Romans 12:9
“Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Romans 12:9 begins Paul's vivid list of the marks of Christian love, describing how transformed believers are to treat one another and outsiders.
What Does Romans 12:9 Mean?
Paul launches a rapid series of commands on the practical life of love, and the first is that love be "without dissimulation" -- without pretense, hypocrisy, or mask. The Greek word is anhupokritos, literally "un-play-acted," drawn from the theater where actors wore masks. Genuine love does not perform affection it does not feel; it is real all the way through.
Then Paul shows that sincere love is not soft or shapeless. It comes with strong moral commitments: "abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good." The verb for abhor is intense -- to shrink from with loathing -- while "cleave" means to glue oneself, to bond fast. True love, then, is not indifferent to right and wrong; it hates what harms and holds tightly to what is good. This corrects the notion that love means approving everything. Real love wants the good of others enough to reject evil and to cling to what is right. For the reader, the verse calls for a love that is both warm and principled -- honest in feeling, firm in conviction, and unwilling to mask either with pretense.
In the Original Language
Love is to be anhupokritos, "unhypocritical," a word from the theater meaning without the mask of an actor -- love that is genuine, not performed.
Cross References
“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
- 1 John 3:18
“Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.”
- Amos 5:15
“Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.”
- Psalm 97:10
Application
Examine whether your love is sincere rather than performed, and let it have a spine: turn from what is evil and hold fast to what is genuinely good.