True Love Is Practical - "NEITHER IN WORD NOR WITH THE TONGUE"

 Are we not to love in word and in tongue?  No; that is to say, not in a hypocritical way, in a way that belies what we say.  There is so much hypocritial love expressed in word and with the tongue.  Thsoe who are moved to make such expressions  usually hava  secret selfih purpose and seek some advantage, even if it means breaking up the unity of a congregation. The apostle Paul warns:  "By smooth talk and complimentary speech they seduce the hearts of guileless ones." (Romas 16:18, NW) That is the way those who have left the theocratic organization  usually approach those who are holding fast to it.  Treacherous  are their words!  In Ahithopel, who forsook Jehovah's anointed king to seeks selfish advantage with the rebel absalom, King David has an experience with such words. Respecting this unfaithful couselor David wrote: "But   it was thou, a man mine equal, my companion, and my familiar friend. We took sweet counsel together; we walked in the house of God with the throng. His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war:  his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords." (Psalm 55:13, 14, 21, AS) Unless we see behind a person's mask, his pretending to love us by his words disarm us of our fear of him and we are apt to be thrown off guard to the hypocritical, suave speech.  For our spiritual safety we need to become trained to see through hypocrisy and guard ourselves against being misled. (Mark 12:15-17; Luke 20:20-25)  And even as we do not want to be misled ourselves we do not want to mislead others with hypocritical expressions in word or with the tongue. 

The love we must cultivatemust be "love out of a clean heart and out of a good conscience and out of faith without hypocrisy." (1 Timothy  1:5, NW)  The command is: "Let your love be without hypocrisy." We should not corrupt the purityo f our brotherly affection:  "Now that you have  purified your souls by your obedience to ther truth and unhypocritical brotherly love as the result, love one another intensely from the heart." (Romans 12:9; 1 Peter 1:22, NW)  By purity and sincerity in this regard we can recommend ourselves to others, so that they have no fear of evil motives on our part.  Paul did that. He wrote: "But in every way we recommend ourselves as God's ministers, . . . by kindness, by holy spirit, by love free from  hypocrisy, by truthful speech." (1 Corinthians 6:4, 6, 7, NW)  Hypocritical love makes its possessor, not something, but ntohing. It is not the greatest quality when ranked with faith and hope.  It is the worst thing, because it is a  counterfeit of the greatest thing.  Quite fittingly the hypocrites come into the judgment of Gehenna.   The "evil slave" class who abuse their brothers are cast out by the Lord, to have their part with the hypocrites. - MATTHEW 24:48-51; 23:3,29, 33; NW; 1 CORINTHIANS 13:2, 13. 

Next time:  True Love Is Practical - "NEITHER IN WORD NOR WITH TONGUE" 

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