Romans 12:9-13
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another; 11 Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord 12 Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 Distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.
After speaking about spiritual gifts Paul now moves into a deeper area of our lives – it’s the way we relate with one another. He begins by talking about the way we love one another, and reminds us that it needs to be genuine, or without hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is pretending to be someone we’re not. If we are loving, we need to demonstrate that love, if we are not loving, we should not pretend we are. Love can be feigned, and so Paul says it needs to be without hypocrisy. It’s easy to pretend to love someone when we’re before them, and then talk behind them – that isn’t love – that’s hypocrisy. Also, merely saying we love someone but doing nothing to help them in their time of need is hypocrisy.
He then tells his readers to hate evil. We are not called to hate those who do evil, but to rather hate evil itself. It’s easy for us to reject people, whose behaviour we dislike or consider evil, but that’s not what we are called to do – we are called to love people and hate sin. As someone said, “We need to hate the sin, but not the ‘sinner.’”
Not only are we to hate evil, but we are to simultaneously cling to what is good, because if we hate evil and don’t love good, we will end up having nothing to live for, and might end up loving evil all over again. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 12:43-45: “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first...” What Jesus was saying is that when we get rid of evil in our lives, we need to replace that evil with good, else we will get back into a lot more evil than we were in earlier.
After telling the believers to love one another without hypocrisy he then tells them to demonstrate brotherly love as well, and to show it by being kind and affectionate to one another. Showing kindness and affection is one of the greatest demonstrations of love. Claiming to possess it without expressing is of hardly any use to anyone. Here, Paul refers to another kind of love – brotherly love. Just as siblings love one another in a family, we need to love one another, since we’re now family members, with God, our heavenly Father having adopted us into His family.
He then suggests something that is hardly seen these days - honour for one another. Rather than expecting others to honour us, we are to honour others. Also, instead of expecting to be preferred by others, we are to give preference to others. Expecting to be preferred by other people is selfishness, but giving preference to other people is love.
Paul then goes on to talk about the way we work. He encourages believers to be diligent in their work, which means, not being lazy, but rather being hardworking. It’s the ones who work hard who accomplish things, and make a difference in both their lives, and in the lives of those around them. The lazy ones only get to watch and envy them. Regarding the attitude to work, he says that they should be fervent in spirit, not work half-heartedly and carelessly, or just to please people. He encourages them to view all that they do as being done unto the Lord, not as unto men. It is the Lord who has saved us, and therefore, since we belong to the Lord, everything we do in life should be done as unto Him, and not as unto men. Once we see all that we do as being done as unto the Lord, it gives our work a totally new perspective, and we do it in a way that brings joy to us, and pleases the Lord as well. We also do things a lot better and joyfully, not grudgingly.
He further encourages us to rejoice at the hope (assurance) they have. This assurance is concerning the eternal life we will enjoy with God in heaven. That’s what should keep a believer going – not the expectation of rewards here on earth, but the assurance of our reward in heaven, namely eternal life. Though we live with this hope, we are bound to have troubles in life and he encourages us to be patient through all the tribulation. It’s easy to give up when we have troubles in life, but we need to learn to be patient, so that we overcome the troubles we face. It’s only through troubles that we learn valuable lessons in life.
When going through troubles, we need to continue earnestly and steadfastly in prayer, as it is the Lord who, through His Holy Spirit, enables us to go through these difficulties, and bring us out victorious. But yet, for many of us, when troubles come, the first thing we decide to do is to stop praying, and to distance ourselves from the Lord.
Another thing he reminds them to do is to take care of the needs of fellow-believers, whom he refers to as saints, (all believers are saints, since Christ has made us righteous, and set us apart for Himself). Instead of being concerned only with ourselves, and with our own needs, we need to be mindful of the needs of other believers as well – thereby fulfilling God’s will that we be united in love.
He also encourages them to be hospitable to one another – to visit one another, and to invite visitors over so everyone feels welcome by everyone else. What a church we’d have if all of us lived like this.
Romans 12:14-17
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. 17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.
When we live like this, the world around won’t take it well – they will persecute us, either out of jealousy because they can’t enjoy the life of love, joy and peace that we do, or because our way of lifestyle jars with theirs.
He goes one to tell them how to respond to those who persecute them. The natural response to someone persecuting us, would be to get back at them by retaliating the same way, but he encourages them to instead bless such people, and he reiterates that we are to bless them, and not curse them, thereby proving to the world that we are different in every way – even in the way we handle persecution.
