Verse of the Day 9/10

 

Romans 12:9  Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.  English Standard Version (ESV)

 

The heading for this passage in the ESV is "The Marks of a True Christian".  Lord willing, we'll camp out here for several days and spend some time thinking about them.  Why should we spend some time here?

 

John Piper writes, "We meditate on these exhortations and do not breeze over them.  We linger over them.  We ask what they mean, and we think about that in relation to the other scriptures.  We ask what difference these exhortations would make in our lives, and we think about practical situations where they affect us.  We slow down.  We don't just fly 560 miles an hour in our 747 36,000 miles above the grove of fruit trees and look down and say "my, what an impressive grove of fruit trees".  Instead, we land the plane and walk through the grove of trees and stop here and there and pick fruit and eat it and savor the beauty and the sweetness of this grove.  In other words, we meditate on these words.  We don't rush over them."

 

Reading these words reminded me of taking our kids apple picking in the fall.  It was fun for the family and we enjoyed seeing the kids walking through the rows of trees, at their leisure, picking and eating the apples.  It was something we looked forward to every year.  It should be so with God's Word and in worship.  We should enjoy the time there, feel the sunshine, the sweetness of the fruit and the time with our God.

 

Today's verse talks about love.  It is to be real, genuine, authentic.  If we have this kind of love it will show and produce "fruit" in our lives.  On the flip side we are to "abhor", to hate, to detest evil in whatever form it comes in.  As we live our lives may we be able to recognize true fruit, true love and reject that which is false, hurtful and destructive.  "May we run for dear life from evil and hold on for dear life to good." The Message

In Christ,
Mike

 

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Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace  NIV

Romans 12:9

The Message (MSG)

^9-10 Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.