Romans part XIV
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
These last few weeks we have been getting into the more practical side of Romans. We have covered all the theology and doctrine in the first 11 chapters and now we are locking in on how we live it out in our everyday lives. This Christian life we live is one of sacrifice and obedience. Christ has redeemed us by His grace through faith and we worship Him by presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to Him. Not being conformed to this world but being transformed by the renewing of our minds through this process of sanctification.
Last time we met we talked about how we cannot live this Christian life alone. We need our brothers and sisters in Christ to build us up and encourage us. They need us to serve them and carry their burdens with them. The church is a place for all of us broken people to come together in unity under Christ’s lordship and work out our faith. God has designed us all and given us all different abilities and Spiritual gifts to serve and edify the body of Christ.
Tonight Paul is going to call us to Christian living. He is laying out for us a Christian ethic, a Christian worldview that helps us see the world how we should. Paul is going to call us out on our behavior. So as we approach this passage let the prayer of our hearts be that if there is anything in our life inconsistent with what God’s word teaches that we would be transformed and changed to be in accordance to His word. That the Holy Spirit would continue in His work of refining us and sanctifying us so that we look more and more like Jesus.
Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good. Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another. Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. But If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.
Let love be without hypocrisy
Our Christian ethic begins and is rooted in love. The word for love that Paul uses here is Agape. This isn’t a romantic love that you would have with a significant other. This is a sacrificial love that we show to all people. The greatest demonstration of this sacrificial love that we have is Jesus.
And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.
God is love. Love is a core attribute of God and is a defining attribute of all who follow Him. Our love for others is evidence of salvation. Love drives out fear and shame to make way for grace and forgiveness. To say we love and then to not show love for others is the hypocrisy Paul is talking about. We cannot say we love God and then hate people who are made in His image. If we are following God’s example of love that means we love even our enemies. God demonstrates this sacrificial, gracious love for us by sending Jesus to die for our sins.
But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
God’s love fundamentally changes us from the inside out. The more we abide in God’s love the more it begins to show up in our love to others. Agape love asks much of us. Without God’s love filling us we have nothing to give to others.
“This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. “This is what I command you: Love one another.
Love should motivate everything we do as Christians. Love takes our focus off ourselves and puts the focus on Jesus. It takes our lives from being all about us and our comforts and preferences and makes it about honoring Jesus and worshipping Him with our lives.
For the love of Christ compels us, since we have reached this conclusion, that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.
What should our love look like?
Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
This is what genuine love looks like. It is patient, its kind. It cares for others. It doesn’t have to be about me all the time. It leads me to forgiveness and genuine care for others needs. It is an anchor for ministry and how we share the Gospel. It is an anchor for how we obey God and live out this calling to follow Him. Love is the driving force that calls us forward. It separates us from who we were before Christ. It is an example to a lost world of who God is and what He has done to redeem humanity. Love is not afraid to be humiliated. It isn’t afraid to be attacked or persecuted. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. The reason we don’t share the Gospel, the reason we are afraid to grow in our faith and live a life sold out for Christ is because we are missing love. Being obedient becomes more about not getting in trouble or simply doing it because we have to instead of being obedient out of a grateful heart. Love is the difference between legalism and relationship. Cling to the love of Christ. Put your faith in Him. Grow in your love towards others and suddenly sharing the Gospel isn’t as embarrassing as it was before, because you’re not motivated by your comfort you’re motivated by how much that person needs to hear about Jesus.
Who are we called to love?
He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Paul calls us to show this Christlike sacrificial love without hypocrisy. We are called to have genuine authentic sacrificial love for one another. That kind of love isn’t based on feelings. It isn’t about how we feel in the moment. Agape, sacrificial love is a choice. Every day when we wake up we choose to love others. It doesn’t happen on accident. We have to be intentional, looking for opportunities to show love to others.
Who can you show genuine love to this week?
How can you be abiding in God’s love?
Do you love people the way that Christ loves them?
Detest evil; cling to what is good
As Christians we are called to hate what is evil. That doesn’t mean hate people but it does mean hating sin. What do we do with the things we hate? We separate ourselves from them. If you hate broccoli you aren’t going to order it when you go out to restaurants. If you detest a sports team you aren’t going to wear their colors. The problem with sin is that we really enjoy it. We like to entertain sin and watch reels and Tik Toks we shouldn’t. We like to lie and cheat and do whatever we want as long as we don’t get caught. We like evil. It was part of our nature. We talked about that in the early chapters of Romans. The world loved sin and exchanged the truth of God for a lie so that they could keep on sinning. As Christians we have been set free from sin. Loving evil led us to our deaths but Christ has raised us up in new life to do what is good. To be obedient in doing the good works God has prepared for us to do since the beginning of time. The call to hate what is evil is not always a natural one to obey. It especially isn’t always comfortable or easy. But this new life we live in Christ is one of holiness. We have been set apart from those things so that we can honor God and live a restored life.
