Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
One of the biggest differences between Christians and non-believers is our ability to love. This love comes solely from God and is only because he first loved us. Our capacity to love is much more than a natural response to a feeling, our capacity is unearthly because we are children of God and God lives within us. But, love must be genuine…the real thing. It must be without hypocrisy. In our natural selves this is hard to do. It’s not always easy to show love and compassion to one another, but this is the mark of a born-again believer. Our love for one another should speak louder than any words that we can express. Not only should our love be the real thing, but we should hate and abhor all that is evil and only cling to what is good. We must keep ourselves unpolluted from the world and try our hardest to remain true and faultless in the sight of God. Because God is good and perfect and everything that is good comes from him. So it is natural that, being born of God, we should cling to what is good. He destroyed evil on the cross and all the works of Satan. It is important to understand that living and operating in love is not something that we must work at, it is a natural result of being born-again and walking by the Spirit of God. This is the beauty of our walk with God; the changes that occur are effortless because in the process, God changes our hearts to align with His heart. His characteristics become our characteristics. Walking by the Spirit of God, we will love deeply and gravitate toward everything good because his Spirit leads us. This is the way He designed us to function. Not through our own failed efforts, but through His spirit living within us.
Spiritual Steve 