Living Out Genuine Love in Community

What does authentic love look like in a world full of transactional relationships? In this episode, Ross O'Hair and Mark Fields explore Romans 12:9-13, a passage that vividly describes how believers are called to live out genuine, selfless love within the body of Christ. Together, they discuss the characteristics of healthy relationships, including authenticity, humility, perseverance, and serving others with joy and purpose. Through practical examples and personal stories, Ross and Mark unpack key principles like letting love be genuine, abhorring what is evil, and showing preference to one another in humility. They also highlight how living out these truths reflects our identity in Christ and fosters trust, safety, and unity within communities. Tune in to be encouraged and equipped to cultivate meaningful, God-honoring relationships.

Key Verses:

Romans 12:9-13: “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality."

Quotes:

"Healthy relationships begin with acting for each other's best benefit with authenticity and genuineness."

"When we know who we are in Christ, we can genuinely love others without striving—it flows naturally from our identity in Him."

"Building relationships requires humility and sacrifice, valuing others above ourselves, and reflecting God's unconditional love."

Key Points:

1. Authenticity builds trust and safety, which are essential for genuine relationships.
2. Christ-like humility means prioritizing others' interests above your own, creating space for deeper connections.
3. Healthy relationships require intentionality—encouraging others, praying for them, and serving with enthusiasm.

Outline:

1. Introduction (00:03)
2. Scripture Reading (00:50)
3. The Importance of Authenticity in Relationships (01:30)
4. Abhorring Evil and Clinging to Good in Community (05:54)
5. Giving Preference to Others Through Humility (08:29)
6. Enthusiasm in Serving the Lord (11:24)
7. Overcoming Divisiveness and Serving God's Purpose (14:16)
8. Joy, Perseverance, and Prayer in Relationships (16:39)
9. Contributing to Needs and Practicing Hospitality (18:40)
10. Final Takeaways: Living Out Love in Christ (20:22)

Theme Music:

Here Forever by Adigold Emotional Piano and Strings by MusicalSmile (all rights and licensing from Envato elements)

Hosted by: Ross O'Hair Participating Staff: Mark Fields Scripture Read By: Ben Brezina Edited by: Ross O’Hair and Ben Brezina

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What does it mean to truly love others genuinely and selflessly,
in a world where relationships can sometimes feel transactional?
What does authentic love look like in a community of faith?
Have you ever wondered how you can build trust and cultivate deep,
meaningful connections with those around you? Well,

(00:24):
today we're diving into Romans 12 9 to 13, where Paul paints a picture of what healthy,
loving relationships should look like within the body of Christ.
My name is Ross O'Hair, and I'll be your host.
And joining me today is Mark Fields.
But before we get to today's episode, let's take a moment and listen to the
Scripture.

Ben Brezina: Romans 12 :9- 13. "Let love be genuine. (00:50):
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Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good.
Love one another with brotherly affection.
Outdo one another in showing honor.
Do not be slothful in zeal.
Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord.
Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation.

(01:13):
Be constant in prayer.
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Ross O'Hair: All right, Mark, good to have you back. How are you? (01:29):
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Mark Fields: I'm good. Thanks, Ross. (01:30):
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Ross O'Hair: Good. All right. So, yeah, we did Romans eight together just a few weeks (01:31):
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ago. And, you know, it's interesting this is all working together.
And in Romans 8, we talked about our new identity in Christ and how that plays out.
And in 12, that kind of is then taken to the next level and how that works in community.
So we've talked about community the last couple of weeks,
but where is he taking us in these verses today?

Mark Fields: Yeah. One of the reasons that Paul is writing the Roman Christians is to address some (01:52):
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disagreements between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians.
Paul will address these specifics in chapters 13 and 15.
So to lay the groundwork for addressing these disagreements,
Paul describes what healthy relationships are like in these last portions of chapter 12.
The context of community is established back in verses 4 to 5,

(02:15):
where Paul calls us many members, but one body,
members of one another.
So this one another context is how we understand and apply these next verses.
In these verses, we will see some major components of a healthy relationship.
You know, in the first session of living in Jesus, the concept of God, we saw that God is
a relator and he made us to live in healthy relationships.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, yeah, I love that. (02:35):
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I mean, I love how God wants us to relate because he's that way.
So obviously in these verses today, he's going to kind of maybe show some of
those characteristics. So where does he start in verse 9?

