A Living Sacrifice To God
Part 3
Scriptures: Romans 12:9; John 3:16; 15:13; Galatians 5:22
This is part three of my series “A Living Sacrifice to God.” To date we have covered verses one through eight where we find the Apostle Paul begging the Christians at Rome to present their physical bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice. This is done through the renewing of the minds. When we renew our minds we no longer accept the world’s view of sin which is that man cannot stop using their physical bodies as instruments of sin. When we renew our minds we are able to truly decide that our bodies belongs to God and therefore whatever we do with them will be pleasing to Him. In these verses we also find that we are all in need of one another. There is no one that is so high and mighty that they do not need other people in their life. To fulfill the work of God in any place, people must work together and recognize that all gifts are given by God to be used for the edification of the body and to bring others to Christ. There is no gift that is given that is to be used to edify the person having the gift. Although we all may worship God differently, when we come together as one body, all of our gifts are needed in order for the body of Christ’s needs to be filled. This morning we will continue with verse nine. Romans 12:9 say;
“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9)
Hmmmmmm. “Let love be without hypocrisy!” Why do you think it was necessary for Paul to tell Christians to let their love be without hypocrisy? How is it possible that a Christian can love someone and be a hypocrite with that love? Should love not be the cornerstone of our faith walk? Didn’t everything that Jesus taught center on love and yet Paul is telling Christians to let our love be without hypocrisy. Well I must tell you that if you examine what is happening in the world today among Christians you can easily understand why Paul had to tell the Christians in Rome how to love one another.
Have you ever heard the words “I love you” from someone you really believed to be your friend only to find out later that this same person talked about you behind your back to others? Have you ever caught someone that you thought loved you doing something that went against the very idea of loving a person and when they were caught they told you, “But I really do love you”? When you confronted the person, did they sincerely apologize or did they play it off as no big deal? Did they own up to their mistake, or transfer the blame to you? If you have ever been in either of these situations then you have experienced love with hypocrisy. If you have experienced this then you know how hurtful it is when a “so-called” friend behaves this way. Their actions show their hypocrisy which is deeply disturbing. As you think about this, consider the times when you may have been the person to show hypocrisy. If you have ever been on both sides of this one you know what it’s like to be hurt as well as being the one doing the hurting. As you may have guessed, this type of behavior should never be associated with a Christian.
As we look at this verse, let’s begin by examining the word love. The New Testament was written in Greek and it is important to understand that while the English language has just one word to describe the concept of love, the Greeks had four. The first word in the Greek language for love was eros. This was the Greek word to describe sexual love and it’s where we get the word erotic. This word referred to sensual, carnal impulses to satisfy the sexual desires of the flesh. Eros is not a “giving type of love” as it denotes a sexual demand. It is not a love that seeks to give or please someone else, but a carnal love that seeks the fulfillment of its own desires. It is a self-seeking, self-satisfying and self-pleasing type of love. And sadly this love is present in the Church as sin! The second word for love in the Greek was the word stergo which primary depicts the love that exists between family members. This word denotes devotion. This word was used in Second Timothy 3:3 in the negative sense as a warning that the day would come when the principle sign of the end times would be the deterioration of the family and traditional family values. We are witnessing the deterioration of the family now. The third word for love in the Greek is phileo which describes affection, such as the affection felt between a boyfriend and a girlfriend or that shared between two close friends. It carries the idea of two or more persons who feel compatible, well-matched, well-suited and complementary to each other. While this word also describes friendship it does not represent the fullness of love as defined within the fourth word.
The fourth word for love in the Greek is agape and this is the word Paul used in Romans 12:9. This word describes the highest, finest, and most noble kind of love. In the New Testament, it is the single word that is used to describe the love of God. This love is described as the first fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 which says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.” Agape love occurs when an individual sees, recognizes, understands, or appreciates the value of an object or person, causing the viewer to behold this object or person in great esteem, awe, admiration, wonder and sincere appreciation. This great respect awakens the heart of the observer for the object or person he is beholding so that he is compelled to love it. In the New Testament the best example of agape (love) is found in John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The word loved in the verse is the Greek word agape. Now I want you to see this. The use of this word in this verse means that God looked upon the human race; He stood in awe of mankind; even though man was lost in sin. God admired man; He wondered at man; He held mankind in the highest appreciation. Even though mankind was held captive by Satan at that moment, God looked upon the world and saw His own image in man. The human race was so precious to God and He loved man so deeply that His heart was stirred to reach out and do something to save him. In other words, God’s love for us drove Him to take action.
