WAC2BL:
Honorable ~ Honoring One Another
Scripture Text: Romans 12.9-13
INTRODUCTION
It’s nothing new to expect that a person would-act according to a code-of-conduct. For-example… the investment-banker, turned-swindler – Bernie Madoff – …broke a code-of-conduct. And-now… he’s going to spend the rest of his life behind-bars. We have certain-expectations of those who handle our money.
Over the last-nine-months, we’ve hear-about NFL players and their run-ins with the law. NFL players have been convicted of running a dog-fighting ring, …or DUI manslaughter, …or carrying an unregistered weapon, and shooting-himself in the leg! ~ …these-guys are facing major repercussions from the NFL league commissioner! Why? Because the NFL has some expectations about how their-players conduct themselves in public.
In your own-family, …there were expectations engrained-in-you from a very-early-age. For example, …some families impress on their members to make-good on their work-obligations. Such-that, even rebellious-teen-agers who lived on-the-wild-side, …there were many nights when I would come home not-long before sun-up; …but, got themselves out of bed, in-time to get the morning chores done. It didn’t matter how they felt! “Mom-and-Dad” had-taught them that their family was dependable!
I’ll-bet that it wouldn’t take-you-long to-come-up-with some-things that your family impressed-on-you. They are things-that your family prizes.
TRANSITION
That’s kinda-what this sermon-series is all-about: …What’s it mean to be a church family? What’s a church to be like? Does Scripture give us any-help, when it comes to defining characteristics?
And-in-fact, …it does. Actually, …a whole-lot! We’ve-already-seen, …the members of a church-family are to be forgiving toward one-another; …we’re to be missional-and-purposeful; …our attitudes, goals, and hearts are to be Christlike; …and we’re to be a holy-people.
BODY
Over-the-course of the last-few-weeks, …we’ve heard a common-theme that has been running through each of the characteristics: …and that-theme is: love. Love is like the kettle that all the ingredients go-into, and come-out-of. Love is the glue that holds it all together. Love is what shapes each-and-every characteristic; …and love plays a huge-role in today’s passage!
I. What Are You Full Of?
In verses 9-and-10, there is a great emphasis on love. As-a-matter-of-fact, …this paragraph begins with:
“Love must be sincere.”
It must be genuine, …authentic, …true-blue. Genuine-love does not spring from a divided-heart; …that’s why it powerfully shapes the way-we-are with each other.
The Greek word here is: agape. Agape-love is a sacrificial, …self-giving, …carry-your-cross and pour-yourself-out ‘cause the other-person needs-what-you-have-to-offer, kinda-love! Agape-love is whole-hearted. It’s undivided. And-that’s-why Scripture tells us that this love must be sincere. If it’s not genuine, …if it’s not sincere, …if it’s not whole-hearted, …then it’s not agape-love! Let your love be sincere.
But an interesting thing happens as we follow the train-of-thought from “Let your love be sincere”, …moving on to verse 10 we find one-way to apply this to daily-living. In the NIV, it reads this-way:
“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.”
But, in-the-Greek, if you translated it word-for-word, you’d get this:
“In brotherly-love to one another, love-warmly…”
Now… the reason this is interesting is two-fold: First, notice that in-the-Greek “love” is mentioned twice. Now, in English, we think that’s wordy. It’s repetitive. Our English-teachers in high-school taught us not to write-like-that. But ~ in Greek, it’s perfectly acceptable. As-a-matter-of-fact, …this is how you draw-attention to the main-idea that you wanna-get-across! Repeating a word or-phrase is a way of sounding a siren and-saying: “Pay-attention-here! “This is important!” And-so, …we should perk-up-our-ears, …and sit-on-the-edge of our-seats, …and listen-closely because three-times in two-short-verses, …three-times we are told to love!
The second reason why this is all-so-interesting is that the Greek-words for ‘love’ in verse 10 are not the same as the word in verse 9. In verse 9, it was agape. In verse 10, the words are phileo. Now… You might-be-thinkin’, “Hey… it’s all ‘Greek’ to-me!” And I understand that… But, before you-check-out ~ …let me tell-you that the Greek-word phileo has snuck into the English vocabulary! This-is-the-word that stands-behind the name of one of our most-famous cities: Philadelphia. And what is the motto, …or the nickname for Philadelphia?
