Romans 12:9-10

Glory be to God! Banner Kids, y’all are free to go. Good morning, everyone. If we have not had the chance to meet yet, my name is William, and I have the blessing of serving on staff here at Banner church as the College and Discipleship director. If you have your copy of God's Word, I want to invite you to open up to Romans chapter 12, verse 9. As we start this morning, I want to ask y’all a question. What exactly is love? I want to maybe answer that question by telling you the story of a man named David Brainerd. David lived during the colonial era of America. He was a remarkable and promising young student and found his way to the top of his class at Yale. Even more remarkable is that at the age of 21, he came to faith in Christ. At this time in America, the Great Awakening was getting started. Many in the colonies were split on where they stood on the Great Awakening. Yale, as a college, was opposed to it and chose to align with a more progressive and liberal theology. David, on the other hand, believed in the teaching of the Great Awakening and the Biblical truth it taught. David made an offhanded comment once about a certain faculty member who opposed the Great Awakening. David’s comment had to do with how David had doubts about whether this faculty member was even saved. Well, that comment was heard by the wrong group of people, and David got expelled from Yale. As a new college dropout, David then entered ministry, where he served as a missionary to Native Americans in the wilderness of New Jersey for four years. During his time as a missionary, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. At age 28, David died from that same illness. Why would David do this? During his time, very few saw the Native Americans as a mission field. Most saw them as dangerous and a problem. The conversation was not about how to reach them with the Gospel but how to get rid of them. David saw it differently. Why? He could have had much easier mission fields. He could have found places to serve without fear of being killed by a hostile people group, in much more comfortable places than the wilderness. What was once a promising young leader became a college dropout who died a few years later. David went to some of the darkest areas of the world during his lifetime, not for success or notoriety, but because of love. During his short few years with the Native Americans, David single-handedly saw more than 130 people come to Christ. Let that sink in for a moment. Because of one man’s yes, over 130 people came to faith in Christ. Though his life was cut short here on earth, David now spends eternity with the Lord he served, along with the people whom most saw as problems, but whom he saw as brothers and sisters. They are now reunited forever in the presence of God. This is love. Over the past few weeks, we have been discussing the marks of maturity in a follower of Christ. We have seen how a mature follower is joyful and faithful. This week we will look at our next mark, which is loving. So if you are willing and able, please stand with me as we read our passage for this morning. Romans chapter 12, starting in verse 9. We will be reading all the way to verse 10, so get comfortable. “9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” Thank you, you may be seated. And as we begin to look at what God is saying to us in His word, let's start by turning to Him in prayer.

(Pray for the Lord to use this text to make us a loving people).

Though we may only have two verses this week, there is a lot to cover in them. Though short in length, I believe this passage holds a lot of gravity as it instructs on what should be a chief concern of a follower of Christ. This passage comes from the book of Romans. Paul, the author of the letter, spends the first 11 chapters in deep theological discussion. He speaks a lot about the wickedness of man and sin. He spends a lot of time talking about how we are justified by faith in Christ, which is a gift of grace from God. Chapter 12 marks a shift in the letter, where Paul discusses how to respond and apply what he has discussed in the first 11 chapters. What this teaches us just from a broad view of the book is that theology should always lead to doxology. Or, in other words, how we think about God should always lead to worship of Him. The theologian Ronni Kurtz once said, “If you are the same person after gazing at God as you were before, then something went wrong.” I think Paul would agree with that statement because he says here that if you are saved by Christ, you must be loving. In light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, believers are to be changed from people with hearts of stone to hearts of flesh, full of love. Paul knows that the church should be marked by love. Believers are to be moved by love. We will see that Paul makes three important points about love in these two verses and will cover them all during our time this morning. So, let’s jump into it. The first point is that love is genuine.

