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Love in Action
Romans 12:9-21

Sunday, 21st June, 2009

 We are moving on. How has your self evaluation been this week? Have you been reminding yourself that YOU are a chosen child of God, loved with an everlasting love; a sinner saved by grace, baptised in the Holy Spirit and with a glorious future in heaven?  The first 11 chapters of Romans are full of this glorious salvation which God has brought to us in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour and now we are looking at ways of responding to the love of God and expressing our love and thankfulness So lets keep the context and read Romans 12:1-2 as well as verses 9-21

 

This is clearly a string of pithy sayings, designed to stir us up and make us think. It is not a set of its own it includes what we looked at last week. We have no idea how Paul divided up this letter in paragraphs but the substance of the text moves from the body to a series of statements that could apply to the church as a group of people or to us as individuals.

We start with 

9 Love must be sincere.

Now love pervades this passage in fact it is the essence of it. So Paul spells out the key point. Paul said the Love must be  ‘without acting’, ‘without hypocrisy’. The NIV uses sincere.  Why do we start here? For me, because it cuts to the heart of our problem. As good middle class English we have unwritten rules that we must act in a certain manner whatever we think. But this phrase states uncompromisingly that love must be without acting. It must be genuine and we have a real struggle here. We so often try to express ourselves in what we think is a loving manner while our minds are irritated, angry, selfish, contemptuous and all the other sins. In fact its hard work being with people because we are constantly tense in case we put our foot in it and say something offensive or do something unkind or unhelpful.

 

I guess that is better than being rude uncaring and unhelpful but it is not the living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God and most of us can see through it. We know or sense that you are putting it on.

So we enter the area of the mind again. How can I be genuine?

So Paul adds a rider

 Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Now here lies the problem we must tackle as Christians. The transformed mind is a work of God. Therefore it should hate evil and love good because God hates evil and loves good. For love to be without acting we must genuinely cling to the good and hate the evil in our own minds.  So immediately we see a battle taking shape, the very battle Paul has spoken of in chapter 7.

 21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

And if you look down the page evil and good appear together in verse 21

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

That is why we need God to transform our minds. We need his Holy Spirit making our consciences sensitive to know right choices and the courage to make selfless choices. This is not an overnight instant makeover. It is a day by day  lifelong battle to have the right attitude so that our love is genuine not put on, false and hypocritical. Galatians 6:9 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

From a human point of view it takes up to three months to establish a habit of the mind. And each of us needs to examine our minds and note when we have a wrong reaction and get to work on it. Start by praying about it. Perhaps write it down. Share it with a friend who can encourage you.  But be clear in our thinking that evil is to be hated and not tolerated . We are to cling to the good and that is clearly means active persistence. Not giving up when Satan catches us out. Being humble enough to apologise and put things right, being ready to keep on trying and going back to God and asking his Holy Spirit to bring about change in my life. Then our love loses its mask and the love that comes from the Father above will shine in our lives.

 

Three loves and four.

When I read this passage I saw  the three loves and four being repeatedly referred to. Let me read it organised by the three loves and four.

1.      Love the Lord your God…

11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour,

serving the Lord.

12 Be joyful in hope,

patient in affliction,

faithful in prayer.

2.     Love your neighbour as you love yourself..

Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

  1. Love one another as I have loved you..

10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Honour one another above yourselves.

4.      Love your enemy, do good to those who do you harm.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil.

19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

 

But Paul does not organize them that way. Instead they are to be seen as parts of a whole. Genuine love expressed in many ways.

 

10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.

Honour one another above yourselves.

The language is strong. Be devoted and honour are words implying commitment to the needs and interests of others. Genuine love genuinely honours others above ourselves rather than paying lip service to the idea. And it will hurt, because we will not necessarily get a good reaction from our brothers and sisters. But as in life relationships always need working on. 

 

 

 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour,

serving the Lord.

Notice that we have to work at it. If we are to let God change the way we think we are going to have to cooperate with him. Our enthusiasm rises and falls quite dramatically, its affected by our health and the weather. But often we have to fight the natural reaction and stir up the gift in us. This is not primarily about action by the way. This is still about our thinking. The thinking will show itself  in service. Fervour and zeal are not about shouting and doing all sorts of religious things. It is about having a close relationship with Almighty God.

 Then Paul expands this with a delightful triplet of ideas

12 Be joyful in hope,

patient in affliction,

faithful in prayer.