It’s the city of brotherly-love. That’s-what the Greek-word, phileo means: brotherly-love. Family-love. The kind of love that families share with one another. Through thick-and-thin; …in good-times-and-bad; …in it for the long-haul: brotherly-love.
So, it’s important for us to see the flow-of-thought. Scripture says that our agape-love must be genuine-and-sincere. How do we do that? What would that-kind-of-love look-like? ~ Well, for-starters, …it means that we show brotherly-love for one another within the family of God!
Are you like me?... Sometimes I’m-a-little-slow. Sometimes the Lord needs to whack-me-upside-the-head to get my attention. It may-leave-me a little-dazed, …but-at-least I know that I need to listen-up and look-around!
That’s-kinda what-He’s-doing, here in Romans-chapter-12! He keeps hammerin’-away at this ‘love’-thing. He wants us to get-this. It’s important. More important than other-things that may-hold-our-attention, …or tickle-our-fancy, …or bind-our-hearts. Love. Agape-love. Sacrificial, self-giving love. This is the kind of love that God’s people are to-have, to-possess, to-be-filled-with, and-to-give. One-of-the-ways that agape-love gets put-into-practice is in the relationships within the church-family. Brotherly-love. Family-love.
God has grafted each-of-us into His-family. We are His children. Why would we not care-for-one-another with brotherly-love!?!... We’re all saved-from-sin, …we’re all brought-into-His-family, …we’re all called to partner with God in-working for the kingdom… Why-in-the-world wouldn’t we love-one-another!?!
One Bible-scholar says-it-this-way:
“The church… is to be a kind of extended family, in which believers have natural affection for one another. And [the] result of such an attitude will be that we want what is best for others, honoring them above ourselves.”
Basically, what-all-this-boils-down-to, is-this: What are you full-of?... What fills your heart, …what fills your thoughts?
If you’re full-of-yourself, …then who could wonder at attitudes of self-importance, pride, narcissism? It would be no-wonder, …if relationships within the church were petty, …self-absorbed, …hyper-critical, …un-caring.
But Jesus said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (Jn 13.35)
How we treat one-another within the church-family is a big-deal! And-it-comes-down-to our hearts. What fills-our-hearts? If it’s worldly-concerns and worldly-passions, …then who-could-wonder when worldly-junk pollutes our relationships?
But, if our hearts are full of godly-love, …then it’s-no-wonder when compassion, honor, and hospitality are shown-to-one-another!
Jesus says that love is the hallmark of discipleship. Scripture tells us that love must be genuine-and-sincere. And one-of-the-key-ways that this love gets lived-out is through brotherly-love for our siblings-in-Christ.
II. Good Competition
Americans wouldn’t know what to do if it wasn’t for competition. Competition is the platform for entertainment ~ …from sports, to game shows, to reality t.v.
Competition is an underlying ingredient in neighbor-to-neighbor relations ~ …who has the best-lawn; …who has the newer-deck; …who just up-graded to a flat-screen plasma television.
Competition displays itself at work ~ …who has the highest sales-numbers, …who received the most recognition/awards during the year, …who was voted ‘favorite teacher by the 7th graders’! You almost get-the-idea that we wouldn’t-know-what-to-do, if it weren’t for competition!
But, would you believe that Scripture actually encourages competition?... Not-in-the-sense of playing-games, …but in the sense of growing-and-deepening in our walk with God.
It’s a different kind of competition. Take-a-look at the different ways that this-verse is translated:
“Honor one another above yourselves.” – NIV
“…take delight in honoring each other.” – NLT
“…outdo one another in showing honor.” - NRSV
The competition that Christians engage in is not one-upmanship ~ …where we get in each-other’s-faces and beat-our-chests in a desperate-attempt to draw attention-to-ourselves. But, Christian-competition is a healthy, build-one-another-up kind-of-competition, …in-which we grow in Christlikeness and bring glory to God.
