"Let love be genuine...outdo one another is showing honour." (Rom 12:9a, 10b)
What if you did this?
Imagine a community of people who all loved each other genuinely--without fakeness and pretense.
Imagine a community where each person was trying to be better then the next in the kind of love and honor that they were showing to another!
I don't know about you--but I would love to be a part of a community like that!
What if you decided to begin to do this?
As long as human beings are involved in a community on this earth it will never be perfect. Even today I sat with a woman who shared the pain of words said by others who ought to love her that instead tore her down and judged her for past sins in her life. Yes, this was within the church community. It makes me sick.
But I have hope. I have hope when I consider Jesus and how He loves us. I have hope because we are told that the life (and therefore the love of Jesus) dwells in His followers.
And this is how Jesus loves: He loved us before we ever loved Him--in fact He loved us even when we were still sinners and far from perfect. He loves us still even when we mess up--when we are faithless He is always faithful! He bears with us in our weakness, He strengthens us by His grace--He has sacrificed all for our good because of LOVE.
What if you let Jesus' love take over more and more everyday? What if when you feel like judging you stop and ask Jesus' love to pour through you? What if when you feel like looking down on another--you think of Jesus and instead serve the other with honor just as Jesus served you?
WHAT IF? I desperately want to see Jesus' love overtake my own life more and more. I want to be a part of a church community...that though we are not perfect...will let the love of Jesus control us and move us forward day by day.
What about you?
Hi Kellen,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this reminder. Love is THE most important element of our christian walk, or witness to both the secular and christians. Without love I am nothing, and what I do and say means nothing (according to 1 Cor. 13). I don't agree with the first comment regarding "if we tried to be better than the next in our love", that would make it all about what WE "do" and competitive. If what it was meaning to say was that we should care for others more than ourselves and love them extravagantly...now that I agree with.
Blessings brother,
Cathy Loney
haha, I hear what you are saying Cathy. But in this case I love the idea of competitiveness--I think it's good and healthy (competition is not a bad thing in and of itself--competition spurs people on to be better and better!)--In this case the very act of "bettering the other" is inherently selfless because you are "bettering them" in showing them love and honor. (and they in return seek to do the same)
DeleteSo if people get the love and honor that Paul is talking about, I don't see the competition turning into a self-centred thing; but spurring on all the more selflessness.
So yes I think it's totally talking about loving extravagantly. I guess for me as a bit of a competitive person, I actually like the idea of a bunch of people seeking to outdo one another is such a selfless way! (maybe that's just me though!) Maybe we get too comfortable with mediocre love (and are missing out on true extravagant love) in community because we don't seek to "outdo one another in showing honor"???