Cling onto what is good

Love must be sincere- I guess we have all experienced the sense that the interest and friendship we are receiving is artificial or forced and if we are honest, we are probably all guilty of this ourselves at one time or another. Love of course is more than just a feeling or an attraction or affection for those we like and so what does it mean for it to be sincere? It clearly doesn't mean that if we don't have those feelings for someone that our love is not sincere.

Later in the same passage in Romans, it says" if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if they are thirsty, give them something to drink". Love in the Bible equates to more than feelings- although feelings are good! It is the desire and action to do good even to enemies and to those whom we find difficult. That love must come from a genuine goodness of heart.    

Hate what is evil- it is an aspect that we do not often dwell on but true goodness will hate evil. Who will not get angry when we see injustice and exploitation in the world- oppressive regimes keeping poor people down, racism, people trafficking, gangsters profiting from drugs and prostitution? I used to hate to see the inequality that condemned hundreds of millions of low caste people to poverty when I lived in India and determined to do what little I could to help by setting up a charity shop back here. But of course, it is not just external evil that we should hate and the more we grow in goodness the more we will hate and want to change the evil that we see in our own hearts.   

Cling to what is good- the use of the word "cling" suggests an active holding onto something. This is because we can so easily let what is good slip away if we act on our own selfish human nature. Once I was traveling on a crowded traditional double-decker bus in Mumbai. I was holding onto the pole at the entrance with a few people between me and the bus so that my feet were only just on the bus platform. In the heat, my hands kept slipping and I had to renew my grip several times. I was desperately clinging onto that pole so as not to fall off the bus. We need to cling onto what is good but the good news is our bus conductor, our Saviour, is firmly holding onto us as we do.