“Faithful worship of the living God means loving our fellow Christians, and that means no bragging, no pushing about, no lording it over one another. How can we lord it over one another when we have one Lord?” Bartlett
It’s not about coming in first; …it’s all-about being genuine-and-sincere in our love! Honoring one-another is all-about valuing them. It’s a way of saying, “I see God in you. “I celebrate the good that He is doing in-and-through your life. “I am so pleased to be worshiping and serving the Lord by your side!”
What would the life of our church-family be like if this was the attitude ~ …if we loved-one-another by honoring-each-other, …and-not-just those we have natural-admiration-for?
III. Each One Is a Gift
The grace which God offers to us ~ a grace that manifests itself in all sorts of ways: …from forgiveness, to mercy, to love, to adoption, to comfort, encouragement, provisions ~ …and the list goes on-and-on: …but, the grace which God pours into our lives is free-of-charge. That’s the gospel! While it comes at a high-price to God, …all we have to do is accept it! It’s a beautiful gift.
But, as with all gifts, it’s bad-form to withhold appreciation. When someone gives a birthday gift, …it’s a sad-thing when the birthday-boy doesn’t at-least-say, “thank you”. It’s just common-decency to respond appropriately to gifts, when they are given. And-the-truth-is, each-person is a gift from God. Each-person in this church-family is a gift from God. He is putting-us-together, …each with unique strengths-and-graces ~ …each-person enhances this family. Our witness would be diminished, …our service would be hampered, …our potential would be limited if any-single-member of this church-family was lost! Honor one another. Respect one another. Recognize the value in each person.
But-you-may-be-wondering, …”What do I do if there’s someone that I don’t have anything-in-common with?” Or… “What about that person that just-kinda-grates on me?”
Well, in Scripture, …agape-love and phileo-love are both more-about-what we do, …rather-than what we feel! A tremendous Bible-scholar, Tom Wright, has said:
“’[L]ove’ is more about what people do than about how they feel. In fact, in the early church ‘love’ was often connected quite directly to helping other people out in their various needs…, rather than necessarily to having warm feelings towards them. As a Christian, it is possible, not least through prayer, to decide firmly that one is going to help someone in need, whether or not you particularly like them.” (Tom Wright)
CONCLUSION
What do you think-of when you think of “honoring” another person?
When I think of honor, I think of the military ~ …bravery, …above the call of duty, …an attitude of respect shown toward those in higher positions of authority.
When I think of honor, I think of the Japanese Samurai ~ …for whom honor was the heart-of-their-identity and their value-system.
When I think of honor, I think of respect ~ …mutual respect, …valuing the other person’s worth and individuality, …respecting who they are and what they have to offer ~ …(not necessarily to me, personally, but to life, the community, and the purposes of God).
Today’s Scripture, though, …makes a closer connection between honor-and-love, …more-so than honor-and-duty, …more-than honor-and-bravery, …or honor-and-dignity.
Honor is an act of love. It is an expression of sincere-love for the family-of-God. Honor is a way of saying, “I’m glad that you are part of the family! “God has given you talents and abilities and this church-family is enriched by your being-a-part of-us!” Can you imagine?...
Can you imagine the relationship-dynamics that would blossom if we treated-each-other with love and honor?
I have a friend who lost the use of his kidneys. …It was two years that he went through kidney failure. Two years of dialysis before he-finally-received a kidney-transplant!
Now, if you were to remove a kidney from-the-body, …you might think it’s gross, …some would get-a-little-queezy. The kidney’s aren’t the most-handsome-part of the human body. But I think that we’d all-agree that they are absolutely essential to the health of the body.
You know where I’m goin’ with this! Is there anyone in the church family that you’ve been critical-of, …anyone that you’ve allowed friction to create distance, …anyone that you’ve not-shown-appreciation for, …anyone that you’ve struggled to accept, …value, …be grateful for their presence in the body-of-Christ? Who-knows, maybe they’re a kidney! Maybe they serve an absolutely-critical-function in the life of the church-family.
Follow-the-logic: “Love sincerely…” “Love one-another like family…” “Love one another by honoring each other.”
“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (Jn 13.35)
How we treat one-another within the church-family is a big-deal! May we show love for one another by honoring-and-valuing each member of God’s family in our church! And let this be from-the-heart… a heart that is undivided; …a heart that is full of godly-love.
