Francis Schaeffer wrote that love is the final apologetic; it is the last word in the Christian’s defense of the gospel. John’s Gospel informs us that Jesus gave his disciples one last command before he was led away to be crucified: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13.34-35). Additionally, John’s first epistle is saturated with comments about God’s love for his children and encouragement for Christians to love one another: for example, For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. … Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth (1 John 3.11, 18). The apostle Peter tells his readers that they may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world caused by evil desires; the list of Christian virtues that follows is capped off with the virtue of love (2 Peter 1.5-7; cp. 1 Peter 4.8). Paul makes over one hundred references to love in his thirteen epistles. He frequently describes what love should look like and in several letters he lists some of love’s attributes (1 Corinthians 13; Galatians 5.22; Ephesians 5.2; 1 Thessalonians 4.9-10).
As in 1 Corinthians 12 and 13 where Paul transitions from the gifts (charismata) to love, so too in Romans 12.9-21 Paul transitions from the theme of spiritual gifts to love and behavior that is characteristic of love. Thus, what follows Paul’s comment, Let love be genuine, is a description of what love is to look like. It is the foundation of all Christian action. Paul explains how the believer ought to behave toward other members of the Christian community as well as how they ought to respond to non-Christians. More than that, there is no place in the Christian love paradigm for retribution or vengeance: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Paul’s previous uses of agapē (love) in Romans has been to speak of God’s love (5.5, 8; 8.39), or Christ’s (8.35); in Romans 15.30 and 5.5 he uses it to refer to the Spirit’s love. But here he uses it to speak of human love (also 13.10; 14.15) (cp. James Dunn, Romans, p. 739). Love must be genuine, sincere and without hypocrisy. Love is an imperative! “Of the 31 imperative verbs in the NRSV [New Revised Standard Version] (which sticks closely to the structure of the Greek), only nine translate imperatives in the Greek (vv. 14a, b, c; 16d; 19b; 20a and b [quoting the Old Testament]; 21a, b). The others translate verbless clauses (vv. 9a; 10a; 11a), infinitives (vv. 15a and b), and participles (vv. 9b, c; 10b; 11b, c; 12a, b, c; 13a, b; 16a, Bible, c; 17a, b; 18; 19a)” (Douglas Moo, Romans, p. 771 n.4).
LOVE’S DESCRIPTION (12.9-13)
In Romans 12.3-8 Paul briefly summarized the gifts of grace bestowed upon the church by the Holy Spirit, he now “fires off a volley of short, sharp injunctions with little elaboration. … Related to the rapid-fire style of this section is its loose structure. There are few conjunctions or particles to indicate the flow of thought” (Moo, p. 771). The section appears to be composed of aphorisms for Christian living with love being its unifying theme. That is, Paul begins by saying, Let Love be genuine. This is followed by a series of injunctions that describe what love looks like. Love is the apex of all Christian virtues. Ironically, many people have difficulty defining exactly what they mean by the word love. Though many struggle to define the word, they seem to know it when they see it and they feel its absence when they are deprived of it. Indeed, love is the foundation of all binding quality relationships. Jesus summarized God’s requirements toward humanity in two statements: first, love God with all your heart and, second, love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22.36-40).
Paul refers to two types of love. The first, agapē, is used in the New Testament to describe God’s love for his Son. Jesus uses the same word to describe how the disciples are to love him and one another. It is a love that has particular reference in the love that the Father has for the Son, but it is also used broadly in Scripture. There is no theme more powerful or more predominant in Scripture than that of the love (agapē) of God. The spiritual virtue of love is the height of spiritual disciplines for the believer. Exemplifying the love of God is something more than loving the brethren, as important as that is. Jesus requires something more; he commanded his disciples to love their enemies: You have heard it said ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven … If you love so who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? (Matthew 5.43-46; cp. Luke 6.27-36).
The second word philadelphia, refers primarily to the Christian’s love for his brothers and sisters in Christ. The Holy Spirit gifts the believer for the good of the body of Christ; those gifts are to be lovingly administered. Paul’s depiction of the Christian within the community faith is comprised of a short commands. Hate what is evil; hang on for all you’re worth to what is good; if you must compete in anything, let it be in giving deference to one another; the Christian should be zealous and have a burning enthusiasm in his spirit; his service to the Lord should be evident to everyone; the true Christian will patiently endue misfortune; he faces difficulties with a hope for the coming day of the Lord; in all these things he is constant in his prayer life. This is a portrait of the Christian living in community with other Christians. Of course, there is no biblical model of the “lone Christian.” The apostle Peter wrote: Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms (1 Peter 4.8-10, NIV; cp. Philippians 2.1-3). Motivation for brotherly kindness is derived from the indwelling Christ who prompts the believer to give deference to the needs of others. This is why Paul writes, Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. It is characteristic of the believer to consider the needs of others over his own personal needs. Sacrificial love for others is the biblical norm, not the exception.