Agape love is a love that loves so profoundly that it knows no limits or boundaries in how far, wide, high and deep it will go to show that love to its recipient. If necessary, agape love will even sacrifice itself for the sake of that object or person it so deeply cherishes. In John 15:13 Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Agape is the highest form of love – a self-sacrificing type of love that moves the lover to action. In contrast eros is a self-seeking love; stergo is limited only to one’s family; and phileo is based on a mutual satisfaction and can feel disappointed. The Apostle Peter said the following about this type of love, “And above all things have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8) Peter said love covers a multitude of sin. Which love? Definitely not eros love as it often leads to sin. Definitely not stergo love because there are family members today who do not speak to one another. It’s definitely not the phileo love because friends stop being friends all the time. No the only love that covers a multitude of sin is agape love. What we have plenty of in the Churches today is eros, stergo and phileo love. This is why the body of Christ is in the situation we are in today. We actually have and exercise the wrong types of love towards one another as Christians. We love, but we want it to be rewarded or returned. We want something for that love. This is why people can get on our nerves when we are not receiving from them what we think we should. That is the love that is opposite of agape. Agape love hangs in there even when there is little to hang on to. Why, because it cherishes the person! It loves the person. It’s not based on the person giving anything in return! This is the love that Paul is referring to in this verse – a love that is self-sacrificing not self-seeking. A love that is genuine for the body of Christ versus one that is given only when it receives something in return. This is the love that should exist between believers. Because we love one another we do not ever give up on each other. Period! Real agape love is not merely a matter of speaking easy and empty words, rather it is accompanied by actions that are truthful. This is the love that we are supposed to have for one another. Now let’s examine the word translated as hypocrisy.
The Greek word translated as hypocrisy is the word “anupokritos” and it describes something that is pretended, simulated, faked, or phony. It pictures a person who deliberately gives a certain impression even though he knows the impression he is giving is untrue. In other words, this person is a phony. They say the right things, appears to do the right things, but in their hearts the genuine love is not there. So Paul tells us that if we are going to love someone we need to ensure that we really love them. We are not to give the impression that we love when we actually do not. We are not to say one thing and then do another. When you read what Paul said here he was talking about the person that we would describe as being “two-faced.” A two-faced person shows you one face and act one way when they are with you but acts the opposite when you are not around. This person has two faces as it relates to their relationship with you. Now let’s look at the rest of the verse. After making the declaration that we are to love sincerely, he makes another statement that on the surface seems separated from his previous point. However, when examined closely you will see that it lines up perfectly with Paul’s overall theme in this verse.
After instructing the people to genuinely love, he makes this statement: “Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.” This is going to hit very close to home because each of us will need to examine our lives and the things that we tolerate and/or allow in it. As I review what Paul says in this sentence I want you to think about anything evil in your life that you tolerate; from the TV shows you watch to the movies you go see. From the music you listen to, to the people in your life that you call friend. Yes we have evil all around us but just for the next few minutes I want you to think about the evil we invite into our lives willingly and the evil that we tolerate and or defend because it is so normal within the world.
The word “abhor” in the Greek is the word apostugeo. This word describes an intense dislike, an aversion, or a repugnance to something. It is like you walk in a room and you smell this horrible smell that makes you want to gag so you hurriedly run from the room. This word paints a picture of a person who hates something so extremely that he literally backs away from it in disgust. This word reflects the feelings of a person who is so repulsed by something that he shuns and avoids it at all costs. This means that God expects our tolerance level for sin and evil to be extremely low. In fact, we should have such repugnance for evil that we actively and continually guard against it from ever invading our life or the lives of our family.
But what evil is this verse speaking of? I mean people have varied opinions of what is evil. Some may think about a person being evil while others focus on TV in general. Some may think about a work environment while others might focus on books and magazines. The word “evil” in the Greek in the word paneros, and it conveys the notion of anything that is full of destruction, disaster, harm, or danger. It includes not only that which is dangerous to the physical body, but also that which is dangerous to the spirit or mind. So Paul is urgently telling us that we should have no tolerance at all for anything that would endanger our bodies or that would do any kind of damage to our minds or spirits. And this is especially important for those of us with the responsibility for children. It is natural for us to try and protect our physical bodies from things that could harm us but we are not as careful when it comes to things that can harm our minds or our spirits.
