The upside down: Thinking different on how we view others
Notes
Transcript
Bible Passage: Romans 12:9–12
Bible Passage: Romans 12:9–12
Introduction
Recap on equation for Romans 12:1-2
Surrender leads to renewed mind that leads to a transformed attitude or transformed mindset. But not just any attitude or mind. The mind and attitudes of Christ.
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
You should have the same attitude (“have the same mindset” NIV) toward one another that Christ Jesus had,
As we look through the rest of Romans remember, Christ is one who transforms, Christ is the standard of transformation and Christ is the who gets the glory from our transformation. So we saw in verse 3-8 how God renewed our minds and changed our thinking regarding how we view ourselves.
Recap main points of last week
The conformed mind chooses exaltation, but the renewed mind views itself humbly.
Humility - is a God-centered, honest view of ourselves in light of His grace and mercy.
ii. The conformed mind chooses competition; a renewed mind sees itself unified.
iii. The conformed mind uses it’s gift for glory and to build oneself up, but a renewed mind uses them to glorify God and build his church.
Looking ahead: In Romans 12:9-12, After Paul looked at the renewed mind inwardly we now focuses outwardly specifically it impact on our relationship to others around us in the church.
more: As believers, we’re called to love God and love people, but not all love is equal. I love my child deeper than I love someone else’s. Scripture teaches degrees of love—and calls us to love everyone, yet to a higher degree of love to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith.
Here Paul shows what the greater love looks like.
Love must be without hypocrisy.
1. People with the mind of Christ love authentically
1. People with the mind of Christ love authentically
Love must be without hypocrisy.
The word hypocrite originally meant “play-actor.” Paul is literally saying love without acting. Growing up, my mom loved the show ER and George Clooney. He played a doctor on TV, but in a real emergency, he couldn’t do nothing. A hypocrite pretends to be what he or she is not.
Paul places this here right after explaining a unified healthy church. Why? Because fake love kills authentic community and unity every time.
Its politeness with venomous animosity or unconcern behind it.
Fake Love - is behind gossip. Instead sharing the truth in love, you grumble, complain to others while their not present.
Fake Love - is behind prejudice or discrimination. Instead of addressing a bias or hate in ones heart to receive healing. We fake it and don’t wrestle through our differences.
Fake Love - is absence of tough love that confronts people sins. Instead of addressing that person’s sin we smile while secretly having an issue with their actions.
Some believe this opening of love sets the tone for everything that follows. I’m not fully convinced, but whether it’s true or not, one thing is certain: God’s view of love is woven through nearly every instruction for the next seven verses.
This is important to know of love: For love to be authentic, it must come from a love of God. His love pervades our entire being and shapes our relationship with others. Jesus warns, “where lawlessness increases, the love of many will grow cold.”(Matt 24:12) Without God, real love is impossible.
We love because he loved us first.
So if there is a problem with our horizontal love, the issue lies in your vertical love.
2. People with the mind of Christ love what God loves and hate God hates.
2. People with the mind of Christ love what God loves and hate God hates.
Romans 12:9b
Detest evil; cling to what is good.
Verses like this show why biblical literacy matters. It doesn’t take to long of a search in our culture to hear, “God is love, not hate”.
Here’s a hard truth pill to swallow.
God is is God of Love and a God of Hate. Hate in context here means to be disgusted, reviled and repulsed at something or someone.
God hates Idolatry: Deuteronomy 7:25
You shall burn the carved and sculpted images of their gods in the fire. You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, so that you will not be ensnared by it [in a deadly trap], for it is an abomination (repulsive) to the LORD your God.
God hates social injustice: Isaiah 61:8
For I the Lord love justice;
I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
God hates divorce: Malachi 2:16
“I hate divorce,” says the Lord God of Israel, “and the one who is guilty of violence,” says the Lord who rules over all. “Pay attention to your conscience, and do not be unfaithful.”
God hate religiosity Isaiah 1:14 (these are people who do religious rituals with true no relationship with God.
God hate’s violence, Snobbish or Haughtiness, A lying tongue, schemers, divisiveness, Proverbs 6:16
God who is Holy who must be consistent in order for him to love, he must hate the thing that seeks to destroy what he adores.
God loves marriage, therefore he hates divorce.
God loves life, therefore he hates murder and violence.
God loves justice, therefore he hates injustice.
Paul’s vital instruction is this: to love people purely, we must align with God’s moral standard. Remember, Chapter 12 begins contrasting the renewed mind with the conformed (depraved) mind described in Chapter 1, verse 31-32, he says. Romans 1:32
Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
Affection can lure us to compromise God’s moral standards. Love isn’t genuine if it leads toward sin, excuses evil, or encourages people to be more wicked.
3. People with the mind of Christ love like a family
3. People with the mind of Christ love like a family
Show family affection (devoted) to one another with brotherly love.
a. John Stott notes that the Greek words for “devoted” and “brotherly love” are related to the same root word “Philo,” meaning “brotherly love,”. Like the city of Philadelphia. Paul is intentionally using familial language to describe how we treat one another in the church.
Growing up, I lost close blood relatives and didn’t have strong family ties. The first Father’s Day gift I ever bought was for my pastor. One day, at Oliver & Branny’s soccer game, I realized I was cheering for Branny with the same joy I’d have for my son.
In the Gospels, as Jesus is being crucified, he sees His mother and says to the disciple John, “Behold, your mother.” Now, Jesus wasn’t an only child, John wasn’t his brother. He entrusted Mary to the church John 19:27 says “From that very time the disciple took her into his own home.”
