Love Within the Church
Romans 12:9-21
A college roommate of mine used to quote his grandmother's definition of love.
"Love," she had said, "is the feeling that you feel when you feel the feeling like you've never felt before."
Than definition expresses a common conception of love. Even the standard dictionary tells us that love is an emotion, a feeling.
That's certainly true, but if we think of love exclusively as an emotion, we'll misunderstand what's at the heart of the Biblical concept of love.
In fact, to understand what the Bible means when is calls us to love, we need a new way of thinking about love.
The early Christians seemed to realize this. Out of the several Greek words for love available to them, the writers of the New Testament chose a little-used word, agape, and made it their primary word to describe their understanding of love. They didn't so much give it new meaning as they revealed the meaning which was there potentially.
William Barclay defines agape in a way which seems particularly appropriate for this context of thoughtful commitment.
"Agape has to do with the mind: it is not simply an emotion which rises unbidden in our hearts; it is a principle by which we deliberately live. Agape has supremely to do with the will.
"It is in fact the power to love the unlovable, to love people whom we do not like. Christianity does not ask us to love our enemies and to love men at large in the same way as we love our nearest and dearest and those who are closest to us; that would be at one and the same time impossible and wrong. But it does demand that we should have at all times a certain attitude of the mind and a certain direction of the will towards all men, no matter who they are.
"Let a man be a saint or let a man be a sinner, God's only desire is for that man's highest good. Agape is the spirit which says: 'No matter what any man does to me...I will always seek nothing but his highest good." That is to say, Christian love, agape, is unconquerable benevolence, invincible good will."
Love in the New Testament is not measured by feelings but by action. The New Testament writers knew that anyone can talk about love, acting in love is another matter.
This is the kind of love Paul is talking about when he says, "Love must be sincere." The grammatical structure of that statement is interesting. It contains no verb; it says simply, "Sincere Love." It stands almost as a heading for what follows.
The remaining verses of the chapter describe the outworking of love toward those within the Christian community and toward those outside the community. Such love is to be "sincere," or literally "unhypocritical." There's to be no play-acting when it comes to expressing this love.
Christians are to "abhor" whatever is evil-whatever might spring from a failure to love. One translation suggests that they were to "regard evil with horror." (Goodspeed) At the same time, they were to "cling to what is good"-or whatever springs from love. The language is the same as that used to describe the marriage relationship. Montgomery incorporates this in her translation, "Wed yourselves to what is good."
Paul began this chapter with a call to thoughtful, transforming commitment; no such commitment would be possible without sincere love. As sincere love shapes our attitudes and actions, our life within the Christian community will be transformed.
I
SINCERE LOVE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY
IS MANIFESTED IN OUR SPIRITUAL FERVOR
(11)
As the words flow from Paul's pen (or at least from his mouth as he dictates to his secretary) he rapidly shifts from one topic to another. Rather than trying to follow him, I’m going to pull together what he says in a more topical manner.
At first glance, this verse is primarily concerned with love toward the God whose grace has placed us within the community of faith. This love is our response to God who rescued us from alienation, drew us to himself, and made us a part of his one new people. To use one of Paul's favorite terms, we are "in Christ;" we are in communion with Christ and in the community of Christ.
We respond to this blessing with a passionate devotion.
Negatively, we are to "never be lacking in zeal." A realist, Paul knew that the temptation to allow our ardor to wane is very real.
Perhaps Paul was already seeing Christians growing weary in the struggle against the entrenched immorality and error of their culture. Perhaps some has just allowed other concerns to crowd out the proper devotion they should have given to Christ.
In any case, Paul calls all Christians to counter the tendency to allow devotion to flag by "being aglow with the Spirit," as the RSV translates "keep your spiritual fervor." Ralph Earle suggests that Paul's idea involves allowing our human spirit to be set aglow by the Holy Spirit.