You can see here that serving the Lord is about exhibiting the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are to be joyful people in hope but genuine joy of the knowledge of our salvation , the presence of the Holy Spirit and the home that Jesus has prepared for us. Hope leads us to be patient in affliction, whether that affliction be illness, lack of work lack of money, unpleasant people to live or work with or outright persecution. The people of God are to call on God for relief. If God is God, he is capable of removing the affliction or us from the affliction, whatever it is. Heaven is our final destiny, so death or the return of Jesus is the ultimate answer to our prayers, but for now God chooses our path to be troublesome and difficult that he may work on our faith and develop his fruit in us. So we are to be faithful in prayer, not giving up when there is no answer in a week, or lowering our requests to make it easier for God to answer. Let me take an example from church life, we have not had a baptism since Jimmy was baptised, have you stopped praying for people to come to faith in Jesus and be baptised? Have you stopped believing that people actually become Christians these days because of faithful witnessing by friends, telling them about Jesus? Then be encouraged that Desmond, who you have never met and Gail has been praying for and getting us to pray for, has become a Christian.  Are you still praying for God to send us 12 people to join the body before September? Or have you decided that its not possible so we tone it down to some people? Or one person or just give up. Faithful in prayer means praying when God does not seem to answer and keeping our belief in his power and capability. 

 

13 Share with God's people who are in need.

Practise hospitality.

These simple statements are elaborated by Jesus. And James. We need to be clear, we are called to share what we have with one another. Wealth is to share not hoard. You cannot have zeal for the Lord while members of this fellowship go hungry. And they are not going to parade their lack in public, you need to know them well enough for them to be confident your love is sincere. We do not know how deep and wide this recession will be but those of who have wealth need to examine our love for God and offer living sacrifices by giving to others in need whether they deserve it or not.

 And he adds practise hospitality. Paul lived in a culture where hospitality was a duty. But he calls us to do it for the love of God, a sacrifice of thankfulness for all that God has done for you. So that rules out what our culture think hospitality is about. It is not corporate egoism. It is not a bribe to gain advancement. It is not to impress your friends. In fact Jesus went the other way (Luke 14:12-14). Don’t invite your friends, invite people outside your circle who are unable to return the compliment. Now we could think that through here and have a healthy rash of people sharing a meal with people who they don’t know very well. Want to find out about new people in the fellowship? Then invite them round for a meal! And in case you are not a good cook. There are some excellent ready meals in Sainsburies or Waitrose. You could of course learn from young people who think hospitality is cans of fizzy drinks, crisps, peanuts and most important of all, Pizzas! You must understand that in the new way of thinking a meal together is about being in fellowship not impressing one another with culinary skills. Our last Alpha Supper was fish and chips from Paul’s Fish Bar. What mattered was meeting people. And at heart our hospitality is an act of worship and thankfulness.

 

What follows is a mix of remarks about relationships. Transformed by God, we are to

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

Speaks for itself, but remember this line next time you are cut up by someone else while driving. Smile and bless the so and so  - Hold on “Love must be sincere!”  Dear Lord, this is not as simple as it looks!

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

That is at the heart of fellowship. But we need time to share and House group is a vital part of that. It is there where you can rejoice together and weep together. Laugh together and be serious together.

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Back to our self – esteem. We really do have to work at harmony, just as any choir has to. Remember last week we spoke of the body of Christ and each being part of it. To work together we have got to let go of pride and conceit. We have to end our prejudices and recognise that in Christ we are all recipients of grace, all sons and daughters of God, women and men, graduate and unskilled, manager and workforce,  English or immigrant, single or married, old and young, we are all one in Christ Jesus.

 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil.

Time does not permit us to dwell on all these points but note it and remember it.

Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

I am not sure this one reads right. We could think it is calling us to try to please everybody and in so doing get wrapped up in others opinion of ourselves and lose what we have seen is so valuable – a self-view of being loved unconditionally by God. The verb here is about thinking ahead and being transparent. It is for example, more about MPs being honest about how they spend public money. So we have to act in a way, which is above board. In fact

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

This is a call for sacrificial relationships. And that goes really deep as we are called to give up vengeful thinking.

19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

When Jesus said ‘Love your enemy, he did not mean in some detached way but do good to those who do you harm. Paul spells it out here.

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

You see if good is to come out of a bad situation, we have to invest in goodness. Jesus died for you. He surrendered himself to the worst abuse evil could create and he said, “Father, forgive them”. And our grateful hearts should see those who are unpleasant as opportunities to respond to the love of God by refusing to retaliate but rather show love.

 

 Let love be sincere. But in doing so recognise that only a real grasp of our salvation will enable us to be so.

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