United in Love

Verse of the day: Romans 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

Many talents, many abilities, and differing gifts. God has blessed us with such for the purpose of serving Him, being a blessing to, and encouraging, one another. However, some times those very things cause jealousy, and conflict, within the body because of pride, and worldly thinking, in how we exercise the gifts given to us by God. In this chapter of Romans we are reminded to dedicate our lives to God as living sacrifices (dead to the world, and sin, and alive to God, and His service). We are also reminded not to think more of ourselves than we should. After all, all we possess comes from God. We are to use our differing gifts to serve the Lord together, as one body. In this verse we are are commanded to do this one thing that will motivate us to be united in our service to God, with our differing abilities. Love. We are to love without hypocrisy. We are to be devoted to one another, and respect one another. Our love should cause us to be on fire with the Spirit, in our service to the Lord, which will spill over into our service to others. To love without hypocrisy means to be honest, pure, and kind to those we have fellowship with. In business, we are to be diligent, honest, and serve as if we are working for Jesus; for as born again believers, we are serving the Lord. In temperment, we are to be cheerful, patient, and always prayerful. In our general comportment, we are to be humble, giving, peaceable, hating sin (of all types), and not hating the sinner (for God loves the sinner, as we too are sinners saved by grace; the same grace available to all who will come to Him). We are to cling to that which is good, godly, and righteous. The Word of God tell us that we are even to abstain from appearance of evil. The bottom line is that our love for God, and one another, should cause us to use our differing gifts to unite us in serving God, and bringing Him honor, and glory, as others see us serving Him with such love, and fervency. Let us love God, and one another, without hypocrisy; that we might encourage our brothers and sisters, and lead the unsaved to desire a relationship with, and call upon, Jesus as Savior and Lord.