Valentine's Devotional


Every fall we have a Bible presentation for children. At these, each minister gets to sign their name and put down our favorite scripture passage in the Bibles that are presented to our new first graders. Each year I write down “Romans 12:9.” Romans chapter 12 is an excellent summation of how we as Christians are to live our lives. And I believe that Romans 12:9 is the pivotal verse which encapsulates the entire message of that chapter.
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” Romans 12:9 (NIV)
I thought that this would be a good verse to share the day before Valentine’s Day. The first instruction here is that we are to love. To do this, you need to first be a Christian. Why? Because according to 1 John 4, our love comes from God:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4: 7-10, 19 (NIV)
Secondly, our love must be sincere.
“Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” 1 John 4:20-21 (NIV)
Mark 3:35 tells is that “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister.” So we are told that we must love His church, our fellow believers in Christ.

The next section is something that people are often afraid to discuss: “Hate what is evil.” The world tries to tell us that God should only be a God of love and mercy. The “h” word is just too harsh sounding and it doesn’t fit into our politically correct society of multiculturalism and acceptance of anything and everything.

Let’s first look at what was not said. This verse did not say to hate people who do evil things. God’s Word clearly shows us that we are to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. But at the same time, the Bible just as clearly shows us that we are to run from, and, yes, even hate evil. Contrary to Eastern teachings, good and evil do not mix; we do not all have an equal amount of good and evil in us, a Yin and a Yang. Before Christ we were without love and evil. But when we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, that evil was washed away by His blood, His sacrifice, and we were filled with the holiness and love of God through the Spirit.

It is very easy to turn hatred for evil into something just as sinful. Look at groups such as Westboro Baptist Church. They hate evil so much that their message has been turned into hatred of people as well. Or what about Islam, which claims to be ridding the world of infidels or those who are evil in their eyes because we do not believe the same as they do.

So how do we “hate” evil without sinning ourselves? We must focus on the first command that was given: our love must be sincere. It is not wrong for us to hate the evil things of this world. It is not wrong for Christians who are also American citizens to protest against ungodly laws, but we must do it out of love first. Romans 12:19-21 teaches us that we are not to take vengeance against our enemies, but rather that we should do nice things for them, which will drive them crazy as they try to figure out why we would continue to be nice when they are being so mean. We are cautioned in verse 21 not to be “overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good.”

And lastly, we are to cling to what is good. Luke 18:19 says, “No one is good—except God alone.” If we want to discover what is truly good we need to get to know God more. And how do we do that? Through prayer, through Bible study, and through our experiences with God.

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