The good Lord by his grace and mercy has given us a new year. A new year, a new start, a new beginning. A new year is a time to look at our lives and see where we need to make changes and improvements. Our lives are in a constant state of change. If you don’t think so, go back and look at your baby pictures. The question is are we changing for the better. Are we bitter or better, meeker or meaner?
There is no better time to make changes/improvements than the start of a new year. Today is the day of salvation the Bible says. We don’t have to wait. We don’t have to put it off. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Today you can improve your life so that the rest of your life can be the best part of your life.
Someone has said and I believe it to be true, “Be content with what you have but never with who you are.” We can all improve in some area of our lives. We can all change for the better.
Q - What areas of your life can you improve upon? As we enter into a new year I want to challenge you to think about some areas in your life where you can change / improve. Changes/ improvements in your personal life, in your r/ship with others and in your r/ship with God.
For the Christian the Word of God is our text book on how to improve our lives. It teaches us, guides us, and shows how God wants us to live.
Romans 12 lists some qualities that the Lord looks for in the lives of his followers. Applying, practicing and perfecting these qualities is what the Christian life is all about.
Read text. Romans 12:9-21
Some of these qualities listed here you may feel you are doing alright with already; some of these qualities you may have to work on to become better at. We can improve in all these areas. The Lord will help us as we do so.
These are requirements for Christian living. Qualities the Lord looks for in our life. Qualities that must be there as his followers.
There are some 20 qualities listed here. I’ll cover a few and you can study the rest on your own. They can be broken down into 3 categories: areas we can improve upon in our personal lives, in our r/ship w/others, our r/ship w/ God.
The first listed here is areas that we can improve on in our own personal lives.
1. Possess and practice a genuine love (v9)
Let love be without hypocrisy. (NKJV) Love must be sincere (NIV)
What does this mean? It means don’t just tell people you love them show them. Love is a verb that requires some action.
It means seeing your brother in need and help meet that need.
It means if you say you love God you will love others also. It means you can’t say you love God whom you have not seen and hate your brother whom you can see. That’s hypocritical.
The greatest quality in the life of a Christian is love. 1 Cor. 13 says, "And now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” Of all the qualities that a Christian can possess love is on the list above all the rest.
Not only is it the greatest quality in the Christian life, it is also the fulfillment of the greatest commandment. Jesus said the greatest commandment is, ". . . Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. "
This is an area that certainly all of us can improve upon. We can all love God and others more w/ a genuine/sincere love.
Someone will say well I can’t love others the way God wants me to. I have good news for you. You can’t, but he can.
He will give you the love you need in order to love. Romans 8 says that God has deposited his love in us by the Holy Spirit. The day you were saved not only did you receive Christ in your life but you also received his Spirit and with his Spirit came his love. He filled you with his love enabling you to love him and others the way he wants you to.
If you are not as loving as you ought to be it is because you are not living your life filled with his Spirit. One of the qualities God’s Spirit wants to produce in our live is love. He can only produce that quality as we seek to live our lives filled, lead, controlled by his presence and power.
God never asks us to do something he doesn’t give us the resources to do it with.
It’s with his love that we are able to do what v10 says….
It’s with his love that we are able to do what v14 says…
It’s with his love that we are able to do what v15 says…
It’s with his love that we are able to do what v17-20 says…
Ask God right now to help you to be more loving this new year by helping you to always live your life filled, lead, controlled by his Spirit.
Possess and practice a genuine love.
A second area we can improve in our lives is to hate what is evil.
2. Hate what is evil (v9)
This follows logically: If you love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself, you're going to hate what is evil. We are to love God and hate sin.
Do we really hate evil or do we just tolerate it? We are not to tolerate it. We are to hate it.
As Christians we are instructed not only to love, but we are also instructed to hate. Psalm 97:10 says, "Ye who love the LORD, hate evil.”
There are some things that we are to hate. We are to hate what God hates. There are some things that God hates.
Prov 6:16-19 These six things the LORD hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.
John MacArthur said, “How can I say I love you and tolerate the sin that destroys our relationship? Sin is a disastrous invasion into a love relationship. So anyone who truly loves God and others has to hate evil. Loving God and participating in evil are absolutely opposed to each other because God is holy and therefore cannot tolerate sin.” (Hab. 1:13).
How do we hate evil?
It’s the third area we can improve on in our lives.
3. Clinging to what is good (v9)
First, we hate evil by clinging to that which is good.
To cling to means to stick with. It literally means to be glued to. We hate evil by sticking to the good.
We hate evil by never leaving what is good. Never leave the good. Cling to it. Let good always be in your presence. Make it your constant companion.
Paul in his instruction to Timothy on how to be a man of God said, “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.”
1 Tim 6:11
This verse mentions what is good that we are to cling to & follow after. We are to follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. To follow after means to run for it, to pursue it so as to possess it & to never let it leave you.
b. Secondly, we hate evil not only by clinging to what is good, but also by staying away from evil.
1 Thessalonians 5:22 "Abstain from all appearance of evil. "
To abstain means to stay away from.
John MacArthur said, “[this] verse doesn't refer to something that only appears to be evil…; it means that as soon as evil even appears you had better get out! Don't stick around. When you hear a perverse mouth or see evil behavior--get out. As soon as it appears, be gone. Don't sit around long enough to figure out whether it's evil. If there's any doubt, be on your way. “
We hate evil by clinging to what is good and by staying away from what is evil.
This includes the evil that is found in the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the magazines we read, the web sites we visit, the conversations we have, the places we visit, and the r/ships we have.
If any of these places, things, events. r/ships have any form of evil/sin attached to it we are to abstain / leave / flee as if we are fleeing for our very lives because in the end we may very well be. For the Christian evil & sin are damaging to our personals lives, it damages to our r/ship w/ others and most importantly it is damaging to our r/ship w/ God.
If there appears any evil, anything ungodly, unrighteous, anything contrary to our faith we are to shun it, run from it.
V21 says do not let evil overtake you, but overtake evil with good
This is as far as we going to get today. This will give us enough to work on for a while. Possess a genuine love, hate what is evil, and cling to what is good. If we all would work on these three areas for the next 365 days we would all be better citizens both of earth and heaven.
Let me encourage you to read the rest listed here. Let me encourage you to apply, practice and perfect the principles of Romans 12.