When one believer goes through a good time, we are all to rejoice with that person – not be envious of them, as our flesh (sinful nature) would suggest. If we remember that we all belong to one body of Christ, then one person’s rejoicing should certainly effect all of us positively, and therefore we should rejoice with them. It’s only when we forget (or don’t remember) that we are one body, and one family, that we tend to grow envious of one another’s joys or successes.
Likewise when one believer goes through sorrow, we need to feel with them, and not let them face it all alone. Jesus was the perfect example of weeping with those who wept. When his friend Lazarus died, and Mary came weeping to Jesus, He saw her, and those who came along with her weeping, and He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. He felt along with them, and He also wept. He felt along with the grieving – He didn’t distance Himself from the emotions they were facing, but rather identified with them, and shared their emotions. It’s never a weak thing to share in people’s emotions and weep – it only demonstrates the genuineness of our love. No wonder the Jews who, when they saw Jesus weeping, said, “See how He loved them.” (John 11:35-36)
Paul encourages them to all think the same way of each other – not to think highly of themselves and low of others, as is the worldly way of thinking. If we all had the other person’s interests in mind, what peace and love we’d enjoy. He then asks them to not set their minds on achieving a high standard of living, and therefore to think highly of themselves, and low of others, but instead to associate with the humble (or the poor people, whose lifestyle might not be of the same standard as theirs).
He goes on to discourage them from considering themselves wise in their own eyes. That’s a great folly – to think we know everything about everything, and others know nothing about anything. It’s never wise to pat ourselves on the back or to blow our own trumpets about our knowledge. It’s the job of others to praise us, if at all, and that’s what we should do for others too. King Solomon said in Proverbs 27:2, “Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.”
Paul then discourages them from retaliating to evil with evil. That’s the natural, worldly way of functioning, but we are called to a higher and nobler calling, where we love people with God’s unconditional love, irrespective of how they treat us. Since we have experienced this unconditional love, we are to demonstrate it to others as well.
He suggests that they live in such a way that they are known by people to be those who regard good living, instead of being known as those who do evil. So, in effect he’s saying that not only should we not repay evil with evil, but instead we are to repay evil with good, and we should be known by people, to be those who do good and not evil.
Romans 12:18-21
18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
He then urges them to seek to live at peace with all men, but adds “in as much as depends on you,” meaning that there are people with whom we may not be able to live at peace with, not because we don’t seek it, but rather because they don’t want it. Such people are divisive who hate anyone who is different from them; whom they consider a threat to them, or of whom they are envious. But all the same he encourages us to make every effort to live at peace with all men.
Paul then goes on to encourage the believers to not take justice into their own hands, and to seek revenge on those who are at enmity with them. Instead he encourages them to let God deal with the ones who ill-treat them. God’s sense of justice is far greater, and better than ours, and He is more capable of meting our justice than we are. He then quotes a verse form Deuteronomy 32:35, where it says, “Vengeance is Mine...” If we have the Lord on our side, why should we seek revenge against anyone? The Lord assures us that He will repay them for the evil done against us.
Then Paul gives some very practical suggestions on how to respond to those who are at enmity with us. There will come a time when we will see our enemy in need. That’s not the time for us to gloat at their disaster or trouble, but rather a time for us to continue to demonstrate God’s unconditional love to them. In those times, we are to help them. If they are hungry, we need to feed them; if there are thirsty, we need to quench their thirst. This is in total contrast to what our sinful nature/old sinful self/the flesh, suggests we do, but this is the only way we win our enemies over – by demonstrating the love of God.
Paul is echoing the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:43-48 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
Both Jesus and Paul encouraged us to be loving to our enemies. Paul goes on to say that when we do that, the ‘enemy’ we love, will be so overcome with conviction, that it would seem like they have coals of fire on their heads. This response of love to a person doing evil to us, is in total contrast to what the world would have us do.
We need to be careful though, that we don’t understand this to mean that fellow-believers can do evil to us for no reason. Remember he’s talking in the context of tribulation that might come to us, because of our new-found faith in Christ. This kind of evil behaviour from non-Christians is to be met with this kind of love. Fellow-believers have no right to harm us for no reason. Jesus had a teaching on that in Matthew 18:15-17 where he set out a method to help resolve the conflict between two believers. Please take time to read through this passage, to learn how to deal with such situations.
This is the new way of life that Paul is suggesting the believers in Rome (and us) to follow, and the rest of the letter to the Romans will focus a lot more on the details of how we are to live this new life in Christ.
