Let love be sincere. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.
Truth to Learn
Here is the evidence of a living sacrifice.
Behind the Words
The word translated “sincere” is the Greek word anupokritos, which is a compound word made up of a, meaning “without” and a form of hupokrinomai (from which we get our English word, hypocrite), meaning “to pretend” or “to put on a false front.” This word originally referred to the art of acting on a stage. An actor portrays someone other than who he or she truly is and that is the salient meaning of the word hypocrite.
The Greek word translated “abhor” is apostugeō. This is another compound word made up of apo, meaning “from” but often used as an intensifier, and stugeō, which means “to hate, abhor, or detest with horror.” It expresses an extremely strong hatred for something.
“Evil” is from ponēros, which refers to “that which is bad or evil in effect or influence.” There is a similar Greek word, kakos, which refers to “that which is bad or evil in character.”
“Cling” is from kollaō, meaning “to be glued to something.” And the word translated “good” is agathos, meaning “that which is good or beneficial.”
Meaning Explained
Paul started out this chapter telling us that we need to completely surrender ourselves to God as living sacrifices to be used in His service as He chooses. He then told us that we should have a humble opinion of ourselves because we are all members of the body of Christ (the church) and that we each have gifts which we are to be using as members of that body. Having talked about some of the gifts, he now goes on to tell us what a living sacrifice should look like to others.
He says, “Let love be sincere.” Our love should be sincere and not done as an act to try to convince people that we are different than we really are.
Paul also says that we should “abhor what is evil.” In other words, we should hate that which has an evil effect or that which produces evil with as much emotion and force as that with which we love God.
This is a verse that all Christians would do well to follow. It seems that we have become soft and we tend to tolerate evil without saying much about it. When we see someone do something evil, we should not turn around and forget about it, we should be filled with indignation and absolutely hate the evil act. Incidentally, even though we should hate the sin, we need to love the sinner.
Finally, Paul says that we should be “glued to that which is good.” When two things are glued together, they are inseparable. That’s how we should be – inseparable from things which are good.
Application
These are three key characteristics of Christians who are committed to God, who have placed themselves on the altar as living sacrifices. Their love is genuine, they absolutely hate that which is evil, and they are good through and through.
Is that how others see you?
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2018 Will Krause. All rights reserved