, we seek out how to obtain this wonderful Love and we find Jesus, the embodiment of God's extensive Love for both the people who knew Him and the people who knew Him not. 

The second thing we need to do, before we can love on one another the way God loves us, is to receive His Spirit into us. When I was younger, I was saved but not filled; nor was I discipled. So I did not know how to live out my salvation. Nor did I know about this wonderful Spirit God was so generously handing out to those who sought Him. But now that I do I want you to be aware that the Holy Spirit of God is not Someone you should be afraid of, but rejoice that God has sent a Helper to help us in our works for Him. 

As we begin to live for God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, we learn that God has loved us all along and was just waiting for us to love Him back. We find that He wants us to love one another the way He loves us. So we search out His Word to see how He loves us and we pray that we can love like that. We ask Him how we can love like He loves us? God is Spirit and He can love like that. How do we love with this Sincere Love which God has and has given us? 

It's one thing to read a Bible verse about loving each other, it's quite another thing to apply that Bible verse to our lives. But when the Spirit is living in us, He directs us: we just need to listen and be obedient to that nudge on our hearts, that Word in our thoughts.

    For instance, when I got divorced from my first husband, I realized I had to forgive him before I could move on, before I could grow in my relationship with Christ. His actions and his words caused the divorce, the death of our marriage, and rendered our family torn apart. So, I forgave him. 

    Our boys were getting baptized, so I invited him and his  girlfriend to the service and the dinner we had afterward. There I forgave them both; hugging them and meaning every word I said. That's how we forgive those who have sinned against us.

    It's the same way the father forgave the son who returned home after squandering all of his inheritance on frivolous living (Luke 15:11-32). Though the son approached his father with a humble heart, ready to be a servant, his father approached him with joy and covered him with new clothes. He gave him a seal (signet) of approval and had a great celebration: for his son who was lost was now home. That's Sincere Love.

   

When someone hurts us, we don't hurt them back. We bless them with kindness. When someone attacks us, we don't attack them back. We remain silent; God will fight for us, if need be. We bless them with our silence. And we pray for them. 

    God says we should not only bless those people who sin against us for Christ's sake, but that we should pray for them. Pray for their salvation. Pray for them to be filled with His Spirit. Pray for them to receive this Sincere Love which God has for them. Pray for their needs to be met in Christ. 

    How we treat each other in the sanctuary of our prayers is how we are to treat each other in public. The words we speak to each other must come from a heart filled with the Sincere Love of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. There is no other way to love each other purely and with integrity. 

    Lord, let Your Love grow in me and flow through me. 

SINCERE LOVE