Romans 12 (Part 5)

Let us turn to verse 9. I believe that is where we left off the last time in our meditation on this passage. For our visitors, we are preaching a series of horizontal sermons, because they concern daily life—not necessarily vertical life, in the sense of only spiritual matters, God, and the things above, but also the things here on the ground, on earth. These things have to do with daily life, human relationships, character, the way we treat one another, and the mental and emotional attitudes and habits that we have—things that often cause us to stumble in the Christian life and keep us from fully enjoying the blessings God has for us. We have been reading the first eight verses. We have been meditating on these verses, and this morning we are going to continue.

Let us turn to verse 9. “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. In showing honor, prefer one another. In what requires diligence, do not be slothful; be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, constant in prayer, sharing in the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” Glory to the Lord. May the Lord bless His holy Word.

Brothers and sisters, in the preceding verses we have spoken about a life of service: how to serve the Lord, and in what spirit. So those verses speak to us about service. Now I believe that these next verses speak to us more about attitudes above all, because although they refer in part to serving, the focus on serving is not as obvious. It is more about what kind of attitudes we should have toward one another. So in this second section, I would place greater emphasis on attitudes and less on serving.

And remember that we had said, nevertheless, that there are certain attitudes we must have: humility, an awareness of our own limitations, a sense of being one body, sobriety—all these things that are important in service. Now consider that there seems to be a change in this section. If you look, it would seem that there is a change beginning in verse 6: “If prophecy, let it be used according to the measure of faith; if service, in serving; the one who teaches, in teaching; the one who exhorts, in exhortation; the one who gives, with generosity; the one who leads, with diligence; the one who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

There is an obvious parallelism in this section from verses 6 through 8. However, brothers and sisters, when one goes to the original Greek, although it seems that the Apostle’s attitude has changed and become more advisory, the truth is that the Spanish translation changed the style more for the sake of elegance and stylistic considerations. But something is lost of that sense of direction, emphasis, and naturalness with which we are to live out the Christian life. And I took the trouble to make a personal translation of how I would write it—and forgive my pretensions. This is the Lion of Judah Version; you know that there is the Reina-Valera Version and so forth. Listen to this. I tried to remain as faithful as possible to the original grammar, as far as I could discern it through the limited study I was able to do with the help of reference materials. It reads more like this. The Apostle continues in that manner: “...the one who gives, with generosity; the one who leads, with diligence”; and I would put it this way: “...love, without hypocrisy; abhorring what is evil, clinging to what is good. In brotherly love, affectionate and tender; in showing honor, putting one another first; in diligence, not slothful; in spirit, fervent. When the opportunity arises, serving; in hope, rejoicing; in tribulation, enduring; in prayer, constant; in the needs of the saints, sharing; in hospitality, practicing it.”

So the idea is really: Hey, this is what you have to do; this is how you are to relate to one another. Let us dispense with the embellishments and get to the point—call bread bread and wine wine. The Word of the Lord is very direct, brothers and sisters. This is how we must live the Christian life; this is how we must relate to one another. It is beautiful—the manner, the style the Lord gave it. When God commands you to do something, do it. When you must express an attitude, simply express it. There is no need to make excuses; we must obey the Lord in the way we are to treat one another. If we do not treat one another this way, we are being disobedient, and our lives are under judgment.

What many people do not understand, brothers and sisters, is that when God tells us, “Treat your brother in this way,” if we do not do so, we are sinning against God and against ourselves, in addition to sinning against our brother. Our lives come under judgment before the Lord, and we are at a disadvantage. We have no alternative; we must serve the Lord as God commands.

The Apostle Paul’s mind always turns toward love, because love is, as it were, all-encompassing. The Apostle Paul says, first of all, “Lion of Judah Congregation, the love you express to one another should be”—what?—“without pretense.” So you must love one another; we must love one another. The original Greek word is fascinating: anupókritos. What word can you hear in it? Hypocrisy. The idea of “an” is that it is a negative prefix: without hypocrisy. That is where the word hypocrisy comes from. Let love be without hypocrisy. That is powerful. You see, sometimes it is good to understand the original, because there are passages of Scripture that become filled with meaning if one can go back to the original language. It says, “Lion of Judah Congregation, when you express love among yourselves, let it be without hypocrisy. Parents, when you express love to your children, let it be without hypocrisy. Husbands and wives, when you express love to one another, let it be without hypocrisy.”

