The sincerity of love

Recently, I decided to start using a daily devotional guide published by The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. In 2010, I’ll be writing a similar guide for our Church and I wanted to get a feel for how they use their guide as a supplement to their sermon series and seasonal emphasis. This morning’s reading was from Romans 12:9-21. You can read the entire passage here.

This morning I was struck by the first four words.

Love must be sincere.

I had a conversation recently with someone in my Church who was asking about how to define love. My reply was fairly simple.

“Read I Corinthians 13,” I said.

I’m wondering if Paul has simplified the definition even further beyond that famous passage written to the Church at Corinth.

Love is real when love is sincere. Or we might say that sincerity defines for us how “pure” our love really is.

I felt like the application for me in my life right now was fairly straightforward. It’s been a fairly busy season for me, and I’ve just felt really rushed through life. I haven’t had time to invest in some of the things I really need to do for my own emotional/spiritual health [like blogging which has been sparse in recent weeks] and I’ve just been behind on almost everything.

The pace of my life in recent weeks is not sustainable, and what struck me this morning was the thought that speed kills sincerity. If sincerity is one of the defining characteristics of love, my ability to love decreases with an increase in the pace of my life. And it’s more than a reflection of the quote you’ve heard before, “LOVE is spelled T-I-M-E.” My heart needs time to rest and “abide” in love.

That means…

My wife and I need time to simply “be” together. [We need a date night]

I need time to simply “be” with my children. [Turning the TV off and spending time engaging with them]

I need time to simply “be” with Jesus. [Daily devotion has to be a non-negotiable in my life]

I need time to simply “be” me.

That last one may sound  a little strange. Put simply, it means that I need time to focus my heart and life away from “producing stuff” with my life to simply enjoying the life given to me by my creator. In the Bible, it’s called Sabbath.

What steps do you need to take to protect the “sincerity” of your love?

Categories: Bible Study