While Paul's words are clearly concerned with our personal spiritual condition, we can't forget that our level of enthusiasm for spiritual matters will impact the quality of spiritual life within the community. Our failure to "be aglow with the Spirit" may dampen the ardor of others.
At the same time, people are sometimes drawn to a church because of the enthusiasm its members fell toward it.
Of course, Paul knows that mere enthusiasm is not a measure of devotion, the real outward evidence of devotion to the Lord is service. That's why he links "spiritual fervor" to «serving the Lord." I'm sure you've seen the bumper sticker which says, "IF YOU LOVE JESUS, HONK;" there's another one which says, “IF YOU LOVE JESUS, TITHE-ANYONE CAN HONK." Paul would appreciate the sentiments of the former-for he was capable of great outbursts of praise, but he would especially see the wisdom of the latter-for he understood how important it is to backup our words with actions.
II
SINCERE LOVE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY IS MANIFESTED AS WE RELATE TO ONE ANOTHER AS A FAMILY
As Paul expresses the ways sincere love expresses itself in the Christian community he draws on the analogy of the church to the family. The word translated as "be devoted" was often used to describe the love of husband and wife, parents toward children. Paul reinforces the call to familial devotion by saving it was to be marked by "brotherly love." He may have risked being redundant but he wanted to make his point. To Paul and to most other early Christians the church was an extended family.
Our affection and devotion toward others in the community are to reflect the reality of the relationship we have in Christ. Other Christians are our spiritual brothers and sisters; our love should reflect that relationship.
In a world of alienation and loneliness we Christians must let those watching see the reality of our relationship through Christ.
We will do this, in part, as we flesh out our familial relationship by showing "honor" to one another. In fact, the verse suggests we are to outdo one another in showing honor. To show honor is to recognize the value of another. Rightly understood, it blends affirmation and appreciation.
While we often expend our energy seeking honor for ourselves, Paul says we ought to be at the forefront in showing honor to others. Sometimes we hear young people complaining because someone had "dissed" them, meaning someone had done something to show disrespect, the opposite of honor. Paul seems to be saying that no believer should come away from a gathering of fellow Christians feeling dissed. That won't happen if we continually compete to show honor to our fellow believers.
III
SINCERE LOVE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY
IS MANIFESTED RESPONSIVENESS TO THE NEEDS OF OTHERS (13)
There were many, many poor people in the Roman world. That some of them should have responded to the gospel should not be surprising. Then, too, some of the Christians may have become poor after coming to Christ. They may have been disowned, may have lost their jobs, may have been thrown out of their homes by an angry husband or other relative.
Paul doesn't want such people to be forgotten. In fact, there is an ongoing element of his ministry of evangelism which involved gathering funds to help the church in Jerusalem where Christians were suffering from a famine.
A more specific way to help was mentioned as Paul said, "Practice hospitality." Hospitality, which literally means "love of strangers," was an important ministry because some Christians were homeless because of their faith and due to the numbers of traveling evangelists who were on the road during this time.
Meeting the needs of our fellow Christians is still an important expression of our love.
Just a few verses before this Paul mentioned those who had a special grace which allowed them to be especially benevolent in their giving. Paul might have been addressing these words to such people but it's more likely he is reminding every one of his readers about their opportunities to help meet the needs of fellow believers.
IV
SINCERE LOVE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY IS MANIFESTED THROUGH SENSITIVITY TO OTHERS
(15)
Paul's words have often been misunderstood. Years ago I heard a very young Christian argue that this verse proved that Christians are never to share their feelings but only be a sounding-board for others. Nothing in this verse suggests that. In fact, in the opening chapter of this epistle Paul shared something of his frustration and puzzlement at the roadblocks which prevented him from traveling to Rome, a journey he had longed to make for many years.
This verse is not about our feelings, it is about how we respond to the feelings of others. It reminds us that love challenges us to get outside ourselves to the degree that we are able to stand with the one who rejoices or with the one who mourns. If our disposition at that moment is different that can be tough. But with God's grace we can respond with loving sensitivity.