Mark Fields: Yeah. Okay. And we won't have time to dive into all of them. (02:46):
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So we're going to hit the high points for this.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (02:50):
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Mark Fields: Yeah. Well right right off the bat in verse 9a it says "let love be without hypocrisy." (02:51):
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Now first to love one another person means to act for act for the best benefit,
even if it costs you something.
But the description is without hypocrisy.
I like to say that in a positive form though, and I would say let love be genuine.
Authentic. Now, I don't know if it's possible to rank the importance of the characteristics

(03:12):
of healthy relationships, right?
But I think at the top should be authenticity.
Genuineness. You know, in living in Jesus in session 11,
intimacy with God, we built a stacked layer of this pathway to intimacy.
And it started with safety and then trust and then intimacy.
Yeah. And again, this is a component of building a healthy relationship.

(03:33):
An intimate relationship with others.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. Well, I love how you brought out the authenticity part. I mean, I feel like in (03:34):
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today's culture, what you're seeing is a cry for authenticity.
Right. And Paul's bringing that out here.
I think that's true for all of human history, where we want relationships to be real,
not just to be the surfacey kind of thing.

Mark Fields: Yeah. When I see a person is being real, authentic and genuine, (03:51):
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I feel safe with them and I will trust him or her more readily.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah (03:57):
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Mark Fields: I can count on count on that person's words to match their behavior. Because being (03:58):
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hypocritical is changing your behavior to match the expectations of the environment or
people. It's basically shifting yourself to get your needs met from another person or
situation.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah (04:09):
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Mark Fields: When I see a person do this, I don't feel safe with them. It's difficult (04:10):
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to trust them. I don't know if they will do something to hurt me or turn against me.
Yeah, you know it when you see it.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. No doubt about it. I mean, hypocrisy is - (04:18):
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it's definitely something you can pick up really quickly, especially when you see a
person in two different scenarios and they act completely different in those two.
Yeah, then you start to kind of wonder, okay, how is he or she going to act with me
in this scenario or that scenario or what are they doing behind my back? All those things.
Yeah. What's the term these days?

(04:39):
Shape shifter? Yes, exactly.
Well, and it really ties in with what we talked about in Romans eight with identity.
When someone knows who they are, they're that same person in each situation,
as opposed to maybe someone who doesn't know who they are,
then they kind of shape shift to fit the situation,
to kind of fit in. And obviously that that's a journey.
But journey. But maybe that's what that explains that a little bit.

Mark Fields: Okay. Well, some examples in real life. (05:00):
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Someone offers to help you at work or with a project,
but you find out later they did it to gain favor with the boss or to secure a future
promotion.

Ross O'Hair: Ulterior motive? (05:10):
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Mark Fields: Yeah, that's disingenuous. (05:11):
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Or a person befriends you in their social circle showing outward kindness,
but only because they believe the relationship will give them access to higher
status or financial benefits.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, (05:22):
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Mark Fields: Or here's one that happened that has happened to me before. Person changes their opinion (05:22):
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about something in front of the group. You know,
this happened to me. I think it was in middle school, but me and my buds, we were on board
and all that. All of a sudden we got out in front of the school at another group, and
this one guy changed his opinion and he stands over there with him. I'm thinking,
what the? and so he was not my friend for much longer.

Ross O'Hair: You didn't trust him. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. (05:40):
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All right. Yeah, that makes sense.

Mark Fields: Okay, so healthy relationships begin with acting for each other's best benefit with (05:43):
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authenticity and genuineness.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, I love that. Yeah. And so okay, that's the first part where he's talking in (05:49):
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verse 9. Where does he go from there?

Mark Fields: Okay. So then the second part of 9 says "abhor what is evil; (05:54):
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cling to what is good" or hate evil.
Now this can mean that Christians should band together and fight the evil that's out there
and the injustices that are out there, because we should hate it. We should fight
against it, and we should cling to what is good.
But since we're talking about the context of relationships, I think it can also apply in

(06:14):
inter relationships. It can mean to hate evil behavior that destroys relationships.
You cling to goodness in another person.
You present goodness. You believe the best in them.