THOSE WITHOUT AND THOSE WITHIN (12.14-16)
Loving those who are lovable or those who will return your love is no great feat. Loving those who have misused or abused you is another matter. I do not mean to suggest that love tolerates abuse, but it does find a way to forgive the abuser. The love of God is an unbounded and unexpected love. The apostle John writes that God the Father loves his Son—this is to be expected. John also writes that the Father loves the world and sacrificed his Son so that all who believe in him will have eternal life—this is unexpected. The immensity of God’s love is described by John: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure (1 John 3.1-3). There is no greater love than that of Jesus’ love for helpless sinners. Paul writes: You see at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possible dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5.6-8). This is the basis for Christians loving others. They are to love one another indiscriminately. We know that Jesus loved us because he laid down his life for us. The apostle John says we ought to be willing to do the same for our brothers (1 John 3.16). Life is very short: soon after you step out of the cradle, you step into the grave. In this brief span you will have too few opportunities to express your love for God and man. The measure of life will be how well you loved God and others.
It is a great irony that people need to be loved more than any other single thing, but until they are transformed by love they are unlovable. It is the ability to love that gives life its deepest meaning. Sadly, there are more people in this world who wish to be loved than there are people who are willing to love. Most people are confused about what love is. For example, women are taught that if they want to be loved they need to have sex appeal, and men are instructed that women love men with machismo. But, of course, these things do not result in love. There is a general confusion between eros (physical love) and phileō (brotherly love) and there is no general understanding whatever of agape (godly love). Eros is often self-centered and destructive. The English poet T. S. Eliot epitomized self-centered love in the play, The Cocktail Party: a mildly intoxicated man whispered into the ear of his psychiatrist, "Please make me feel important." Many individuals feel they are adrift in a sea of people without any means of permanently connecting to another person. C. S. Lewis writes that such people simply want friends and can never make any because the precondition of having friends is that you should want something else besides friends. The world does not care as much about truth and politics as it does about love. True love is attractive to everyone! This love is found in Jesus Christ. It is the limitless and unmerited love of God that truly transforms people’s lives.
DEALING WITH EVIL INTENTIONS (12.17-21)
Vengeance only succeeds in fanning the flames of hatred. Love in response to sin and hatred is unexpected and often disarming. Evil cannot be overcome with more evil; it can only be disarmed by what is good. “To do evil to someone else is never Christian, even if evil is suffered beforehand. The [Christian] community acts exclusively by serving the kindness of God. … As far as it depends upon their conduct, they are to establish peace between themselves and everyone else. They are not to fend on their own for their right, nor repay for dishonor and wrong inflicted upon them. The wrath of God guards their rights; they would obstruct him if they revenged themselves. God’s wrath intervenes for the one who depends upon him (Adolf Schlatter, Romans: The Righteousness of God, p. 239).
What does love in response to evil look like? I met a man while a student pastor in seminary who gave me a snapshot of loving those who are fundamentally evil. It was a brief encounter, but I’ll never forget it. One winter day as I was visiting one of my parishioners at a hospital in downtown Philadelphia, the wife of the man on whom I was calling mentioned that there was an elderly black pastor who was a patient in a room at the end of the hall. She suggested I might want to visit him before I left the hospital. So on my way out I turned into his room. His name was Nehemiah Gore. What a fitting name it turned out to be. He too, had come to that very hospital to visit one of his parishioners. As he was walking along the sidewalk that cold winter evening a car screeched to a stop next to him and several young men jumped out of the car. They wanted his money. Without a word they severely beat him, took his wallet that contained only a few dollars and left him lying mortally wounded on the curb. He had two broken arms, a broken leg, and gaping wounds from the knife they had repeatedly plunged into his chest. After hearing his story, I wondered to myself how I could I minister a few words of comfort to lift his spirits. But, before I could say anything, he went on to explain that his heart was filled with love and compassion for his assailants and he was praying earnestly for their salvation. His spirit did not need lifting, he was already living on the outskirts of heaven. But my heart was encouraged that day as I witnessed true Christian love in action. I do not know if a prophet named him, but Nehemiah certainly lived up to the meaning of his name – the Compassion of the Lord. But then, this really is how the love of God works in the hearts of his children.
