Love Without Hypocrisy

Romans 12:9 has one simple exhortation, "Let love be genuine".  Duh!  That was my first reaction when I read it.  Then I thought, "Why would Paul need to remind us to let our love be genuine?".  After putting aside my initial reaction, it was shown to me that our love can appear to be genuine on the surface, but in reality, it is dead in our hearts.  We can appear to love people, but that love can be fake.  The New English Translation of the Bible translates that word genuine as "without hypocrisy".  Here is why.  The Greek word for "genuine" is anupokritos.  Do you see the word hypocrisy buried in there?  Anu means without and pokritos means hypocrisy.  The literal translation of that verse is "Let love be without hypocrisy".

So what's the deal, really?  If I can fake it, why not?    Why do I have to genuinely love people?

There are two critical reasons why we must strive to love genuinely or without hypocrisy:

1.  Hypocrisy makes enemies of the church instead of disciples of Christ.

Matthew 23:13-14  But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

2. Hypocrisy is contagious among believers, especially in the church.

Galatians 2:11-14 But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas (Peter) before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

In order to love genuinely, I have to first be genuinely loved.  I need someone to demonstrate that love to me.  I need to know what it looks like and how it works. And I can't find it in its perfection in anyone but Christ. Christ is that demonstration of genuine love that we all can live by. Therefore, let love be genuine.