Romans 12:9-13
The book of Romans • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The context of Romans 12 - Because of the Lord’s mercy…As I engage in spiritual worship, my mind is renewed and my heart is transformed.
Verse 2 told us how the process brings clarity to our life.
Verse 3 taught us the importance of growing in humility
Verses 4-5 pushes us to trust the abilities of other Christians.
Verses 6-8 prompt us to serve the body of Christ.
The rest of Romans 12 is going to teach us several characteristics of a transformed person. Today’s characteristics are specific to Christian relationships. Every one of these characteristics is facilitated by a sincere unhidden Christ-like love.
MAIN IDEA: Six characteristics of a transformed person
A transformed person has sincere and unhidden love.
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
This sentence would have been an unacceptable behavior in the Roman world. Roman culture believed showing emotion or affection was a sign of weakness. There was an assumed posture that family members loved each other, but it was weak for them to say so.
In Everybody Loves Raymond, the family is sarcastic and treats each other with contempt. Wikipedia said this about Frank (the father), “Frank Barone is a retiree prone to directing insults and merciless put-downs at everyone he meets. Largely an absentee father when Ray and Robert were growing up, Frank buries his feelings and rarely yields to sentiment. As the series progresses, however, several episodes demonstrate that he loves his family immensely.”
In the Roman culture, Frank would have been celebrated as a strong man. However, as we read through the New Testament, sincere and unhidden love is a virtue. It is the first fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5. It is the greatest commandments mentioned by Jesus in the gospels. It is the reason why the Good Samaritan provides care in Luke 10. It is the standard for identifying authentic believers, according to 1 John 4. In 1 Corinthians 13:13, we read “the greatest of these is love.”
For me, verse 9 is the beginning of one big ‘if~then’ statement. If love is sincere and unhidden, then other characteristics of transformation will grow and reveal themselves. If love is NOT sincere and unhidden, then we our growth will plateau. Many other characteristics of transformation will not reveal themselves.
A transformed person is committed to moral excellence.
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Some of your versions might say, “cling to what is good.” Cling is a word that describes a biblical marriage. Not in the unhealthy, needy type of cling, but in a committed faithfulness toward your spouse. Paul says believers are to have the committed faithfulness toward good and don’t flirt with or date sinfulness, evil or anything else that conflicts with biblical wisdom. Flirting with sinfulness always has a progression; eventually we will cheat on God and be guilty of spiritual adultery. Here are a few verses to help us out
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Psalm 1:1–2 (ESV)
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Proverbs 8:13 (ESV)
13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
Proverbs 9:10 (ESV)
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
A transformed person is devoted to fellow believers and is quick to highlight their value.
10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
We should be careful that we don’t view friendliness inside a church building as a devotion to fellow believers. Tell me some of your favorite hobbies. Can you imagine life without them? There are weeks and months that our schedules are just crazy and it’s hard to make time for those hobbies. They are your favorites and you always come back to them because life seems empty without them.
When we are devoted to the fellow believers we worship with, life should seem empty when we aren’t with each other. Devotion to fellow believers should prompt us to pray for one another. Devotion to fellow believers should prompt a text message or phone call, “hey, I was thinking about you today.”
Devotion to fellow believers is also throwing the spotlight on their value. Look back at verse 3. There is great humility in the person who is able to celebrate the spotlight being on another believer. Truthfully, sometimes that’s hard to do. We want to be successful. We want people to see what we did. We want to be appreciated and celebrated. We also want to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The renewing of our mind is what allows us to highlight the value of other people and allow our value to be in the shadow.
A transformed person pray for servanthood endurance.
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Do not be slothful in zeal…Other versions use lagging instead of slothful. In our modern life, Paul could have written the sentence with buffering. If something on your screen is buffering, we automatically think it needs to be fixed. We aren’t patient while we wait for our internet to catch up with our game, show or movie. Internet companies market higher internet speeds so there is enough endurance for the demands we place on our wifi.
There are many great things about mission trips. We visit another culture. We serve a group of people that appreciate us giving our time. We experience the greatness of God. We learn some things about ourselves. We’re only gone for a short amount of time. Anybody can get pumped up for the week of serving.
Serving people week after week takes more energy. When we are part of a church plant, the leadership team told us that we would be scheduled in one of two areas, children’s ministry or hospitality. We would serve one week and be in the service the other week. They would give us our serving schedule and they told us to cancel any vacations for the next year. Those two years took a lot of energy, but the devotion to our fellow believers was deeply evident. God supplied the servanthood endurance that was needed to keep going.
9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
A transformed person experiences the sustaining power of grace through prayer.
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
If we want the power of grace to sustain during the hard times of life, we need to give credit to the power of grace in the hopeful times of life. Both categories should escort us to prayer.
A transformed person looks for opportunities to be generous with other believers.
13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
2 Timothy 4:10 says, “Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me.” Demas’ flirted with sinfulness enough that dating sinfulness was more significant that loving the Lord, being devoted to fellow believers, and serving others through the Lord’s work.