He then said to his disciple, “Look, here is your mother!” From that very time the disciple took her into his own home.
love toward one another should be indistinguishable to our family.
Outdo one another in showing honor.
4. People with the mind of Christ leads others in showing respect
4. People with the mind of Christ leads others in showing respect
a. In a recent podcast interview, a guest shared an overwhelming number of heartbreaking stories of newer Christian women being shamed in church for their lack of modesty. The church (our church) isn’t by whom we look down on, but by whom we lift up. Holiness and correction are required, but must be done in the heart to build up, not tear down.
Paul’s point is similar in Philippians 2:3
Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself.
We read this and think, “Of course, respect people.” Duh. But in the first century, Paul’s words were radical. Listen to what a scholar of ancient Rome says.,
“If, at church, I hold a door open for someone, it is not revolutionary, whoever it may be. In a first-century house church, if a slave held a door open for their master, no one would notice. If a master held a door open for a slave, this would be very radical.… Paul’s call implies giving each person honour individually.… In first-century terms this is outrageous.”
Radical honoring looks across cultures and generations, but here are ways to apply it today.
Invite someone in your home, that you might not necessarily want a first glance (please be safe). Or better go over someone’s house and be in their environment that gives dignity.
Allow someone to help you or serve along side you that gives honor.
Tell someone of something you admire about them.
My desire is that everyone at SLC are leaders in showing respect.
Do not lack diligence; be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord.
5. People with the mind of Christ are Persistent in Passionate Service
5. People with the mind of Christ are Persistent in Passionate Service
Some of your translations read, “lazy in zeal” or “lack in enthusiasm” . When you hear comic book enthusiast, Wine enthusiast, or Star Wars enthusiast, what comes to mind? Someone seriously deeply invested, borderline fanatical. The term “Zealot” sounds negative today, but in the ancient world, zeal was often viewed as a good. .
Paul contrasts being “lazy,” a word that carries the idea of flagging, a flag without wind that droops, with being “fervent in Spirit.” A phrase that means boiling over. A picture of burning with passion.
This all relates to how we live transformed lives with others. Passion alone isn’t enough. Paul says in earlier chapters that Israel had misdirected its zeal, or zeal not according to truth. That’s why Paul anchors this command with “serve the Lord.” Misguided passion harms. Paul once had zeal for Judaism and persecuted believers. But when our enthusiasm is aligned with God and His truth. Watch out, you will be a powerful blessing to everyone around us.
In Acts it introduces us to Apollos a young man who was on fire for the Lord it says this, Acts 18:25
He had been instructed by word of mouth in the way of the Lord, and being full of burning zeal he used to speak and teach accurately the facts about Jesus, though he knew of no baptism but John’s.
Holy passion is informed by truth and fueled by the Holy Spirit. Spirit. We know its from God when it holds up to Scriptures and walks in step with the Spirit. We can’t be lazy in Zeal or be Crazy in Zeal, but we must be Spirit filled Zeal.
Biblical zeal isn’t reckless passion-it’s fervent, hard-working devotion aligned with God’s truth and directed toward serving the Lord.
6. People with the mind of Christ Press on Through Prayerful Patience
6. People with the mind of Christ Press on Through Prayerful Patience
Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer.
Paul opens with rejoicing in hope. Thomas Schreiner says it best: “Joy evaporates when hope vanishes, and thus the fires of joy can be stoked only by focusing on hope.” In hip-hop, we’d say, that’s a bar. A really good line.
People without hope often carry what I call a Genesis 3 mindset. Before the fall, humanity ruled in abundance. After sin entered, the first response was, “We’re naked—we need clothes.” Suddenly, everything became deficit. Loss replaced blessing.
A mind set on the world sees only how many ways life can fail, instead of how many ways God has already won. Paul ties hope, patience in trials, and perseverance in prayer together because they shape how we respond to hardship—both our own and the struggles of others.
A Genesis 3 mindset says, why pray, why be obedient my situation won’t change. While hopefullness sets our mind toward God’s promises and putting hope in God not my circumstances.
Being Patient in trials means “to stand one’s ground” to hold out. When I played tug of war, I would dig my heels in and just resist, saving my strength until my opponent got tired or fell, then I’d haul butt.
God calls us to stand firm in our trials and in others, not forcing outcomes to make our timeline, but trusting him until victory is in the distance.
Finally, be glued to prayer. Think of a personal assistant who never leaves a famous or powerful person’s side, attending to their every need. Paul says we need to be that close to prayer. Attached at the hip. For our suffering and the suffering of other believers.
One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’ ”
Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”
In my before Christ days, people knew me as the one who disappeared-Calvin in MIA. When life was lifing hard, I shut down, isolated, and spiraled until... if I was going through something, I figured out a way. I would shut my phone off, isolate, get more discouraged, and rack my brain until I figured it out. Is that still you to this day?
Jesus transforms us not only so we can respond different, but also advise others differently who are going through a battle.
Closing: In all of this we see all of these virtues embodied in Christ.
He was genuine in his love (John 8:1-11 woman in adultery), he had compassion on sinners, but confronted them on their sin. He didn’t compromise God’s moral standard. (Luke 23:47) . He treated the church like family (Matthew 12:48-49). He lead in giving honor (John 13:1-17) He was always prayerful, hopeful, and obedient to God’s plan. (Philippians 2:8) . He is the example.
This week I want to pick someone in the church and write one thing you admire about their character, their attitude or their faith walk.
Pray for that person.
Lastly (for me) to invite People to pray for others who have Genesis 3 mindset.
