Love must be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good. Show family affection to one another with brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lack diligence; be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord.
Romans 12:9-11 HCSB

Ethics is defined as moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conduct of an activity. Simply put, it’s doing what is right versus wrong. In Romans 12:9-21, Paul gives us a Christian code of ethics. He tells us how we are to live and behave as Christians.

Over the next week, I will be reviewing these Christian ethics. I encourage you to read these and reflect on them to see how you measure up. I will be doing the same.

In today’s passage where Paul begins to instruct the Romans on ethical behavior for a Christian, he begins by telling them to love without hypocrisy. He’s talking about true love. In children’s church yesterday, we were talking about the 10 Commandments. We got to the commandment which says we are not to murder. I had explained to the class that Jesus said in Matthew 5:21-22 that murder begins in the heart. If we hate someone it is like murdering them.

The question was asked, “What if you don’t love someone, but you don’t hate them? You just don’t go around them because they have done bad things to you.” I love that a child does not pretend to love. They either love with their whole heart or they keep their distance.

As adults, we pretend to love people. The Bible tells us to even love our enemies. We are to love everyone, but in the case of someone harming us, we may have to do this from a distance. We should be honest and genuine in how we love someone and never be hypocritical.

We should detest evil. This means when someone perpetrates evil against us, we don’t consider dropping to their level and perpetrating evil against them. Why? Because we detest evil. We detest it to the point that we would never consider doing evil to someone else. This would be revenge and we will be talking about that in a few days.

Paul continues to speak about the love we are to have for others when he tells us to show family affection for one another with brotherly love. Think about someone in your family that you love like a brother or sister and do your best to love others with that same kind of love.

Then he tells us to outdo one another in showing honor. Could you imagine what this world would look like if we all tried to outdo each other in showing honor? If we honored each other, we would treat everyone with respect, and they would do likewise. How awesome would that be?

Last but not least, Paul talks about being diligent. Think about something you have diligently pursued. Maybe it was getting a new job or a new car, but you worked and did all you could do to get it, right? We should do this in our relationship with the Lord.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He responded with, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37). We should love the Lord so much that we are diligent in our pursuit of a right relationship with Him.

This means being fervent in the spirit and serving Him. If you truly love the Lord with all you’ve got, you want all of Him you can get. You want to spend time with Him, and you want to serve Him. Be diligent in your pursuit of righteousness.

Over the next few days, we will continue to look at these Christians ethics. I am willing to admit that I fall short at times when it comes to loving without hypocrisy. I try to avoid evil, but when evil comes at me, I find it tempting to respond in kind. It takes a lot of prayer to prevent this. There are certainly times when I am not as kind as I should be. There are also times when I am not as diligent or fervent as I should be.

If you are aware of your shortcomings in any of these areas, now is the time to change before it’s too late. God is willing and able to help you with that. All you have to do is ask.

Have a great day!