The Church
September 22, 2013
Romans 12:9-18
For the past two weeks we’ve been looking at the church and not including next week, we will have two more weeks talking about the church. Let’s start by taking a look at Paul’s words to the church in Rome, in Romans 12:9-18 ~
I want you to really think about what these words mean in our lives and in the life of the church.
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Those are great verses for the church to hold onto. All I want to do is spell out the main meaning in each of these verses this morning.
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
A couple of comments ~ the word love is “agape” love. That’s the type of love God has for us. It’s an agape love, a sacrificial type of love. When John said, “For God so loved the world, that He sent His only Son” that’s agape love. So, that’s how we should love one another, with the love God has for us.
Secondly, the word for genuine is the Greek word meaning hypocrite. This verse could be translated – love one another without hypocrisy. Because, after all, don’t we sometimes do that. We don’t always love one another with sincerity. We’re often times hypocrites. In fact, last night Zachary came up to me and said he does not like programs that make fun of people. He referred to Disney, who tries to portray themselves as “wholesome” but they will often make fun of others.
We do that in the church world and Paul is telling us that’s not acceptable. We need to love one another genuinely. And at the same time, we are called to abhor or detest and hate what is evil. In place of the evil, we are to hold fast, which literally means to be glued together. In other words we are attached, intimately attached for to that which is good. And that which is good, is what comes from God.
10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
We are to be devoted to one another with what’s the city of brotherly love? Philadelphia! There’s 2 words in there, and the first word is another Greek word for love, philos. Which really means to have a tender and intimate love for one another. It’s the love good friends have for one another. We show that type of devoted love to one another. And at the same time, how great is it when we try to outdo one another in showing honor. In other words we do what Paul told the Philippian church to do in 2:3 ~ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Bring honor to one another. Don’t puff up your chest wanting all the honor, pass it on to your brothers and sisters and ultimately it will come back to you, so long as you do it genuinely.
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
This is a fun passage! Simply put, Paul is saying, when it’s time to do something don’t be dragging your feet, be ready, be prepared, don’t be disinterested or have a reluctant attitude. Doing what you’re asked to do without hesitating as you obey what the Lord reveals what He’s calling you to do.
On top of that, we should be fervent in spirit. Paul is referring to our spirit and the word for fervent is literally ‘boil or hot.’ The purpose is to demonstrate our passion for what the Lord is calling us to do for Him. Think about when you’re boiling mad, well, you’re supposed to be passionately on fire for the Lord, as you serve Him. And the word to serve is the word to be a slave. So, we are slaves for God.
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
This is really pretty self explanatory. We are called to have joy in the expectation, the trust and hope we have in Christ. We have this joy no matter what the situation in life is. Now, that’s not always very easy to do when life is not going your way.
We are not just to be patient like we’re waiting in a long line. But really we are to absolutely and emphatically persevere under the misfortunes and trials of life as we hold fast to our faith in Christ. Paul depicts our trials as feeling hemmed in, that we have no way out.
Yet, through the troubles which come in our lives, we never lose our prayers. We remain constant, showing a consistent strength as we continue to petition God with our prayers. Our prayers are not supposed to be half-hearted efforts, but they are intense prayers for ourselves and one another.
Next Paul tells us we are to ~
13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
We are then to make sure the needs of the saints are covered. That’s just not an economic point Paul is making. It’s also to see that the physical, spiritual and emotional needs are met as well of the brothers and sisters in the church. This is a reminder by Paul of our need to take care of one another within the church. And we also show hospitality, which means we demonstrate love to strangers.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
After all this, Paul reminds us that we are to bless those who persecute us. Say what!? I don’t know anyone who really wants to do this. Nobody wants to bless those who are against us. The same root word for evangelism is the word used by Paul to tell us to bless others. Remember, evangelism really means to share good news. Well, that’s what Paul wants us to do for those who are actively trying to hurt us and hunt us down.
That’s not easy, so Paul repeats himself, telling us to say good things and not to curse them. Think about how hard that is in the church. When someone disagrees with you, or someone has said something about you which is not true (gossip and slander). We want to get back, we want to dig up the dirt on them and let the world know, but Paul says, not so quick, child! God wants you to bless them, to say good things about them and pray for them. UGH! It’s not easy, but this is how the church is supposed to work.
At this point we’ve seen a lot of what we are supposed to be doing in the church.
We’re going to look at one last verse, and to get into it, I want to show a 1 minute video. It’s really a commercial that many of you have seen, and it has a great message for all of us who are part of the church. It’s really a Guinness beer commercial. I’m not advertising from them and I’m not telling you to have a Guinness, but they got it right as they show us what community is.
That’s a great statement about what the church is supposed to be. We’re supposed to come along one another and support one another. We demonstrate community at all times.
That video demonstrates this verse ~ 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Can’t you just picture those guys weeping for their friend after an injury, but saying, we’re not going to let him just wallow in his self pity, we’re going to be there for him, all the time. So, when it’s time, they all get wheelchairs and go out onto the basketball court and they learn how to play wheelchair basketball. I love it! And I’ve played wheelchair basketball, and it’s not easy.
That’s what the church should be to one another. For each of these guys, and I know I’m taking some liberties with this commercial — they were all inconvenienced. They may not have wanted to take up this game, they may not have the time. But they knew their friendship, their commitment to their friend was so much more important than other aspects of life.
In the same way, I want you to understand this ~~ and it’s vitally important, so pay attention! I don’t usually say this.
The church of Jesus Christ will never, never, never be inconvenienced to do ministry! Never! We, individuals may feel inconvenienced because we wanted to rest but someone had a need. We may have had plans, but chose to change them because we believed it was more important to help a brother or sister in Christ.
But the CHURCH will never be inconvenienced. This building is big enough for multiple events to take place. It’s the way ministry occurs. It’s like the Nike slogan, “We just Do It!”
So, when Paul says we will rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep — then that’s exactly what we do. The image is that we celebrate, we have joy for those who are rejoicing, and I know that’s not always easy, because some seem to hit the jackpot pretty regularly and others don’t. So, it’s not always easy to celebrate with others, but when we are genuine family, when we are not being hypocrites, we genuinely celebrate . . .
And when there’s grief and sadness, we weep together. And the image is that we don’t hold it back, we sit with our family and let it out, as they share their story and sadness, we don’t hide our pain for them, we let that person know we feel their profound sadness as well.
So, friends, family, brothers and sisters in Christ – love one another. Make a difference in one another’s lives. Every person is vitally important in the kingdom of God. That’s you, from the least to the greatest, you are needed and you are part of this church.