Ross O'Hair: So that's like looking at a person and they may do something that is not right or evil in (06:25):
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this context, but then giving them, yeah, how would you how would that play out
exactly? Like what does that mean to look to the good in them, even if they're then acting
in an evil way some way?

Mark Fields: Well, and I know it's I think it says even in chapters 12 of Romans in other places return (06:40):
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a curse with a blessing.

Ross O'Hair: Okay. (06:46):
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Mark Fields: And as you speak life and truth to them, you're overcoming the evil that's being (06:47):
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projected at you. And you're saying something kindly,
backwards.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Okay. (06:54):
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Mark Fields: Okay, So one of the fruit of the spirit is goodness. (06:55):
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And in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can treat each other in goodness and not
in evil. And by evil I mean selfishness, manipulation of others.
For example, when you're looking to another person to meet your needs, again,
you revert to manipulation. You're trying to use them to get them to behave in ways that
satisfy us. But our focus is on us and not them,

(07:18):
which is evil.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, yeah. It's interesting how you piggybacked being authentic and then talking (07:19):
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about hating evil and clinging to what is good.
It's almost, you know, it could just be a list.
I mean, maybe I'm reading into it too much, but it's almost like, you know,
the authenticity of knowing who you are and believing the truth of what Jesus has done to
you is a way of clinging to what's good.
And when you see that not happening, being people, being,

(07:42):
you know, hypocritical and fake and manipulative,
that evil actions, you can then combat that because you know who you are.
Cling to that good. Show them love and care despite how they're acting.
I don't know, maybe I'm reading into those two verses too much together, but I love how
they connect a little bit.

Mark Fields: I like that and I want to add something else. The word abhor or hate is pretty strong. (07:58):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah it is. (08:02):
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Mark Fields: And when someone says something that's unkind to you, like my wife just is in a bad mood or (08:03):
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snaps back at me or I to her, you know, you want to think,
well, that's not just outright bad evil.
That just wasn't kind of her.
But it means to have such an awareness of those things that will destroy a
relationship.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (08:18):
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Mark Fields: And have that stance toward I will I will not I will not let this happen in our (08:18):
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relationship.

Ross O'Hair: Well, let's be honest. Linda's not going to be the one doing it. It's you. (08:22):
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Mark Fields: It's me. Hahaha. So that's most of my examples here. (08:25):
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Ross O'Hair: Right. All right. Where does he go next? (08:27):
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Mark Fields: All right, well the next characteristic is called in verse 10 give preference to one (08:29):
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another which describes humility and sacrifice.
And a healthy relationship values each other above the individual's interests.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (08:42):
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Mark Fields: That sounds a lot like Philippians 2:3- 4, which is one of my favorite passages. (08:42):
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It says "do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit,
but with humility of mind.
Regard one another as more important than yourselves.
Do not merely look out for your own personal interests,
but also for the interests of others."

Ross O'Hair: Right. Yeah. That selfishness thing you were just talking about before. This is the (08:58):
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opposite. Yeah,

Mark Fields: Yeah, you place yourself above them. Of course. Humility and sacrifice. They are (09:01):
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foundational to love. Mhm.
And you can show humility and give preference to another in many ways.
But I think the best way to do it is in a conversation.
I mean conversations are the whole vehicle to building relationships.
And the best way to live out this verse is to stop your own thoughts about what you want to
say, and then listen intently to the other person to hear their story,

(09:25):
and then ask questions that explore the topic more to honor the person.
And you do this well. Ross.
So does Ben. So does Beau, and I enjoy the conversations that invite me
into what's going on. And we talked about that in season two on a on a session of
asking questions.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, yeah we did. (09:39):
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Mark Fields: But I think it's paramount to showing another person the sacrifice and humility and the (09:40):
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honor you're showing them.

Ross O'Hair: Well, and it really takes, like you said, a humility and a putting (09:46):
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yourself aside to ask somebody a question and listen to their answer,
and then ask a follow up question and really show them care and love and respect by asking
about themselves as opposed to be like, yo, you know what I think though? You know,
like, I know that can easily happen.
And I do that sometimes in conversations where I ask a question and then I just give

(10:07):
them my response, you know?
But obviously, yeah, when you're selfless and you're showing humility and sacrificing of
your own opinion, it really does show love.