If our spirit and mind are invaded by information or images that are evil, the entrance of those images into your mind and spirit can wreak havoc in your life for years to come. Our minds are like a movie screen; what we allow into our minds lives in our imagination for a very long time. Let me give you a very personal example so you understand what I am telling you. When I was fourteen years of age a family member showed me the first X-rated movie that I had ever seen. This movie showed everything. Now mind you, I was fourteen with raging hormones and open to any opportunity that prevailed its way to me. But after seeing that movie, I burned with lust and could not wait to try (and do) some of those things I saw in that movie. Now here is what I want you to understand. Forty-three years later I still remember some of the highlights of that movie – clearly! In these same forty-three years I have forgotten some Scriptures. I have forgotten many Church services that I have been a part of. I have forgotten the names of people I served in the military with that I considered friends. I have forgotten some addresses and some faces of old acquaintances. With everything that I have forgotten, the one memory that remains burned into my mind is that movie. Parents please understand that those things that we allow before our eyes and the eyes of our children that we think are harmless are actually an open door for future sins.
I know some of you will roll your eyes at this next statement but I am right there with you. All of us can take a break from watching, reading and listening to a lot of evil garbage that clogs our minds for years. Don’t you think it’s about time we took another route and start evaluating what we put before us, especially if our bodies are living sacrifices to God? I mean think about it. Imagine walking into a family member’s home and they are doing drugs in the living room and instead of you sitting down and being tempted you just turn around and walk out. When the family member runs out behind you to find out what’s wrong you tell them that your body is a living sacrifice to God and you are under obligation to protect it from all things evil. Imagine walking through the mall and turning away from the Victoria Secrets display in the store window because what they have on display is no longer a secret and it conjures up images of people you would like to see in those select outfits. The people you’re shopping with asks you to look at the items but you tell them your eyes are a living sacrifice to God and therefore you cannot allow them to see certain things which would later open the mind up to imagining other things. Do you understand what Paul was saying to all of us? If Paul was alive today I can imagine that he would not have a computer, TV, iPod or anything else in his home that could potentially open him up to sin. The Bible tells us that sin should be repugnant, vile and so distasteful to us that we do not tolerate it in any fashion and we do our best to refrain from being in its presence. Now how are we to abhor sin? Well Paul tells us.
“Cling to what is good.” The word interpreted as cling comes from the Greek word kollao, which means to glue or to cement something together. The word denotes a permanent connection. It is the picture of two things that have been glued and cemented together, so tightly joined and bonded that they are now permanently connected and cannot be separated. A form of this word was used in Ephesians 5:31, where Paul teaches that a man should leave his father and mother and “be joined” unto his wife. Just as it takes work for a man and wife to cleave to each other and to become one in mind and heart, it takes effort on our part to be joined to that which is good. The word “good” in the Greek means anything that is good, beneficial or profitable for us and this will cover a multitude of things! If we focus on and crave the good then by default we will turn from what is evil. This is the message that Paul was trying to get across to the early Christians.
So let me close with where we started. Verse nine says, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9) Held within this verse is a key to the Christian walk, both within the Church walls and without. Our love for one another should be such that we will not measure it by what we receive. We will not let someone tell us how we should be feeling because we already know. Of the four types of love defined within the Greek, the three that should not have prevalence within the Church does and the one that should be at the top and being exhibited is not. Yes erotic, family and friendship love are all being exercised within the Church but agape love, the love that covers a multitude of sin; the love that keeps giving when nothing is being returned; the love that keeps fighting for the person even after they have given up on themselves; that is the one love that is not as prevalent within the body of Christ and until we return to that love we will never be able fully recognize what God can and is willing to do through us. We should not love with hypocrisy – let our love be genuine. And with that love let us abhor anything pertaining to evil. Let us awaken out of our slumber and give ourselves to God freely and fully. Let us cling to those things (and people) that are actually good for us versus those who are harming us so that they can feel better about themselves.
I hope that you will reflect on your life as I am reflecting on mine. May we all get to that place where we are looking forward to giving God our all and then we can come in here and raise the roof with praise. Then we can go outside of these walls and envelop others in our praise and our love. I will continue next week.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
