MUTUAL LOVE SERIES – “Let love be sincere” (08/13/2025)

Intro: For the next two weeks, the daily blog will focus on one line from chapter 12 of Paul’s Letter to the Romans that deals with mutual love.

He was the older, more experienced server, so he took the lead. He decided who handled what at the offertory. He was the bell ringer at the elevation of the Eucharist. And then the two servers got up and moved toward the sacristy. The priest knew something was amiss and stopped them. The older server explained that the younger wasn’t well; he was taking him to the sacristy to help him. He demonstrated to us all that day what Paul meant when he wrote, “Let love be sincere” (Romans 12:9).

The older, more experienced server demonstrated that it wasn’t about power but rather about love, about helping the other become who he was being called to be, about caring for the other always. While he was leading, he was aware of the younger server; in truth, he cared about how well the younger server did. And it was his concern, his watchful eye, that tipped him off that the younger server wasn’t feeling well. He let his love be “sincere.”

What Paul is telling us as he begins a special segment of his letter that dealt specifically with the duties of Christians is that we are not to be people of pretense. We are to be real, true to our created purpose – to live in right relationship always with our LORD and with one another. Paul begins this segment with the simple statement under which all falls and upon which all stands – “Let love be sincere.” We are called to mean it. We are called to intend it. We are called to live it. We are called to love one another regardless of geography or genealogy, regardless of age or status, regardless of politics or passions.

We’ve seen sincere love as we’ve watched a mother greet her 1^st grader at the end of the first day of school, as we’ve seen a father holding the seat of the bicycle with training wheels as his 5-year-old screams, “I’m doing it!” We’ve seen sincere love at the hospital as a nurse tends to our elderly mother who is frightened. We’ve seen sincere love at the food pantry as the volunteer helps a newcomer to the service, explaining what’s available and how to shop, always smiling and always looking the newcomer in the eyes respectfully. We’ve seen it at church when the priest tells the congregation to extend the sign of peace to those around us and we find ourselves being greeted warmly, really.

Paul wants us to understand that the duties of being a Christian flow from the love of our Savior for us and to all those for whom He died to save. This love is to be real. It is to be genuine. It is to be our norm as those who claim to believe in and follow Christ. Christ told us the night before He died, “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

“Let love be sincere.” That is a sentence we should savor, a sentence we should ponder, a sentence we should try to remember and vow to live.

As we go forward on our journeys of faith, buoyed by hope in our loving and present LORD, let us open ourselves to the LORD’s love for us and let us pray to the LORD that we are able to share that love with others along the way this day. Let us recognize that none of us is perfect yet, but let us commit to lovingly interacting with and engaging with those whom the LORD providentially brings to us. And it’s okay to ask the LORD for help along the way. The LORD knows we aren’t perfect, but the LORD does ask that we be sincere – without pretense.

Practice makes perfect. May we practice loving sincerely until we get it right.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.