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Let Love be Genuine

Even the smallest of interactions with a true Christ-lover can be like a breath of fresh air to a drowning soul.

Some people, it seems, are bent on pulling us away from Christ. Others, even worse, go about their lives as if he is wholly irrelevant to their every day life, thought, demeanor, etc. And that indifference, or Christ-as-after-thought mindset, can be like a spreading cancer (1 Cor. 15:33 [show] [33]Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals." (ESV)
This text is from the ESV Bible. Visit www.esv.org to learn about the ESV.
). But still others, those kind few, seem full bent on helping us prepare to meet Jesus. (They cannot help but “love their neighbor.”) These are the people I would surround myself with: those who will help me prepare to meet the King. Those whose minds and hearts are on Him and His ways, whose first thought or comment on any given topic is bathed in God-wardness.

It reminds me of something C. S. Lewis wrote:

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploitexploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.”

(From The Weight of Glory, available here.)

Amen. Let us, then, take one another seriously–even (especially) in our merriment. Let us earnestly seek out how we might better prepare one another for Christ.

“Let love be genuine.” (Romans 12:9, ESV [show] [9]Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. (ESV)
This text is from the ESV Bible. Visit www.esv.org to learn about the ESV.
)

3 Responses to “Let Love be Genuine”

  1. Mike says:

    When I first read that excerpt out of The Weight of Glory I was humbled. That whole book is powerful.

  2. Melissa says:

    Hey Aron- long time! Personally love ‘these are the people I would surround myself with: those who will prepare me to meet the King’. The words did their job in keeping the heavenly focus, which is especially helpful in this time of earth dwelling!

  3. Melissa says:

    everyone we meet has something to offer, hoewever, it is only another believer who can draw us closer to our maker.

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