Behind the Mask

Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. (Romans 12:)

I love verses like this in the Bible.  They are small, but they pack intense power in their meaning.  This passage of Scripture gives us three commands in 13 small words.  It is so easy to skim the Bible and miss small verses like this.  We need to slow down at times and find out what God has for us within a short portion of words  What does it mean to have sincere love, to hate evil, and cling to what is good?  Let’s take a deeper look into this passage of Scripture!

 1.  Love Must Be Sincere! Read more

True Love

How full is your love meter these days?  Have you been loving others in the way that God loves you?  Love means not being critical, judgmental, and bitter towards others.  Love means putting on the fullness of Christ and walking out the righteousness we’ve been called to daily.  Let’s check in with the Apostle John and see just how well we’re doing with this whole Love thing!

Dear friends, let us love one another…

John starts out this passage of Scripture with an appeal in brotherly love.  “Dear friends…”  We are all in this journey of life together, now let us do the one thing that will make this journey go well…  Let us love one another!  “Let us…”  There is an opportunity that is awaiting us in this passage of Scripture, an opportunity to love and soon we will find out why we have been given such an extraordinary experience!

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Wardrobe Plan

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14)

Do you know what an honor it is to be loved by God?  It’s a privilege beyond any this world can offer you.  I pray you are experiencing His love daily, as you read His Word and enjoy His creation all around you.  We must clothe ourselves with five things:  compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Clothe yourself with the fruit of the Holy Spirit!

Clothe yourself with the fruit of the Spirit!

The Greek word for “to clothe” is enduo, which means to sink into, to put on, to wear, or be dressed in.  In the context of this scripture it simply means to sink oneself into the very characteristics of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  The Scripture passage is telling us that we must actually put on these qualities in our lives.  We must let Christ wrap us up with the qualities that are found in this verse.  Our identity in Christ becomes stronger every day, as we live our lives out for God.  We can’t believe that these qualities will simply exist just because we call ourselves Christians.  No, they are a product of being in the Word daily and spending time with God in various ways.

Here is the break down of all five characteristics and how we can apply them to our own lives!  Your daily wardrobe should look a little like this:

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