Love That Can Hate # 1

Love That Can Hate # 1

"Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. In love of the brethren be tenderly affectioned one to another; in honor preferring one another" (Romans 12:9-10).

Thus far the Apostle has been laying down very general precepts and principles of Christian morals. Starting with the one all-comprehensive thought of self-sacrifice as the very foundation of all goodness, of transformation as its method, and of the clear knowledge of our several powers and faithful stewardship of these, as its conditions, which at first sight seem to be very unconnected, but through which there may be discerned a sequence of thought.

The clauses of our text seem at first sight strangely disconnected. The first and the last belong to the same subject, but the intervening clause strikes a careless reader as out of place and heterogeneous. I think that we shall see it is not so; but for the present we but note that here are three sets of precepts which enjoin, first, honest love; then, next a healthy vehemence against evil and for good; and finally, a brotherly affection and mutual respect.

I. Let Love Be Honest

Love stands at the head, and is the rental source of all separate individualized duties. Here Paul is not so much prescribing love as describing the kind of love which he recognizes as genuine, and the main point on which he insists is sincerity. The "dissimulation" of the Authorized Version only covers half the ground. It means, hiding what one is; but there is simulation, or pretending to be what one is not. There are the words of love which are like the iridescent scum on the surface veiling the black depths of a pool of hatred. A Psalmist complains of have to meet men whose words were "smoother than butter" and whose true feelings were as "drawn swords"; but, short of such consciously lying love, we must all recognize as a real danger besetting us all, and especially those of us who are naturally inclined to kindly relations with our fellows, the tendency to use language just a little in excess of our feelings. The glove is slightly stretched, and the hand in it is not quite large enough to fill it. There is such a thing, not altogether unknown in Christian circles, as benevolence which is largely does not represent any corresponding emotion. Such effusive love pours itself in words, and is most generally the token of intense selfishness. Any man who seeks to make his words a true picture of his emotions must be aware that few harder precepts have ever been given than this brief one of the apostle's, "Let love be without hypocrisy."

But the place where this exhortation comes in the apostolic sequence here may suggest to us the discipline through which obedience to it is made possible. There is little to be done by the way of directly increasing either the fervor of love or the honesty of its expression. The true method of securing both is to be growingly transformed by the renewing of our minds, and growingly to bring our whole old selves under the melting and softening influence of the mercies of God. It is swollen self-love, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, which impedes the flow of love to others, and it is in the measure in which we receive into our minds the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and look at men as He did, that we shall come to love them all honestly and purely. When we are delivered from the monstrous oppression and tyranny of "self", we have hearts capable of a Christlike and Christ-giving love to all men, and only they who have cleansed their hearts by union with Him, and by receiving into them the purging influence of His own Spirit, will be able to love with hypocrisy.

~Alexander MacLaren~

(continued with # 2)