Be sincere

January 25, 2017 | 21 comments

“Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.”

~ Romans 12:9, NLT

21 thoughts on “Be sincere”

  1. Thanks, Evan! This is so good and fitting with our C.S. Bible Lesson this week on LOVE! God is Love…….can we ask Him to be more? Love is Liberation. All the law does Love fulfill. Love is our answered prayer! Love to All!

  2. Ah this is a fundamental principle in all mediations. If one can get to this point of sincerity, then there is a likelihood that they can hear the other party and formulate a resolution moving away from their conflict which basically dissolves. This is much like divine science love dissolves hate, truth dissolves error. Simple but potent. Thank you Evan for bringing this most important principle to light today.

  3. All bible stories that are pertinent to our study describe “mortal man” and error……
    Divine idea of man….Truth….or
    Or “human’ Man as transitional…..
    All else is of no use except as a “historical” curiosity

    Hate thy enemy as thy self….? I don’t think so…..

    1. I’m not sure I follow your logic,but aside from that, one’s enemy is never another person. It’s sin. One wouldn’t want to love sin. That makes one a victim to it and/or accessory to it.

        1. Not in the Mind of Christ. But you and I have much to demonstrate to fully put on the Mind of Christ and prove this to be true. A humble path to walk…

  4. Thank you, all. Love our lesson on Love, too. Couldn’t help but think of what Someone told me years ago..”Don’t be a metaphysical iceberg.” Not sure this applies here…but it came to me in reading this this morning. Thank you, Evan.

  5. I get the hate part of this., Maximo. I hope it makes sense to you, too. It’s about doing whatever we have to do without any exceptions to doing it with love.

    Go to Romans 12 in the Bible, any version, and read more of what Paul the Apostle was saying around this verse – that to love is to profoundly reject (hate, seek and destroy) whatever is not love in us. He’s not saying to hate something out there but to wipe out what makes us insincere. Here’s Paul’s instruction in the King James Version – plus the next phrase.

    “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
    Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;”
    Rom 12:9-10
    From Concord Express – A Christian Science Study Resource: The King James Version of the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy’s published writings

  6. Thank you for your recent article in the Sentinel. I listened to it right after having the same experience as you did…..getting all riled up and angry. It was a perfect answer.

  7. Thanks for the post and all the comments. Someone once told me that the word, sincere, came from the Latin—sin (without) cere (wax). It came from the sculptors who would carve out their sculpture in marble, and fill in any small imperfections with wax. That has helped me so much to watch my thinking! It means the love that we give should be pure and whole, not covering up little spots of resentment, fear, jealousy, etc. Just thought I’d share that little insight.

  8. thank you this is very pertinent today….usually not a problem to really feel the love for others, but in this day I am because of the political atmosphere & so many not letting go, but digging deeper in ways I find not progressive…… I need this lesson to ponder today. thank you Evan!

  9. Nadine … sharing a quote I read somewhere just before I saw your comment here:

    Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter. As you press for justice,
    be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the instruments of love.
    – Martin Luther King,

  10. I never was able to pronounce my given name, Ervin, until I was 16 years of age. I was shunned and made fun of by others. Thus, I did not like my name and wished for another name. Friends of my parents always called me Sunshine which gave me happiness. But my parents refused my request. When our second son began to speak he asked me if I would allow him to call me by my name, rather than to call me Dad. I asked why he wanted to do that. He replied because he liked the name, Ervin. I said, “Yes”. Fifty-six years later, this son still calls me by my name, not Dad! We have always had the finest, best, relationship. Why? Because Love and love’s warmth does melt even the largest of all icebergs.

    Man, the true or spiritual image and likeness of God, lives a relationship, even now on Earth. This is why I relate my concepts of Christian Science to the principle governing mathematics. So it is true of God and man. Look at the inscriptions on the CS church walls. As I have, you also will find the quotations to make a perfect equation, as “God is Love” is the equal sign (=) in the midst of the balancing quotations, found in the Bible and in the CS textbook (and other works of Mrs. Eddy) on either side of that law.

    ps. the = sign states the law of balance, equality

  11. Thank you Sunshine for your very nice familystory – but really, I find that Ervin fits you much better than Sunshine . Ervin is a real nice name. I hope you are glad that I told your this.
    Thank you Evan – we have to think and pray about the sentence from Romans 12:9!

  12. Uta, all others do call me Ervin or Erv, and I am in harmony with that now, as my demonstration of a seeming speech problem disappeared at 16 years. Thank you for your love, and I am glad to have heard from you today.

  13. Just catching up on the last few SVs that I have missed…
    Appreciating them and the comments, as always.

    Re this one on being sincere, in expressions of love…

    I looked up “Fake it Til you Make it” (i.e., “Act As If”) on Google.

    Very interesting.

    Smile! Straighten Up! Breathe!

    (Yes…. human advice, I realize. The real issue is learning to love and LOVING,
    As Expressions of divine Love! For, in fact, this is what we truly ARE!)

    ;-))

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