Sincere

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

I am talking about the meaning of sincere today. I found this to be very interesting.
 Sincere:  free from pretense or deceit; proceeding from genuine feelings.
The origin of the word sincere is disputed, although the popular etymology has it coming from words for 'without wax.'. Answer: It is commonly believed that sincere comes from two Latin words - sine 'without' and cera 'wax'.
In the days when pottery was in use a person could hold up a piece of pottery to the sunlight and if a seller had used wax to hide a crack in pottery it would show up.  It makes sense to me. In those days they stored a lot of stuff in clay pots and I am sure if you spend good money for one you would not want it to have cracks in it. So is our love, it is to be genuine with out defects in it. I know often our love is tainted with expectations. We love our kids but often we want them to behave in a certain way.  Our love sometimes has conditions attached to it. It is not pure, you might say it has cracks in it. God's love is unconditional, he loves us just as we are and accepts us with our baggage. His love is sincere. We try to follow in his footsteps and love like God loved us, but many times looking back I can see cracks in my love. I believe perfect love comes from God, when God is in our hearts, he can overcome our faults. Cory Ten boom tells a story how she met a former guard from the German prison, she and her sister where in. She was speaking at a church and after the service she saw a man coming towards her that had been a guard at the German prison. Instantly she had bad feelings toward him. They suffered much abuse at this hands. She cried out to God, she knew she needed to forgive. God met that need in her heart that day and she was able to talk to him and he did ask for forgiveness for his actions before he became a Christian.  Sincere Love comes from God. Love with out pretense or deceit. With God fixing our hearts I do believe we can have sincere love.  God bless, LVZ.