Mark Fields: And guess what? Going back to identity, that's who you are, (10:15):
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right? You are a person of humility and sacrifice.
That's your natural inclination.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (10:22):
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Mark Fields: Sometimes we think, oh, I got to fight and strive and get myself (10:22):
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humble,

Ross O'Hair: Right (10:26):
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Mark Fields: Lean into that identity. (10:26):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah, exactly. (10:28):
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Mark Fields: All right, so the next characteristic we see in verse 11, (10:29):
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part a, "not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord." In other words, be enthusiastic,
passionate about serving the Lord.
This involves a proactive attitude in spiritual matters and dedication to God's
work. I'm going to use my experience playing football to illustrate the next three
characteristics, so bear with me a little bit.

(10:51):
I know it was 100 years ago, but I'll try to make it relevant.
But some of the hardest and most discouraging times in football are in practice,
especially when you're doing things that don't seem to improve your skills or act
toward, you know, or promote game time. Conditioning drills,
wind sprints. And I specifically remember hearing my teammates calling each other,
keep going. We got this.

(11:11):
Or if someone fell down or lagged behind, a teammate would go back and pick them up or
match their pace so that they brought them up with the group.
Seeing their effort and hearing their encouragement helped me keep going.
Have you ever experienced that?

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think for me, the same thing a lot of times in sports, (11:24):
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I also get the picture in my mind of the military where it's like, leave no man
behind. Where you're willing to go that extra mile and work with passion to to make sure
all of your comrades and everybody, all your troops that are with you,
make it out of battle safely, you know, safely.
And I just think of. Yeah, like when you're joined together with people,

(11:44):
it's that working together and that zeal for each other and your protection or your common
goal.

Mark Fields: Oh, I have a specific story on that. (11:50):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (11:52):
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Mark Fields: A friend of mine who I played tennis with years ago, (11:52):
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he went to jump school at Fort Bragg in the Army,
and they went through the basic training. They were three weeks from graduating and he
jumped wrong and tweaked his knee.
I mean, just tore the ACL or whatever.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah (12:04):
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Mark Fields: And he still had to go through all the conditioning and all the five mile runs and (12:05):
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everything. And he was limping and falling behind.
Well, his best buddy was 6'3" 215lbs.
He gets behind him, grabs him by the hips and elevates him off the ground so he's not
putting weight on. And he runs five miles with him. Gets him through those three weeks.

Ross O'Hair: That's unbelievable. Yeah, that's that's sacrifice. (12:20):
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And that's yeah. Showing enthusiasm and passion for your friend and yeah that's
amazing.

Mark Fields: But even and I hear this around here at CFT when a person says, (12:29):
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you know, God's got you, you got this.
I can't wait to see how God grows you and draws people to himself through your life.
When they say that they're speaking life to you, and it just gives you that courage and
that impetus to keep going.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. So much. You know, this part of this verse can feel a little bit (12:43):
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just like thrown in here, lagging behind in diligence,
fervent in spirit, you know, like, but I think when we think about our
identity again, you know.
Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
Those are natural ways of who we are.
Like, you know, when we treat someone with kindness and walk by the spirit that's

(13:03):
serving the Lord. And when we're fervent in spirit, it's listening to God, it's walking
with him. I don't think it's it can sound super spiritual,
but when we when it flows out of just who we are,
it's the normal and natural way of caring for others.

Mark Fields: Amen. Amen. I want to bring out the last part of that verse where it says serving the Lord. (13:15):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (13:20):
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Mark Fields: And the focus is to serve the Lord. (13:21):
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And a healthy relationship focuses on serving the Lord and not themselves.
Now, you might be in a relationship with two, three, four people and you're all focusing on
something bigger than the relationship itself.
You have in mind what God wants, not what you want or your group wants.
You're asking yourself, what is God doing here? What does God want?

