Romans 12:9: Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. [NIV]
Romans 12:9: Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. [NKJV]
Romans 12:9: Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good. [Christian Standard Bible]
When I’m studying a verse or passage of Scripture, one of the first things I do is look at it in different translations. Then the I look at it in the original language through one of the study lexicons or guides.
The verse above caught my attention this morning. Love, of course, is the same in each translation. It is agape in the Greek and represents that unconditional love that isn’t based on anything of worth in the recipient. Love must be sincere, unfeigned, meaning real and without hypocrisy.
We are also to abhor, detest utterly¸ all things evil. Evil is poneros, and it covers just above every kind of evil, bad, grievous, harmful, lewd, malicious wickedness there is.
Last, we are to cling to, cleave to all that is good. Good is, well — good. But what really interested me this morning was that word kollao, translated as cling to or cleave. It comes from kolla (glue). Kollao (cling to) means to glue. While we abhor and detest evil, we glue ourselves to what is good! Does that capture your imagination as it does mine?
Good, good Father. I want to glue myself to You. I want to cling to all the good that flows from You! Amen.
