NOTES for Rom 12:9

Paul's words about sincere love seem quite clear, at least, in the context of the understanding of the love which is proper to the not transformed world. Of course, for the fallen man, it is not so simple to be sincere in love. And the problem here is not either in the feelings and or in the ideas, which sometimes darken the image of the neighbor. Of course, feelings and ideas play their role in the relationships between men. But the main role in relationship is played all the same by the will, the choice made by man. And here is, it turns out that it is very difficult for the fallen man to be responsible and coherent.

The endurance is the external expression of the spiritual integrity, but after the fall people are not born spiritually upright. It is still necessary to obtain the spiritual integrity, and it can be obtained only by one means: by the strict and successive observation of the Torah, the commandments given by God. As we see, the apostle is also calling for the same thing, advising to the seekers of sincere love to become cling to good and hate the evil. But according to the life of the Kingdom, it is already necessary to speak about love not only as a relationship to God or the neighbor. Love for the Kingdom becomes a natural environment of life, a space, inside which develop and form all the relationships.

Such space for relationships also exists for the relationships of the not transformed world, but here this environment is psychic, and thus, natural, as part of the nature (although its completely special part) is the psyche itself. And the environment of the Kingdom becomes love, which is not a part of the nature: because it appears thanks to this breath of God, by which the Kingdom is penetrated from the center to the most distant borders. In particular the love of the Kingdom is this spiritual environment, inside which arise and develop all the relationships of its inhabitants. In fact, it is in particular these relationships that form the structure of the Kingdom, give it the shape. And here sincerity has a singular value: because it is in particular it that defines the quality of a relationship.

Sincerity of relations in the not transformed world defines, above all, the stability of the interpersonal relationships; in the Kingdom it defines the stability of the Kingdom. It is not surprising that it can exist only on the condition of the complete sincerity of the relations of each of its inhabitants to all the rest. And that is why nobody will enter the Kingdom, if he does not manifest in his relations to the neighbor this sincerity: because not having it, man will become not the edifying, but the destroyer of the Kingdom. Destroyer, who cannot have a place in the Kingdom.