Sincerity
If you look for sincerity in the thesaurus, you find similar words like honesty, belief, love..
The Bible talks about sincerity being part of several parts that make up love, and that "love must be sincere." It's a statement and a conclusion that the part is essential for the whole, that the whole must also be the part. But what exactly is sincerity? "Love must be sincere: hate what is evil, cling to what is good."
Let's talk about Love.[1Cr 13:4-8 NASB] 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away."
I am one of those that have either an INTP or INFP personality. Unfortunately, the worst parts of the INTP personality are strong in me: Skepticism, Cynicism; coupled with a failure to thrive as an INFP.. and I'm a skeptical, cynical, deadpan. INFP's are Introverted 'N'-tuitive Feeling Perceiving types, but failure to thrive means that their innate ability to be empathic reverses to a confusion to why people aren't like themselves... and That's where I am at. I rarely feel love.
Some say that this is from emotional 'packing,' where one would 'pack' down their anger and frustrations until they stop feeling anything at all, but the slightest things set off the trap like a spring-loaded jack-in-a-box and the results are rarely constructive. Those outbursts aren't sincere though; those moments do not erupt into sincerity where sincere anger may have been 'packed' down. Instead, the heart proliferates the current topical feelings, where the heart and mind deceives each other that a problem is being solved when the reality is that only the hurt is being expressed and not the solution. So how can you unpack emotionally in order to be sincere in your love... or to feel love for another at all?
For a half INFP like myself, I find the unpacking part frustratingly complex because when I start to feel something, it comes out with intensity and it's like trying to multitap a dozen garden hoses to a water maan: no matter how many issues I unpack from one single life-event with patience and organization, the pressure keeps building because it can't all come out at the same time. I also realize that the emotions and issues I feel can't all come out at the same time because they are a jumble of disconnected ideas. I have several analogies. One more is that it is like a an architect trying to make a cuboidal art piece from a tumble weed. The architect gets increasingly frustrated as he has to make sense of all the branches, which in turn builds frustrations, which have to be organized, building other frustrations, and so on.
The model love is black and white, oil and water... "Hate what is evil, cling to what is good."
How do you unpack your emotions? God also talks about taking His yolk upon us for it is light(weightless); and loving the sinner and hating the sin. The Bible teaches us that we need to "Forgive them for they know not what they do," that we are to "pray without ceasing," and be an advocate or intercessory as Jesus was man's intercessor and advocate.
So then, is the only answer to remaining sincere, to keep ourselves enthralled in the truth of God's word and always in meditation? Is that a system for wearing our heart on our sleeves?
The Bible talks about sincerity being part of several parts that make up love, and that "love must be sincere." It's a statement and a conclusion that the part is essential for the whole, that the whole must also be the part. But what exactly is sincerity? "Love must be sincere: hate what is evil, cling to what is good."
Let's talk about Love.[1Cr 13:4-8 NASB] 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away."
I am one of those that have either an INTP or INFP personality. Unfortunately, the worst parts of the INTP personality are strong in me: Skepticism, Cynicism; coupled with a failure to thrive as an INFP.. and I'm a skeptical, cynical, deadpan. INFP's are Introverted 'N'-tuitive Feeling Perceiving types, but failure to thrive means that their innate ability to be empathic reverses to a confusion to why people aren't like themselves... and That's where I am at. I rarely feel love.
Some say that this is from emotional 'packing,' where one would 'pack' down their anger and frustrations until they stop feeling anything at all, but the slightest things set off the trap like a spring-loaded jack-in-a-box and the results are rarely constructive. Those outbursts aren't sincere though; those moments do not erupt into sincerity where sincere anger may have been 'packed' down. Instead, the heart proliferates the current topical feelings, where the heart and mind deceives each other that a problem is being solved when the reality is that only the hurt is being expressed and not the solution. So how can you unpack emotionally in order to be sincere in your love... or to feel love for another at all?
For a half INFP like myself, I find the unpacking part frustratingly complex because when I start to feel something, it comes out with intensity and it's like trying to multitap a dozen garden hoses to a water maan: no matter how many issues I unpack from one single life-event with patience and organization, the pressure keeps building because it can't all come out at the same time. I also realize that the emotions and issues I feel can't all come out at the same time because they are a jumble of disconnected ideas. I have several analogies. One more is that it is like a an architect trying to make a cuboidal art piece from a tumble weed. The architect gets increasingly frustrated as he has to make sense of all the branches, which in turn builds frustrations, which have to be organized, building other frustrations, and so on.
The model love is black and white, oil and water... "Hate what is evil, cling to what is good."
How do you unpack your emotions? God also talks about taking His yolk upon us for it is light(weightless); and loving the sinner and hating the sin. The Bible teaches us that we need to "Forgive them for they know not what they do," that we are to "pray without ceasing," and be an advocate or intercessory as Jesus was man's intercessor and advocate.
So then, is the only answer to remaining sincere, to keep ourselves enthralled in the truth of God's word and always in meditation? Is that a system for wearing our heart on our sleeves?