The word the Apostle Paul uses is agape. Let the agape, the love you show one another, be without hypocrisy. Brothers and sisters, why is what the Apostle Paul says so important? Because love is the most beautiful of all the emotions a human being can express, but it is often tinged and contaminated with other, baser emotions. The Bible says: Let us purify our love. Do you know that you and I need to purify our love? Our love is like gold contaminated with other metals, and that love must be subjected to the Lord’s fire so that it may gradually be purified and stripped of those lesser substances that impair and impoverish the gold of our love. When we enter the kingdom of God, God begins a process of purifying our love so that our love may become more and more like the love of Jesus Christ. And God designs all our sufferings, adjustments, hardships, struggles, and experiences so that our love may become increasingly like the love of Jesus Christ, because, brothers and sisters, it is so easy to love out of self-interest.

The Apostle Paul says in the preceding passage, “Let the one who gives do so with generosity,” and the word was haplotēs, which means with simplicity. It says that the one who gives should do so with generosity, and we were saying that generosity means with simplicity. When one shares with someone, one should do it simply, not looking for a way to get something out of it or doing it with an ulterior motive. Rather, when you share something from your life, do it with simplicity. Afterward, forget whom you gave it to; simply give as a child gives—with that freedom, with that simplicity. The idea was that when we give—when we give something to someone, when we share something, whether it is a word of encouragement, money, or whatever it may be—we should do it with simplicity. Well, here I believe the Apostle Paul is saying something very similar. Because, brothers and sisters, the love of a husband for his wife is often tinged with self-interest. I love her so that she will give me this, give me that, wait on me, wash my clothes, cook my food, do this or that. She loves him because he earns good money and is a good provider. She marries him so that he will protect her and take care of her, because right away she sees the big house and the luxury car. She does not see him; she sees a car in front of him.

When we love, we must ask the Lord, “Father, help me to love in a vacuum, in a sense—to love not because someone is good-looking, or because he lifts weights and has firm muscles, or because he has a lot of money, or because he has a good sense of humor and is sociable. Help me to love for love’s sake, to love because something flows out of us and we need to be with that person—in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, in poverty or in wealth.” Love must always be there, and we cannot go around harboring secret motives, with hypocrisy.

Brothers and sisters, let us ask the Lord, “Father, help me to love as You love us.” The Word of God says that Christ, even while we were mired in our sins, came into the world to die for us. God sent Him when we were not lovable and did not deserve for God to love us. God loved us so much that He gave His Son for us. That is agape love; it is the love of God.

He says, “Let your love be pure. Do not mix it with all the filth of personal desire, personal gain, manipulation, oppression, and wanting the other person to do this and that, and insisting that if the other person does not have something, or does not give you something, or does not say something...” Brothers and sisters, God says that your love should be unmixed, that your love should be as pure as possible. Love as God loves. Love freely, without self-interest. That is the love we must have for one another.

Brothers and sisters, may you love the yellow person, the white person, and the black person who is different from you. Love him because he is different from you; do not love him merely because he is like you. When we invite someone into our home, let us not invite that person because he can give us something in return. Let us invite him simply because love tells us, “Invite that person.” Do it with that simple love, that pure love of the Lord.

I ask the Lord, “Lord, help us to love like an angel; purify my love.” Why do we not bow our heads now? Let us ask the Lord right now: “Lord, remove all the impurities.” We are going to leave it there. I am going to show you my love by not boring you with too much meditation this morning.

Right now, in the name of Jesus, I repent of all the impurities that mar my love for my wife, my daughters, and my congregation. Sometimes I love those who love me, or those who flatter me, or those who give to me. I want to love simply because the image of God is imprinted on the lives of the people who come into my life. Purify our love, Lord. Help us to love as Christ loved. Forgive us for the many times in our lives when selfishness gets in the way, along with harsh words and hurtful things, Lord, and we fail to love as we should. Purify my love. Lord, purify our love; purify our love this morning, Lord. Help us to love as Christ loves, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Thank You, Jesus; thank You, Jesus. We repent of selfishness; we repent of expecting something from people. Thank You, Lord Jesus. We worship You; we bless You. Thank You, Christ. Praised and glorified be Your name, Lord.