Love sincerely

Romans 12:9  "Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil, cling to what is good."

We know from the Bible that God is love.  We know that the two greatest commandments He gives us are to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love others as ourselves.  As if those commands aren't daunting enough- now He adds to it- love must be sincere.

It is as if He know that we will hear the commandments to love and will put forth a white-knuckled effort in our own strength to be nice, to say something nice, to do something nice, etc.  Effort is important, and it is certainly better than not putting forth the effort at all.  But He lets us know that going through the motions is not what He means.

To love sincerely is a much higher calling.  There are probably only a handful of people in this world that each of us can honestly say that we love sincerely.  Yet this level of love is what He calls us to for Himself and others.  It is almost impossible to comprehend sincerely loving all people. 

But let's not forget that even before we love others sincerely, we are to love Him sincerely.  Am I really fulfilling that command?  It is helpful to do a constant motive check- am I doing what I do with no expectation of return or benefit for myself?  Is my sole focus on Him/others?  If the answer is yes, we are closer to the mark He sets for us.