So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13:13
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality.
Romans 12:9-13
Many times, St. Paul is accused of having lots of run-on sentences. In this Scripture passage, he writes in short, powerful and packed statements, giving lots of advice on love. In fact, there are so many points in these five verses, we will break this up over the next two reflections.
Let love be genuine. In today’s world where things are fake and pretentious, love should be genuine, real, tangible, palpable. One should feel loved and not feel used to fill someone else’s agenda. Love is often confused with lust, or infatuation. Sometimes people stay with the wrong partner because they are in love with an idea, rather than a person, the idea that it is better to have someone than no one, even if that someone does not feel right. Sometimes people fall in love with another person’s lifestyle, or money, and there is never a genuine relationship. The world of artificial intelligence is blurring lines between what is real and what is fake, what is genuine and what is manufactured. There needs to be safeguards and precautions, basic honesty and trust for love to be genuine.
Hold fast to what is good. The problem in this sense is who defines what is considered “good”? What is good for one is not good for another, and what may be good for a group of people is not good in the eyes of God. Goodness and Godliness are closely linked. James 1:17 says For every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. This connects that what is good is from God, and the opposite holds true. In holding fast to what is good, we are to seek after Godliness.
Love one another with brotherly affection. This correlates directly with the commandment to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. If we look at our neighbor like a brother or a sister, we will not want to do things that hurt the other person. Rather, we will make serving others a priority. And we will pursue familial type relationships. Yes, not everyone is family, in the sense that we are not blood-related to those outside of our families. And we can’t treat everyone like family because there are many transactional relationships, as well as people we don’t know well or don’t trust. However, as we look around, we can probably do a better job of deepening certain relationships, and embracing more people as we would a brother or a sister.
Outdo one another in showing honor. Imagine if we competed to open a door for someone to go ahead of us or let someone in front of us in heavy traffic, or grabbed the bill first in a restaurant, or some other gesture where we honor someone. Imagine starting a debate of wanting to honor someone else more than being honored yourself. Then there are some people who have a hard time accepting any “honor”, ever having a door opened for them, or having someone else buy them lunch. There is a balance between honoring others and allowing others to honor you. There is a temptation to expect honor, or worse, to demand it. We should not expect or demand honor. We should look to honor others. That should be our first recourse, how we can honor someone else. And honor given to us should be received with gratitude and humility, rather than expectation or entitlement.
Never flag in zeal. This specifically refers to always having zeal for the Lord. This doesn’t mean to beat other people over the head with our faith, but it means having enthusiasm for the faith even when those around you do not. It means standing up for faith when the group you are with wants to succumb to temptation. It means finding inner strength so that when you are tempted with something that no one else will know about, that you summon the will to stay true to the Lord.
Be aglow with the Spirit. We’ve discussed the Fruit of the Spirit many times. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. To be aglow with the Spirit means to radiate these fruits. To cultivate them, to lead by example with them, to encourage others to cultivate them. To embody joy, patience, kindness, etc. When someone describes you, if one of the fruit of the Spirit is in their description, that is a step in the direction of being aglow with the Spirit, because others see that in you.
Lord, thank You for these simple yet profound pieces of advice given to us by St. Paul. Help me to offer and receive love that is genuine. Help me push beyond good and desire what is Godly. Help me to show what love looks like in my relationships, both those that matter, and even towards strangers. Help me to be consistent in my practice of the faith. And give me a desire to cultivate the Fruit of the Spirit, so that I can radiate the Spirit and be an example to those around me. Amen.
Following and focusing on even one of these pieces of advice from St. Paul can be life-changing for us and for those around us.
