Communicating Sincerity

Communicating Sincerity

You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart.

1 Peter 1:22

HAVE YOU EVER QUESTIONED the sincerity of someone’s apology? It’s probably because the person did not speak your “apology language.” Perhaps he said, “I’m sorry,” but you wanted to hear, “I was wrong.” Maybe she said, “Will you forgive me?” but what you wanted to hear was, “What can I do to make this right?” He said, “I was wrong. I really feel bad about it,” but it was the same thing he apologized for last week. What you want is evidence of repentance and some assurance that this will not keep happening.

Many of our apologies come across as insincere because we are not speaking the apology language of the offended person. If couples can learn each other’s primary apology language and speak it when they offend each other, forgiveness will be much easier. You can choose to forgive someone even if you question his or her sincerity, but it’s much easier if in your heart you believe the person is sincere. First Peter 1:22 makes clear that we are to show sincere love to each other as believers—love that comes from our whole heart. Let’s make sure we are communicating that love as well.

Father, you know how deeply I love my spouse. Please help me to communicate that even in apologizing so that he or she can see how sincere I am.

Apology