A Practical Life of Love

Sermon  •  Submitted
0 ratings
· 10 views
Notes
Transcript

Introduction

Good morning church, it is good to be back home this week. For everyone who has been praying for Felicity, her family, and I after losing Felicity’s father on the 21st, I want to say thank you. I also want to ask that you continue to lift us up as we look at making some difficult decisions moving forward within the next year or so. Today, we are continuing our look at Romans 12, picking up where Dean left off last week at verse 9 and going through verse 21. To recap a bit, last week, Dean shared with us the importance of being a part of the local community of believers. Truly, when one piece of the body is not functioning as God has called it to function, the whole body suffers and struggles to achieve the mission that God has called it to do. If you have not found your role in the local body, I want to challenge you to do so. Moving forward, today’s passage focuses on a key aspect of living in harmonious community, love. Love is the defining characteristic of the Christian faith. God sent Christ to save us dirty sinners because He loves us and wanted to make a way for us to be in relationship with Him. Christ gave himself willing to die on our behalf because He loves us. His love brought Him to the cross. His love brought Him to experience God’s wrath on our behalf, and it was not easy. Hours before his task began we saw the most candid glimpse of the struggle in the Garden where He prayed so fervently that He sweat blood. Despite knowing the full weight of what was about to happen, Christ willingly gave himself over to face the wrath because of His love for us. I preface this passage in this way because you need to know that love is not easy. This is not a flippant, oh yeah I love pizza, I love cake kind of love that Paul is about to describe. It’s a Christ like love. Let’s read the text.

Romans 12:9-21

9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good. 10 Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another. 11 Do not lack diligence in zeal; be fervent in the Spirit;,w serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. 13 Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. 18 If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay,,al says the Lord. 20 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.,an

21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.

Let’s pray. God, as we look to your word, guide us to discover how we can apply these things to our lives. Open our ears and our hearts to receive your word for it is not an easy word. We rely solely on You to provide the means to live out this love to each other as we strive to live in community together. Thank you for loving us in a way that was not easy, amen.

Verse By Verse

There is a lot of information here in today’s text, so I want to handle them in chunks to help us process what Paul is saying. First look back at verses nine through eleven.
Let love be without hypocrisy. Detest evil, cling to what is good. Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take lead in honoring one another.
Do not lack diligence in zeal, be fervent in the Spirit, serve the Lord. Paul is laying the cornerstone for this passage by handling love first. He says to let love be without hypocrisy. Our love for one another should be genuine. Practicing love outwardly and resenting it inwardly is a good way to breakdown community. Let love be without hypocrisy.
Detest evil, cling to what is good. How easy it is to participate in things that God tells us are detestable. Detest evil in all forms and cling to what is good.
Love one another deeply as brothers and sisters. Take the lead in honoring one another. Paul tells us to love each other as siblings. While not all siblings have great relationships, most siblings know that they may have problems, but at the end of the day, they are family.
Do not lack diligence in zeal, be fervent in the Spirit, serve the Lord. I think one could sum this verse as don’t be lazy in serving God with your love. Be diligent and fervent in your love.
Next, look to verses twelve through fifteen. 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.
Rejoice in hope, be patient in affliction, be persistent in prayer. One of the important aspects of the Christian faith is our hope that we have in Christ when things go sideways. We know that our God is listening to our prayers always, even in the times of affliction.
Share with the saints in their needs, pursue hospitality. As we see members of our community in the moments of affliction, we are to love them by sharing in their needs and pursuing hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. It is easy to take out frustration by condemning those who persecute us harboring anger towards them, but Paul says in love we should look to bless those who persecute us. This statement mirrors Jesus’s teaching to love our enemies.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Paul is teaching empathy. Share the feelings of those in your community. When something good happens for someone in your faith family rejoice with them. When someone in your community suffers, weep with them, but don’t forget to practice hospitality as well.
Paul says in verses sixteen through eighteen, 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.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation. As a community, we will thrive when we are in harmony, fulfilling the roles that God has called us to. We must make a practice of admitting our limitations and accepting the role of the community around us.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. Using the sibling metaphor from earlier, just because your brother takes your toy, it does not give you grounds to slap him. Deal with one another in love and when evil is done to you, seek a righteous way of dealing with it. Sometimes that means forgiving the offense and letting it go, and sometimes that means seeking justice and still forgiving them. It just depends on what is happening, but temper your response with love.
If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. If everyone else is living in peace, don’t be the one to stir the pot. Jesus teaches that blessed are the peacemakers and Paul seconds that.
In the final set, verses nineteen through twenty-one, Paul says, 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.
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. Paul quotes from Deuteronomy chapter 32 where God claims the role of avenger for Himself. It is not our job to make sure people get their just desserts. In the aspect of revenge, we must trust God.
But “If you 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. Paul quotes from Proverbs this time to say that the best thing we can do for our enemies to show them love.
Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good. Paul tells us that we have a choice. We can either choose to show others love and do good, or to do evil. To serve God we must choose to love others.

Conclusion

Paul gives a lot of practical advice in this passage about how to live a life that is defined by love. As followers of Christ, we do well to take him up on his advice. Much of what he teaches involves us giving up our wants and desires to love others and trust God.
As we look to live in community together taking these teachings to heart is critical. At the end of the day, we are all sinners. In Christ we have been redeemed, but each of us still struggle with sin to some degree. One of the most common reasons people cite for why they left church is because someone hurt or offended them or demonstrated some form of hypocrisy. First, we must strive to catch ourselves before we hurt others, and when we have done so to humbly seek forgiveness. Second, if you are on the receiving end of the hurt or offense, you would do well to remember that you too are a sinner saved by grace and in love should seek to reconcile with your brother. In verses three through eight Paul tells us the importance of living in local community. In verses nine through twenty-one he shows us that love will make it possible. Christian, remember who you serve and demonstrate love to your brothers and sisters.
There may be some of you here or listening who do not have the opportunity to partake in Christian community because you have not placed your faith in Christ. I invite you to come talk with Dean or I about what that looks like for your life.
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more