Let Love...
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Paul has moved from principle to application.
Paul has moved from principle to application.
The biblical format is first doctrine then deed, first creed then conduct, first belief then behavior, and first revelation then responsibility. Without principle, exhortations would be simple platitudes, dull statements without support or cause.
So Paul says, I Appeal to you....therefore.
On these principles…in light of the first 11 chapters
Response to God’s mercy/grace to undeserving people
Present yourself a living sacrifice
Call to action, from knowledge to belief
Specifically, to the surrender to the Lordship of Jesus
Do not be conformed, but transformed....renewed mind
Right thinking leads to right action
Right thinking from submission to God’s authority/word
We begin to recognize His good and perfect will (desire) for our lives
WHAT IS GOD’s DESIRE?
Romans 1:5 We have recieved grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of His name among all nations.
GOD’s greatest desire, greatest concern, greatest aim…is that His name be glorified
Remember FROM HIM, THROUGH HIM, TO HIM are all things
Believers make much of God through the gifts He has given...
Don’t think too highly of yourselves
Your gifts are not by your own strength, wisdom, power
God given to serve others and glorify Him
Don’t think too lowly of yourselves
There are no little people in God’s kingdom
No matter what your ability, it is God given for His glory
No matter if you are behind the scenes, or in front of a spotlight what we do, we do for His renown.
Now, Paul moves from our gifting in these special areas of service, to our daily interactions (ethics), and he links them with verse 9, so that everything we do, should be seasoned with love.
The service and daily interactions of believers should be seasoned with love.
The service and daily interactions of believers should be seasoned with love.
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Literally = Let love be (any-poke-ree-tos) without hypocrisy
Hypocritos - Hypocrite - fake, actor playing a part on stage
Prefix a, an or anti .....means not or without
atypical - not typical
anomaly - not normal
An-hypocritos - without hypocrisy
What does Paul mean here?
What does hypocritical love look like?
How does genuine love differ?
How does our mind need to be transformed/renewed when we consider how we are to love others?
When we look at scripture, what does it reveal about hypocrisy?
Let love be... authentic.
Let love be... authentic.
Authentic - Not fake, not phony, but reliable and trustworthy
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Part of Jewish Culture was praying the “Shema”
Deut 6:4 Hear Oh Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One
Three times daily, morning, evening, night
Linger in the street, or synagogue = BEING SEEN
Not concerned with God, but concerned with gaining the acceptance and approval of other people.
So hypocritical love, is ”love” given for some form of personal gain...
Showing compassion so our generosity will be applauded.
Making sure what we do is seen, or heard about
Hypocritical love used to prove our own worth
Ourselves/ Others - look at my genenoristy, my sacrifice…my goodness
God - Look at all that I do, God must be proud, or God must really need me
Showing compassion so others are in our debt.
Manipulation....you owe me, remember how I helped you?
Functional Savior - You need my advice, my help, my guidance…let me help you fix your problems…
Relationships that seek to control or cause dependence, relationships that make us feel powerful or needed.
In short, we view other people as commodities
I will give you “love” if you give me something in return
So many marriages end in divorce because of hypocritical love
Men will “love” a woman - sex, trophy wife, cook and clean
Women will “love” a man - security, children, big house
No commitment, no faithfulness…when you are no longer providing what I need, or if someone else can do it better, I’m out
So hypocritical love reveals our selfish desire to be admired, and to be served by those around us.
Let love be... objective.
Let love be... objective.
Our thinking is either objective or subjective
Objective thought - unbiased, without personal opinion, based on facts and truth
Subjective thought - based on feelings, opinions, preference
Example :
Pretend I had a 10lb dumbbell up here sitting on the stage. Caydence comes by and says, that is a dumbbell, later Peanut comes by and says that is a dumbbell....Objectively, it is a dumbbell no matter who walks by they can say what it is.
But subjectively, if Caydence picks up the dumbbell, she might say, this is really heavy where as Peanut could pick up two or three of them and say these are not heavy at all.
What does that have to do with love?
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“ ‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
Both texts, Jesus is calling out a heart problem, of prejudice.
Matt - He condemns (WOE), pharisees b/c they go to great lengths to appear right with God, but do not show mercy and justice to those in need.
Why does he eat with those sinners?
Why is associating with those people?
We are Pharisees, from Abraham…look at our pedigree.
Mark - Jesus and his disciples are called out for not observing a traditional ceremonial hand washing before they ate.
We could do a sermon series on how man made traditions and opinions ruin and divide people…but
Jesus is pointing to their hearts…they care more about what others think, say or believe than what the truth of scripture says.
So because you don’t look like us, because you don’t act like us, because your sin is obvious but we can hide ours…
you are not worthy of our love or compassion
but you do deserve our judgement and wrath
Are there people groups, who you have subjectively, deemed unworthy, unfit, or unreachable.... even on God’s behalf?
For things like...
The color of their skin
Because they used an EBT card to buy groceries?
Their addiction to drugs or alcohol
The clothes they wear
Because their moped was slowing down traffic
Their prison record
Their weight
Their gender identity
Their sexual orientation
Subjectively, throughout history and even now, there are a lot of different opinions and reactions to some of these groups I have named....but let’s recap the objective truth of the bible...
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
d. No matter what group we want to place someone in, not matter their differences or our personal preferences, we all have this in common....we are made in the image of God, so we are all equal in dignity, value and worth, because we are image beares of God
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
e. We’ve seen this before…this is another common ground all people
i. Not only are we all image bearers of God
ii. Every single one of us are broken image bearers who do not meet God’s standards of righteousness…we are all sinners.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
f. And yet, God loved us to the point of death on the cross to redeem us
This is our common ground, this is where the body of believers is united, and this is the means by which the body of Christ can love without hypocrisy. This is the objective truth of the Bible, that God came to save sinners…the convict, the addict, white, black, hispanic, wealthy, poor, homosexual or heterosexual…anyone can be a whosoever
This truth has changed so many lives, and as we share this truth with others God will continue the work of making for Himself a people for His great name....
Let love be… cultivating.
Let love be… cultivating.
When we look at the common ground with have with others as sinners before a Holy God, the hope of the gospel is that we can be redeemed, that we can be forgiven of sin and free from guilt.
Paul says...
Love, and let it be genuine love (and then)
Abhor (hate/detest/be sickened by) what is Evil...
Cling (Hold tight, be glued, be joined) to what is good
All of this delivered in one sentence (original Greek)
Paul is showing us something essential about love
If genuine love seeks to benefit those we love
We must hate evil, because it would lead to their harm
We must cling to good, because it benefits those we seek to love
So we cannot genuinely love others, without an intense rejection of evil
The problem is, most of the time, it is easy for us to spot the evil in someone else’s life and hard to spot the evil we have in our own.
It is absolutely true, that we need to be a people that love others and speak the truth of scripture into the lives of those we love. This is true for those with and without their hope in Jesus.
It is also absolutely true, that we need to be a people that speak the truth of scripture to ourselves. That we pray that God would deliver us from evil, and that we would shine the light of His glory brighter.
Love cultivates, it teaches us, it matures us, it leads us to be more like Jesus
So as God reveals the sin of my
impatience and hard heart
my pride and jealousy
my prejudice and discrimination
my selfishness and resentment
I continue to press in to Him
repenting of my sin
asking for strength and guidance from the Holy Spirit
longing to see others benifit from His goodness rather than be harmed by by the evil that I don’t quite hate enough
God answers, He continues to lead, it may be a slow progression, I think of archeologist chiseling away, brushing away the dirt carefully so they they uncover something from within the rocks and dirt that is precious and preserved.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Amen