The Yeartas

Scripture

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Romans 12:9-13

LESSON:

The Yearta’s touched on a great set of verses in the video about Love and putting others above ourselves. Paul in these verses is challenging the Romans to be genuine, sincere, and unconditional in their love. I don’t know about y’all but that’s not always the easiest thing to do. It’s easy to love sincerely when you are loved in return but not as easy when you aren’t getting anything out of it in return. 

When I think of genuine I think of genuine leather, genuine silver, genuine diamonds, etc. What that means is the stuff is real. It’s not fake, replicated, or modeled after. It’s the real stuff that people are looking for. So When we are challenged by Paul to show genuine love he is saying don’t fake it, don’t replicate it, don’t model love; actually be real with your love. 

And then he takes it a step further saying hate evil! So we are to be sincere in our love AND hate what is evil. It’s more than being real in our love, it’s also speaking out against what is evil. 

Now that doesn’t mean we hate people that are being evil. We hate the evil act but call them to change and live Godly lives instead; which is what v. 10 is all about;  if we are truly loving and truly devoted to each other we aren’t going to be able to let them stay in those evil deeds. We are going to call them to something higher; and that something higher is genuine love and service to the Lord. 

And that devotion to each other and the Lord should lead us to Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.(v.12)

Discussion Questions

  1. What does it mean to love sincerely? 
  2. How do you think you do at loving sincerely or genuinely? What/where could you do better?
  3. How can you be hopeful, patient, and prayerful this week?

Activity

The very last sentence of the scripture challenges us to show hospitality; so your challenge this week is to find a way to be hospitable to someone. Could be inviting someone over, sitting with a kid at lunch that you usually wouldn’t. Giving of your time, money, or talents to help someone in need, praying with someone, etc. It doesn’t have to be a huge thing just show hospitality and genuine love to the world around you this week. Send a message to Geoff describing what you did and the impact it had on you!