According to my handy-dandy online lexicon, the four word command-to-obey which catches my attention this morning, is but two words in the original.

Continuing to read in Romans 12 this morning. After 11 chapters of intense theology, Paul shifts (as Paul does in most of his letters) to answering the “so what?” After laying out what we are to believe, he lays out the implications for how we should behave. So, after appealing to the saints “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” as the right response to the “mercies of God” laid out in the previous chapters, he proceeds to paint a picture of what presenting your body as a living sacrifice looks like. It’s one of those “looks” that I’m chewing on this morning.

Let love be genuine. (Romans 12:9a ESV)

Four words in my English translation, but two words in the original.

Love unfeigned. Or, love undisguised. Or, love sincere.

Other English translations render it:

Let love be without hypocrisy. (CSB)

Love must be sincere. (NIV)

Don’t just pretend to love one another. (NLT)

Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. (MSG)

Those who desire to offer their bodies as living sacrifices will love sincerely. Not with some veneer of pretense, but with a deep desire for authenticity.

Loving authentically not presupposing loving perfectly. For, it seems to me, loving without hypocrisy will require recognizing those times we haven’t loved as we should. Those attempted acts of love when the old man gets in the way of the new commandment (Jn. 13:34). When the old nature within prevents the fullness of Christ’s love from flowing without. When what we sincerely intended for good, somehow gets lost in the translation. In those instances, it seems to me, love unfeigned will manifest itself in repentance unconstrained. Not pretending will mean openly confessing. Not faking evidenced by admitting we failed.

Love unfeigned. When we get it right, and when we get it less than right.

By His grace. For His glory.