(13:41):
Now we know what Satan wants, and he loves to get inside a community of
believers and instigate divisiveness and selfishness.
And that's what he's trying to do here in the Roman Church and what he did in the
Corinthian church. And that's his best tactic.
And that happens today.
Today, churches and groups of Christians lose sight of why they're even living the
Christian life, or even building a church, which is God's church,

(14:01):
of course. Yeah, but each person focuses on their own agenda,
their own purposes, and they begin working against each other instead of together. And
as we stop and ask ourselves, God, what are you doing here?
Then it aligns us with that serving the Lord. This is the main purpose here. God,
what do you want to see happen?

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, yeah. You brought out the words divisiveness and selfishness and we've talked (14:16):
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about selfishness, what, three times now in this podcast.
I mean, and I think that's obvious when we're talking about what genuine love and authentic
love looks like. It's the opposite of that.
But the enemy loves to try to bring that in, where the focus starts and remains on us,
as opposed to the body of Christ.

(14:37):
And then again, as you're talking about serving,
you can't serve someone in the spirit out of selfishness.
It's the opposite. It's out of love.
So I think those I mean, I think it's very clear when you start
bringing that up, the divisiveness and the selfishness that comes from the enemy. Our
struggle is not against flesh and blood. It's the enemies trying to divide us.
And man, yeah, that's such a powerful aspect right there.

Mark Fields: Amen. And that's a good point. That's not who you are. That's the enemy trying to incite or (14:57):
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excite your flesh. Yeah, yeah.
And have you take things into your own hands?

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, exactly. (15:04):
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Mark Fields: This brings me back to another example from football. (15:05):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (15:07):
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Mark Fields: Sometimes the player begins to focus on his or her own performance. (15:08):
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And that's more important than the team's performance.
Now that's especially widespread today with NIL and name recognition and all that.
Back then again 100 years ago we didn't have that concept.
We had one goal to win the game.
And everybody sacrificed for the good of the team and for the purpose of winning the game.

(15:28):
Yeah. That goal was bigger than any one individual.
So that's a team sport kind of thing. But let me bring it into the home, into each family.
And this is especially true in marriage.
A husband and wife can easily focus on what the person wants,
especially when they're hurt or aggravated or irritated.
But not and not what God wants.
As the hurts pile up, it's easy to begin to protect ourselves and

(15:49):
then maneuver to gain advantages.
A husband and wife can stop and say, hey, what's going on here?
God, what do you want?
Yeah. Linda and I have had to do that.
To do that many times.
Like, hey, you're not my enemy.
And Satan's the enemy. What does God want?
And let's just stop and think about that. And that takes us out of that mode of attack or
defend and protect.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, yeah. I mean, that is definitely a temptation. (16:09):
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I think everybody who's been married understands that.
Where you want to defend yourself, you want to find an advantage so that you can
be right. You can get your point across.
But yeah, when we when we again step back and realize that our spouse is not the enemy,
that their behavior or whatever they're doing is not necessarily the issue.

(16:30):
It's what we're believing and how we're applying the truth or not that really is the
where the rubber meets the road.

Mark Fields: Yeah, There's a bigger picture here, a greater purpose here to what is God doing (16:35):
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here?

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (16:38):
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Mark Fields: The next characteristic is in verse 12. (16:39):
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It emphasizes joy and hope, persevering in difficult times,
being passionate about prayer, which means simply prayer is talking to God
about everything. Now these are good attitudes and practices within yourself.
Again, the individual. But again we're talking about the context of relationships.
These characteristics in a healthy relationship show how a person's joy and

(17:01):
perseverance affects others.
When you show joy and endurance and tell a person,
you will pray for them and for them.
You're telling that person, I'll stick by you no matter what. I mean,
how do you feel when someone says, hey, I'm praying for you today?

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (17:13):
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Mark Fields: Or they ask you about what you asked them pray for last week? (17:13):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah, yeah, it definitely makes you feel like you're, (17:16):
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you know, loved and cared for.

