Western culture portrays love as a feeling.  It is served up to screens world-wide as a complex emotion, an irrational driving force which redefines right and wrong.  However, the narrative of Jesus' life in the Gospels shows love as a sacrificial decision, worked out patiently and painfully for the eternal good of those He loved (John 15:12-13). In other words, love is a decision - a commitment and pledge which is worked out in sacrificial service.

Movies show fake love, and even the re-enactment of true love is done by actors who do not share the passion they show.  In the same way, many people pretend to be friendly, caring and loving - but it is not self-giving to the point of sacrifice.  Even in the church, sweet smiles may camouflage bitter and resentful hearts (James 4:1-4), service might be grudging, giving may be merely dutiful and worship can become a routine performance which is obnoxious to God (Isaiah 1:10-15).

If we are to love righteously, we must also hate evil with an equal intensity – because Jesus Christ does (Hebrews 1:1-14).  Yet malicious gossip destroys some churches from the inside; personal rivalry divides loyalty, unconfessed sin weakens our prayer life and tolerating sin ruins any Christian’s witness.  That must change (Ephesians 4:29-32).  Love is sincere when it has the transparency of an Xray, the clarity of an MRI, the undiluted freshness of mountain air and the warmth of a mother’s tender care.

If we claim to be devoted to Christ, we must also be devoted to each other (1 Peter 1:22) – which means making them more important than ourselves.  There is no place for competition, malice or resentment in our Christian relationships.  To dishonour a brother or sister is to dishonour Jesus Christ, for we are His body.  The test of love is sacrifice.  Convenient mutual affection is easy, but it is not sincere love unless it grows into patient, practical self-sacrificial giving to another person out of reverence for Christ (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).  Fake love is always found out (Matthew 7:21-23).  Sincere love may be hard to do, but it is the only kind of love which God honours.