REAL Love

I was just reading over the Scripture readings appointed for this Sunday and one of them is Romans 12:9-21, a favorite of mine. You can see the theme quite clearly from the very first sentence: "Love must be sincere."

Saint Paul also writes (I Timothy 1:5) "The end of our endeavor is love." That is where it all comes out. Paul reminds us in several places, that love must be a genuine love, not phony, not hypocritical. In Romans 5, the Blessed Apostle says, "The love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit which is given unto you."

Now when he says, "Hate what is evil; cling to what is good," he is talking about people. That is, hate what is evil in people, but don't reject the person because of the evil. The person is good. God loves him. He or she is made in the image of God.

Love though is a good thing. There is a lot of love in the Bible. That's why I am always puzzled when people say that God hates gays. When did God say that? When did Jesus say that. Well the answer of course is that we know of no instance where our Lord preaches hate and intolerance and no instance where he says that gays are bad.

God talks about love - for real!