Love is Genuine

There is a real issue we can fall into: we act lovingly because we know it is the right thing to do, but in our hearts, we cannot find love. That is far from loving. It is a lie. Instead, our love should be genuine. How loving is it if we act loving towards our brothers and sisters, but in reality care little for them? How can we say we love them if we curse them or gossip about them behind their backs? That is not love. The world has a lot to say about love that can confuse us. However, love should only be defined in the Lord. The apostle John writes about this in 1 John 4:7–8: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Love is directly connected to God. No one has ever loved or been loving by trying really hard. In fact, because of our sin, we are quite unloving. Bearing the fruit of love is direct evidence that we know God, the opposite of the sin we are responsible for. If we loved God as we should, then why would we ever sin?It is plain to us that there are plenty of examples of a lack of love in this world, and if we were totally honest, in our own hearts, for we all feel the weight of sin. But in light of the Lord, we are called to live a loving life. He has loved us when we least deserved it. We sinned against a perfect and holy God. Paul highlights this in Romans 3:10-12: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” But even though we were so evil and corrupt, God still loved us and provided a way for us to be reconciled to Him. The best example of love is not a mushy gushy love story; love is displayed on the cross as Jesus endured the punishment and death we deserved. In light of that, how could we not be loving towards others? When we behold the Gospel, we should walk away as loving people. Because we are so loved by God, how could we act any other way towards others? Are they not also loved by God? He made them in His image as well. If we want to look more and more like Christ, then we must become more loving. From the overflow that the Lord fills your heart with love, we should love others. Not to be seen. Not because we have to. But because the Lord loves them. Because they need to know the Gospel. Because we have been so loved. Because Christ is worth it. Because love is in our hearts. The Lord does not call for us to be hypocritical, putting on a front. We are called to genuine love. So my challenge is for us to look for the love the Lord has given us. Read God’s word and be amazed at just how sinful we are and how loving God is towards us. Pray for the Lord to make our hearts more like His, compassionate and loving towards people. Hold each other accountable in this. Here at Banner Church, we have a set of standards we hold all of our members to. In that we ask our members to safeguard the church. That includes shutting down any gossip because that is a harmful, ugly, and just unloving thing we as people do. We have that as part of our standards because we want our love for one another to be genuine. I would love for you all to be members, but hear me when I say this: this is not a Banner Church thing. If you are not a member, you should still shut down gossip. You should seek to hold other believers to the standard Christ calls us to. Our love should be genuine, not two-faced. This is what Paul speaks of when he says to abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good. As we grow in love, we will learn to have a distaste for that which is evil. True love cannot stand for what is evil and sinful. God loves us and also hates our sin. That is why Jesus’ death on the cross was necessary and the perfect display of love. In that action, God is both pouring out His love and acting on the sin that He hates. So, for us to be loving towards someone, it might require us to abhor or hate a certain evil. We love the person, not their sin. If I know a brother is in sin, I do not want them to continue in it because of how evil sin is. So in love, I would encourage them to flee from it. This translates to a larger scope as well. Take the story of David Brainerd, for example. He surely saw the evil hearts of men turn against the Native Americans. His response was to hold fast to what is good. Instead of joining in the evil of the day, he sought to reach the Native Americans with the Gospel. This is genuine love. A love that hates evil and clings to good. In the next verse, Paul then discusses brotherly love.

Brotherly Love

Paul further describes the love we have for one another by describing it as brotherly. But before we get to that, I want to actually read this same verse from a different translation. We typically read from the English Standard Version here at Banner, which is an amazing and reliable translation. Another great translation is the Legacy Standard Bible. It is a little more literal with its translation of the original Greek words, and look what it says about this verse. Romans 12:10 “being devoted to one another in brotherly love” The Greek word he uses here for devoted is the only time that word is used in the whole Bible. It may also be translated as loving dearly. This is the type of love believers should have for their brothers and sisters. How many people can you think of who are devoted to you? For many of us, the best examples we can think of might be family members. I praise the Lord for an incredibly loving family. Both the family I was raised in and the family I gained when my wife, Sarah, and I got married. Paul is challenging us here that as believers, this is the type of love we should have for all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not just the ones we are close to. Not just close friends or family. We are to have this love for all believers. Banner Church, are we committed to loving one another in devoted brotherly love? Do we hold our brothers and sisters in Christ at the same level as we hold our family members? How far are we willing to go to show our fellow brothers and sisters the love we have for them? When you are saved, you are adopted by the Father of love into a household of love, full of brothers and sisters who are devoted to you in love. There is no greater support system you can find. God’s people are to reflect His love to His family. We are to imitate Christ, the true Son of God, who suffered on the cross in our place out of love. Are we willing to lay our lives down for our brothers and sisters? Jesus says in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” We see that clearly in the cross, for there is no better example of love than Jesus pierced for our transgressions. Jesus was this devoted to loving us. Here, God is calling for us to do the same. We all need community like this. That is one of the beauties of the local church. As a member of Banner, I know I have believers who will lock arms with me and point me to Christ. They are devoted to my relationship with the Savior. If you are not a member of a local church, this is something you rob yourself of. When you become a member, you join a family devoted to loving one another. If this is something you have thought of or considered for a while, let me ask you, why delay? Banner Church is not a perfect church, but I know we serve a perfect Savior who loves us. God has given us the local church for a reason. He uses it to remind us of His love and to help us grow in maturity in Christ. He blesses His people with the ordinary saints He fills His local church with. So I want to encourage you and challenge you to be a member of a local church. We at Banner would love to lock arms with you and pursue Christ together, but it does not have to be here at Banner. There are many faithful, Gospel-preaching churches in our area for which I praise the Lord. The Lord shows us His love in many ways, and one of those is through the devoted brothers and sisters in the faith you find in the local church. Paul makes one more point in this section: we must outdo one another in showing honor.