Back in the day the Mizzou Tigers and the Oklahoma Sooners were really big rivals. We didn’t like each other. Sam Bradford was starting quarterback for the Sooners and was hated more than anyone on that roster. In 2010 draft, the St. Louis Rams drafted Sam Bradford number 1. He went from being an enemy in Missouri to being the only hope for the Rams to have a winning season. When we put our faith in Christ we are put on a new team. We want nothing to do with the old life we used to live and want everything to do with winning with the team we are on. I don’t want evil in my life because it keeps me from doing good. I don’t want hatred, unforgiveness, and bitterness in my heart because it keeps me from loving others. I don’t want pride and jealousy in my heart because it keeps me from serving in humility. I want to grow to hate what is evil in my life because I am so grateful that God has made me into something new.
Jesus said again, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
Satan wants nothing more than to make us stumble. He wants us to fail, to feel like we can’t make a difference, to feel like God doesn’t love us because of what we have done, but that is a lie. God loves us and even when we fail and do what is evil God offers us forgiveness through His Son and invites us into something good. Jesus is the gate that leads to green pastures. The life that Jesus offers us in obedience is good. It is better than anything evil can offer us. A thief comes to steal kill and destroy but Christ came so that we might have life and have it in abundance. I have been set free. I don’t have to give in to temptation because God has made a way of escape.
No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.
Don’t entertain evil but instead cling to what is good. Resisting temptation isn’t about saying no. Saying no is a weak defense. We say no to temptation and yes to what is good.
Are there places in your heart where you entertain evil?
Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters
Here Paul introduces another type of love. Rather than using Agape a sacrificial love, Paul uses philostorgos which is a combination of phileo which means brotherly love and storge which is like the love between parents and children. The word philostorgos is a mix between this brotherly love and paternal love. Paul uses this word to show the bond we have together as a body being united in Christ. The people around you every Sunday and Wednesday when you come to worship are more than just members of the church. We are a family brought together by grace.
Do you see the church as part of your family?
Sometimes being a part of a family means that there is dysfunction. Every family has crazy people in it. The church can be a place of division and hurt but it shouldn’t be that way. The church should be a place where broken people can find healing. Where division and dysfunction makes way for unity and peace. Having love for each other is necessary when working with sinful, broken people.
Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.
When the love is gone you are left with a broken church.
I know that you have persevered and endured hardships for the sake of my name, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
In a letter to the church in Ephesus Jesus warns us what happens when a church loses sight of love. They may be doing a lot of good things. They might look good on the outside but without love it is all empty. Jesus calls the church to repent and return to love. We need to take time and sit with that. Jesus cares deeply about how we interact together as a church. Healthy churches love one another.
Do you love the people in your church?
Take the lead in honoring one another
What does it mean to honor someone?
To honor someone means to consider them first, put them first, to value them. Part of loving sacrificially means considering the needs of others above yourself. Paul challenges us to take the lead in honoring others. Don’t wait for other people to do it. You take the lead in serving. Another way it is phrased is to out do others in honoring. Paul offers it up almost as a competition. Who can be the best at being the least.
The book of Matthew tells a story of a few of Jesus’ disciples arguing amongst themselves. They saw all the ways Jesus was caring for the sick and the hurting but all they were thinking about was who would get to sit at the place of honor next to Jesus in heaven. Jesus gives us this beautiful truth about what it means to be a leader.
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons approached him with her sons. She knelt down to ask him for something. “What do you want?” he asked her. “Promise,” she said to him, “that these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right and the other on your left, in your kingdom.” Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?” “We are able,” they said to him. He told them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right and left is not mine to give; instead, it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.” When the ten disciples heard this, they became indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Being a leader isn’t about using your authority to tell people what to do or have control over people. Being a leader in the church means being a servant to all. To be great you must be last. To be first you must be a slave. Jesus is the example for leadership. He didn’t use His authority to control people although He has every right to do so as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Instead He lays down His glory to serve. To be a ransom for many.
If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others. Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
What would it take for you to be a leader in showing honor?
What would it look like for our youth group to live these things out?