Sincere Love

Sincere Love

Mary Ann Wray

“Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,  but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.  He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,  since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;  for All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” 1 Peter 1: 18b-25

A few years ago I did a word study for this word “sincere” found in 1 Peter 1 regarding a sincere brotherly love, and discovered that it was taken from two Latin words: sin (without) cere (wax). The word study also revealed that this word was derived from the fact that purveyors of marble who were less than honest, would fill in the naturally formed fissures of marble with wax to ‘hide’ the imperfection but sell the marble as a higher quality or grade. Then of course, when heat and pressure came in contact with the marble being sculpted the wax would crack and/ or melt. The artisan buying the marble was fooled into thinking it was the real thing or a higher quality grade of marble when in fact it wasn’t that at all.

It is interesting that Peter addresses the church in his first letter in regards to having sincere love of the brethren. He made this statement by providing a powerful truth in context: our hearts have been made pure by obeying the gospel of God through faith and hope in Him alone. Our position as believers is not based on anything we can do or have done but by the precious blood of Christ. We therefore, have been “born again” spiritually through the same word seed that Jesus was conceived from in the womb of Mary, His mother: the imperishable seed of the word of God that endures forever! Everything else fades and withers. Belief in the atoning work of Christ makes us brethren by the New Birth and spiritual adoption into the family of God!

I was born again in 1976 while attending a Catholic Charismatic prayer meeting. I was raised in a religious home and followed all the tenets of the faith. However, something was terribly missing in my life and I felt empty and lost despite my good works, and following all of the rules. After a long search, I had an encounter with the Living Christ on April 15, 1976 (Good Thursday) that rocked my world in the best kind of way. I had never been taught that I needed a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and that the Only Way to know the Father was through Jesus. I wasn’t taught that it was His blood and my faith in His finished work on the cross that would save me from God’s punishment for my sins. In that prayer meeting, Jesus spoke powerfully to my heart. It was like a waking dream. When you dream you hear and have conversations. So in this waking dream, I like to call it, Jesus spoke these nine words to me during the most beautiful singing and worship I’d ever heard. He said, “It is I who you seek; look no further.” At that very moment something changed within me! I broke down and wept with tears of joy while the weight of my sins and sin’s consciousness rolled off of me like a ton of bricks.

From that point on, I began to devour the Word of God. You see, up until then, I was afraid to read the Bible and didn’t understand it. But the Holy Spirit gave me understanding as I read page after page as if it was written just for me…well it was! The next thing I noticed that changed in my heart was that I had an incredible love for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Raised in a home as the only child, I craved having siblings and felt so alone at times. It was through my Born Again experience, I realized I had innumerable brothers and sisters in Christ. I attended every Bible study I could and it didn’t matter if those who were attending were Protestant or Catholic. We all loved Jesus and His word. This was the common denominator and thread that knit our hearts together!

As the years progressed, my husband and I became more involved in church activities and ministry functions. We volunteered for anything and everything we could from inner city outreaches, to food banks, to clothing give aways, to Home Groups, choirs, church plays, Bible studies etc. It was all good and unto the Lord, but what I began to notice was that once you left a group or ministry activity the relationships you once had with people involved in the same group seemed to vanish too. This saddened my heart.

Now at the age of 65, having seen a lot, I’ve done a lot of reflecting and realize that the most important things in life and within the Body of Christ is relationships. If our relationships are solely based on what we “do” rather than who we are and whose we are, this is less than God’s original intent. If our relationships are works based rather than based on the finished word of the cross by faith, when trouble comes or the interest fades things melt away along with the relationships. This should not be so.

Our love for one another should be based on the finished work of the cross and the fact that Jesus paid it all for us to have a relationship with Him and one another; not what we can ‘do’ for Him and/ or our performance in ministry. Yes, faith without works is dead but works are to be an expression of sincere and heart felt love…nothing more and nothing else. Too many times I’ve seen ‘works’ in the church become a competition or vying for power and position where people are promoted based on their gifts and talents or how much they give monetarily and in volunteerism. Therefore, saints wind up getting wounded and hurt because this reflects the worldly mentality of performance rather than acceptance through Christ’s atoning work. That is not the sincere love Peter was talking about.

Recently, the Lord moved upon my heart to reach out to some brothers and sisters in Christ I lost contact with for the very thing I am writing about. We are miles apart in some instances, but what God has shown me is that the bond of Love in Christ is deep and rich without bounds and no strings attached. It has been wonderful reconnecting with Christian family members based on the love of God and who we are in Christ; not what we ‘do’ or can offer a ministry or how much we give.

If there is a sincere love, there is a not so sincere love too. I think it’s pretty easy to see the not so sincere love at work. It’s worldly, conditional, fleeting, based on abilities, money, popularity etc. But God’s love (agape) is none of that. I pray my love for God and others will be without wax. How about you?