Mark Fields: Mhm. Yeah. And so they're knowing their prayers are there shows their intentionality (17:20):
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and their encouragement for you.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah definitely. (17:26):
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Mark Fields: I know it encourages and energizes me. (17:27):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah. So Paul's wrapping up this here in verse 13. (17:29):
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But you know, as we go back over what we've just talked about,
you know, I'm struck by this idea that Paul really is trying to get us to focus after
he's laid the groundwork on who we are and to how this applies to all these different
communities around us, especially with other believers.
And I think it's important for us to understand that understand that because we

(17:52):
don't do this Christian life or just life in general by ourselves.
And so when we understand like that, who we are is someone who wants to genuinely
love other believers, and we do genuinely love other believers,
that all of these characteristics flow out of that truth.
And I think that's so important to remember, because we could strive and in our flesh to

(18:13):
try to do all these things really well, as opposed to like,
hey, God, I want to listen to your spirit and walk through this with you.
Help me to do this. And it's just a reminder that I'm like,
I'm telling myself as I'm talking, it's like,
hey, I want to be able to remember who I am so that I can do these things in our
community.

Mark Fields: Yeah, yeah. No, that's a good point. Instead of thinking you're your own worst enemy and (18:29):
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having to work against that and beat that person into submission,
relax. This is who you really are.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah, exactly. Okay, so where does he end up? (18:37):
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Here in verse 13.

Mark Fields: Okay. The last characteristics - Well they're very practical. Contribute to (18:40):
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needs; practice hospitality; And in Acts we saw how that worked when
everybody sold what they had and they put it put them in one pool and they shared
everything with each other,

Ross O'Hair: Right (18:53):
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Mark Fields: And so that brought that sense of community and authenticity and sharing of things. (18:53):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (18:57):
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Mark Fields: And so there's many examples we could use, but for time's sake, (18:58):
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we won't go into what that means as far as individuals giving of themselves,
not just their time, but their possessions and all of that.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. So how do you see these characteristics play out in your life? (19:08):
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What are some examples where it's personal for you?

Mark Fields: Well, the first one on being a genuine, authentic person. (19:15):
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Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (19:19):
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Mark Fields: You know, when I surround myself with people and usually when I found someone who's not so (19:19):
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authentic, I tend to stop that relationship or that connection.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (19:28):
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Mark Fields: Because that person that's safe and that builds me up and I build up, (19:28):
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i know that this is where God wants me to share my life with and to share with this
person with.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (19:37):
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Mark Fields: Again, the difference of that is what I've experienced here at CFT versus what I (19:38):
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experience in the working world.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. (19:42):
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Mark Fields: Because in the working world, everybody was turf protecting and posturing (19:43):
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and trying to prove or assert their superiority or whatever to other people.
And so there was always some kind of dance around thing,
a disingenuousness or whatever.
And I was always had my guard up, and I was always tense around them because
you couldn't relax and just pour your life into others.

(20:04):
But here at CFT where people know who they are and they're relaxed and they're safe
people because they're consistent and they show me encouragement.
Now I can relax and I can live out of who I am in Christ and share that back with each
other too.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. So if we have a major takeaway for people listening, obviously we've gone over a (20:16):
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lot of different things.
How do we sum it up?

Mark Fields: I know, well, the first one is what we've been saying is these characteristics that we (20:22):
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listed, that's who you are.
That's nothing you have to strive and strain toward.
Relax and live that out as the Holy Spirit leads you.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah (20:33):
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Mark Fields: But building healthy relationships requires God's genuine and authentic love in us. (20:33):
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As we act authentically to others, we build safety and trust.
As we enjoy Christ's life and walk in the spirit,
we act in humility and place others interests and benefits above our own.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah (20:47):
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Mark Fields: In this attitude, we enthusiastically encourage others. (20:48):
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We encourage with words.
But many times by our actions of faithfulness,
support and prayer. These relationships overcome differences and shows the world what
love looks like and shows them who God is.

Ross O'Hair: Yeah. Well, Mark, obviously we've talked about what genuine relationships look like, (21:03):
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and I appreciate your genuineness and just even in this podcast,
but just all the time I really appreciate that. So thanks a lot, and guys,
thanks so much for listening today.
We really appreciate it.
And if you were blessed by today's episode, we'd love it if you'd leave us a review.
It helps us spread the grace message to others who are listening. So again,

(21:23):
thank you for listening today and we'll see you next week on the Living in Jesus podcast.