Pure love abhors evil and clings to what is good.

Romans 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Today’s scripture encourages us further in how to offer to God a living, holy sacrifice that is acceptable to God. Paul had been urging them to exercise their faith in ministry to one another since they were members one of another in the body of Christ. We consider three more aspects of spiritual faith: love, hating evil, and holding to what is good. The love we have for one another is to be genuine or as Paul said, “without hypocrisy.” The apostle Peter said something similar when he wrote in 1 Peter 1:22, “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.” Sincere and hypocrisy are the same Greek word translated differently in these verses. We are to let love flow unhindered by the flesh. That’s why we purify our souls of worldly thinking. God wants our love to be living and holy to Him. Since God’s kind of love is the sustained direction of the will toward the highest good of another, we do not tolerate evil in our relationships toward one another. There’s no place for evil to exist because of God’s mercies toward us. He has wiped away all of our evil transgressions, forgiven us our debts, so that we can abhor what is evil. We understand how God hates evil when we look at what Jesus suffered on the cross. He conquered evil, justified us, so He could overcome evil with good. We are to do the same thing. There will be opportunities today to hate evil. It’s not enough to simply be non-chalant toward it. When faith is operating, evil is hated. Lastly, we are encouraged to cling, to be glued to good. Jesus loves righteousness, so as we live to love with Him, it makes sense that we will rejoice in good, stay united with the highest good for one another, which is to bring glory to God by being most satisfied with God’s will than our own. As we live to love with Jesus, Paul said earlier that we prove that God’s will is good, holy, and perfect. Acknowledgment: Music from “Carried by the Father” by Eric Terlizzi. www.ericterlizzi.com