While Paul is not demanding that we deny our own feelings, it does seem to suggest that we recognize those times when we ought to temper our responses.
Douglas Moo comments, "Love that is genuine will not respond to a fellow believer's joy with envy or bitterness, but will enter wholeheartedly into that same joy. Similarly, love that is genuine will bring us to identify so intimately with our brothers and sisters that their sorrows will become ours."
We can't ignore the feelings of others. To that brother or sister in Christ whose heart has been broken we can't say, "Don't bring that up just now, you'll bring everyone down." To that brother or sister in Christ whose heart is bursting with joy we can't say, "Cool it! We don't want people to think we're a bunch of fanatics." In a broader context Paul is reminding us to never trivialize the feelings of others.
V
SINCERE LOVE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY
IS MANIFESTED AN EGALITARIAN SPIRIT
(16)
I like the word "egalitarian." Unfortunately, if you use the word "egalitarian" very often, those who hear you use "egalitarian" will think you aren't.
To be egalitarian means you regard others as equals. We often say we do but don't prove it. An American history teacher I once had used to say, "Thomas Jefferson believed all men were created equal, but some were more equal than others." Well, if we would display sincere love, we will not only declare that all are equal, we will live like it.
One sign that we're living like it will be "harmony" in the community of faith. Harmony in English can be a musical term. In light of that Paul might have said, "Try to live in such a way that there are no discordant notes." That would be very important for a church living in a culture which was not always sympathetic to its cause.
Paul by no means is suggesting that we will always agree. But he does seem to suggest that any disagreement will not erode our fundamental unity. For that to be true we will regard those who hold contrary opinions as equals; we will not allow pride to deny them the right to disagree with us. Elsewhere, Paul makes it clear that we can't live in harmony with those who deny the fundamentals of the faith; but that's a very different matter than living in harmony with those who disagree about which political candidate will do a better job or some other similar issue.
The harmony which transcends these differences is rooted in and reflected in a kind of Christian egalitarianism, a view which sees others as having the same worth as we do. Several translations support this notion: "take a real interest in ordinary people" (JBP), "associate with humble folk" (Moffatt), or "mingle with the lowly" (Norlie). The church hasn't always remembered that.
Listen to this excerpt from the history of North Church in Portsmouth, NH
From the 1600s through the mid 1800s, New Englanders of most denominations were seated their houses of worship according to social rank, whether by assignment or purchase. This expressed a nearly universal Christian perception of social rank as part of a divinely ordered hierarchy of creation. The highest ranking pews were close to the pulpit, the lowest furthest from the pulpit.
Some pews were set aside as general seating for special groups. Variants included reserving seats for adolescents, Native Americans, the poor, widows, the hard-of-hearing, and black people, whether enslaved or free. [These last were located farthest from the pulpit].
That's just the kind of attitude Paul opposed.
Now Paul was a realist and knew there were differences among people. Some were at the bottom of society's rank, others--though not many of them in the church--were near the top. He says, "condescend" to those in low positions. That word from the King James Version may be misunderstood because it means something different today than it did in the seventeenth century. Today it has a negative note of snobbery; then it meant "to depart from the privileges of superiority by voluntary submission..." Translating it as "associate with" is accurate.
The final warning against conceit is appropriate. It's a reminder that Paul began his survey of the new way of thinking by challenging us to stop thinking more highly of ourselves than we should.
One of the reasons the early church turned its world upside down is the fact that all kinds of people became a part of it, worshipped together equals.
Conclusion
When sincere love shapes our attitudes and our actions the church of Jesus Christ--wherever its local expression may be found--will make a difference.
This passage also contains some clues for loving “outsiders,” those who aren’t part of the Christian community. Some of these outsiders may even be our enemies. Paul believes we can change that situation. But be sure of this: You won’t make a positive impact on those outside the church if there’s no love inside the church.
