Love Must be Real
Romans 12:9 Your love must be real. Hate what is evil. Do only what is good.
Sadly, some of the people we’ll meet along the way, even some who we’ve allowed into our inner circle, will turn out to be fakes. It hurts most when it’s someone whose love for us turns out not to be all that it should have been. Have you ever experienced that? Man, it hurts!
In 1651, toward the end of the English Civil War, a Puritan woman, Dame Alice Lisle, secretly sheltered two fugitives—enemies of the Crown—out of compassion, not politics. Though her husband had died fighting for a democratic Parliament, she risked everything simply because they were in need.
When caught, she was sentenced to death. Offered mercy if she recanted, she refused. Why? Because love doesn’t calculate the cost. It simply gives. Her final words? “I’m not afraid to die.”
I think you’ll agree, that’s genuine love. It’s real. It stood the test, even when the ultimate sacrifice was demanded of it. Might I ask you to consider how you love those around you – yes, those close to you, but also strangers. How do you treat them? How genuine, how enduring, how practical is your love towards them?
Romans 12:9 Your love must be real. Hate what is evil. Do only what is good.
Rarely will a single sentence Your love must be real – just five words – pack such a punch. And remember, this isn’t me saying it; it comes from God’s Word. It comes from God Himself:
Love that’s real perseveres through the struggles, through the temptation to give up, through the anger and the disappointment in others that we so often feel. Love that’s real ends up standing against evil. Love that’s real ends up doing only what’s good.
Listen again: Your love must be real.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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