You can't be a mealy-mouth, touchy-feely, merciful person who has no hate in this world.

If you don't hate, you don't love.

There are things in this world that are destroying human beings, destroying them morally,

destroying marriages, destroying their souls, destroying their bodies, destroying their eternity.

If you don't hate those things, you don't love those people.

We're used to hearing that love is patient, kind, does not envy or boast, and all the rest.

But how often do we hear that love hates?

I'm Dan Kroover.

In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper turns to Romans 12 verses 9 to 21 to show that if we really love people, we'll hate what ruins them.

This message was originally delivered at the Cove in Asheville, North Carolina on July 28, 2007.

Oh, how I would love to linger more over the gifts in verses 3 to 8.

I did not do them justice, but I really do believe that we would be better served, leaving you to reflect there and moving on to

verses 9 to the end of the chapter.

Let love be genuine.

The word genuine there is literally unhypocrical.

Let love be unhypocrical.

Isn't it interesting and probably very significant,

that just as in 1st Corinthians 12 and 13, Paul dealt with spiritual gifts,

chapter 12, and then the great love chapter, chapter 13, he follows the same pattern here.

Spiritual gifts, verses 3 to 8, now, like it says in chapter 13, or at the end of

12 and 1st Corinthians, behold, I show you a more excellent way, and then, though i speak with the tongues of men and of angels

but have not love i'm a noisy gong or a clanging symbol here i have now taught you some very briefly

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