Showing Honor

It is fitting that Paul commands us to show honor, as it should go hand in hand with love. If our love is genuine, then we will honor our brothers and sisters. If we are devoted to loving our brothers and sisters, then we must also honor them. If we cannot commit to honoring one another, then can we really say we love one another? I like how Paul phrases the command to honor one another. We are to outdo one another. To do this, we must humble our pride and seek to love others as more significant than ourselves. Our commitment to one another is not a passive one, where we sit around waiting to be served by others. Love compels us into humble service of one another, seeking to outdo one another in showing honor. Love does not lead someone to exalt themselves over others. If we love others, then we will seek to honor them. Likewise, we should rejoice when our brothers and sisters are honored, not envious. Love is not jealous of our brothers and sisters. If we are grateful for our brothers and sisters and love them genuinely, then we rejoice at them receiving honor. We are moved to want to see them receive honor. There’s a quote by John Owens in his book Duties of Christian Fellowship that says, “The teaching of the Lord Jesus emphasises no other virtue as highly as that of mutual, intense, affectionate love amongst his followers.” I think that quote summarizes the passage we have pretty well. Because of the Gospel and what Jesus has taught us as followers, love is of the highest importance. If we cannot be loving towards one another, then we will struggle to show love to the lost. If we are unloving people who struggle to humble our pride and cannot commit to loving one another, then we have missed the mark. Maturity in Christ does not look like lifting yourself up higher than everyone else; it looks like lowering yourself to lift others up. Christ lowered Himself and took the form of a servant because of His love for us. If we want to be more like Christ, then our love should also bring us to be like Him as a humble servant. Be willing to go above and beyond to show love for your brothers and sisters. That must start in our hearts. If we have bitterness in our hearts for a brother or sister, then we will not be loving or honoring towards them. When our eyes are fixed on Christ, then our view of everyone else changes. We start to see them as Christ sees them. Christ died for them. It should not be so difficult to go above and beyond in honoring our brothers and sisters. The way we speak about each other should change as we behold Him. The actions and the decisions we make are no longer just our actions, but we must consider if it is honoring to our brothers and sisters. If I tell a joke about a brother that makes fun of him, I certainly am not honoring them. And if I cannot even honor them with my speech, then love is not in my heart for them. Jesus has made clear that His followers will be identified by the love they have for one another. See what He says in John 13:34–35: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” If we are His, simply put, we will be loving. If Christ is Lord of your life, then love will be in your heart. This is not an option. We are to have a life marked by love. Love will make you do some strange things in life. And I don't mean do something stupid to get the attention of a girl. Love will, like David Brianerd, send you to places you never thought about going to share the Gospel with people that would probably rather you not. Love will make you soft. Where hearts were once hardened towards others, love will make you devoted to them. Love will humble you and seek the well-being of your brothers and sisters over the well-being of yourself. Love will change your speech and bring you closer to the believers around you. Love will overcome your fear and give you boldness to share the Gospel. And all that is only because Love first went to the cross in your place. The reality is that we do not deserve any love that comes to us. We all have sinned against God and rejected His great love. But God is steadfast, and His love is unshakable. Though we rejected Him and sinned, which is the opposite of love, God still loves us. We have a great debt of sin, and the price of sin is death. A death that was paid not by any of us but by Jesus Christ, who was specifically loving you when He was nailed to the cross. You cannot have the Gospel or be one of Jesus’ followers without love. If you want to know true love, don’t look anywhere else than Christ. You can have that love right now if you just place your faith in Him. You will not know love until you know Him. He wants to be your savior, regardless of what He is saving you from. The price for your sins has been paid. The work is finished. You are not too far gone to receive the Love of Christ. You have to accept it, though. As we close, consider what love God has shown to you through the Gospel and in His Word. Look back on your own life and just reflect on how He has used others in your life to show you His love. As we see that, let’s live lives that reflect that love. Let’s not just be recipients of that love, but let's remind others of the love that comes from the Lord. Let’s be a people who Christ’s love is evident in their lives. Let’s not just talk about it but live it out. With all that we do, let’s be loving. Let’s pray.