The March of LOVE

The March of LOVE

Romans 12:9-21

We’ve been talking about how we serve the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it mean to SERVE Him? Giving a million dollars to the church? Building a big temple? Pouring gasoline on myself in the middle of downtown Bowie and striking a match so people can watch me burn out for Jesus? What is SERVICE? Romans 12-15 give us the answer. We noticed last week that service begins by giving Him our bodies as a living sacrifice. That is followed by learning to think a new way, not the world’s way, but as a member of the body of Christ.

Today, we have come to an amazing passage. Just its construction is amazing. It starts with a simple statement, “love is without hypocrisy” in verse 9. But that statement is followed by 20 participles, 8 imperatives, 2 infinitives, 2 subjunctives, and 3 indicatives, that all may appear disjointed, but grammatically seem to be connected with the initial statement. It looks like everything from verses 9 through 21 in some way develops that simple statement, “love is without-hypocrisy.” A lot of development for a four word sentence.

The climax of the passage in verse 21 gives us the importance of “love that is without hypocrisy – apparently it can “overcome evil with good.” “Overcome” suggests that there is a battle going on between evil and good; and that good is not just a “moral quality” (it is), but that it is a moral power, which can attack, beat down, and defeat the moral power of evil. So we start with this simple statement about love, and we end, 20 participles later, with love (good) stomping through the evil world with its giant, spiritual, nuclear-techno boots, smashing evil to smithereens. Let’s read this interesting passage:

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 honor 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. 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. 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.

How do we get from “love is without hypocrisy” to “overcome evil with good?” Is it through a series of commands that, when obeyed, make us more powerful in our fight against evil? Or is this section a description of Love which suggests that anyone who possesses the real thing has power over evil? I am going to argue for the latter, that genuine love, God’s kind of love, has a power you wouldn’t believe.

The first phrase, “love is without hypocrisy,” is translated in most of our Bibles as a command, like the NKJ above, “let love be without hypocrisy.” But notice that “let” and “be" are in italics which indicates that the translators added them. They are not in the Greek. A normal, simple translation of the Greek would be, “love is without hypocrisy.” It’s a description of God’s love. True love is entirely free from hypocrisy. It is genuine all the way thru. It puts on NO masks, it fakes nothing. It is completely honest. What this passage attacks is plastic Christianity, passive Christianity, bench warmers, pew parkers. It describes a kind of love that has a militant power to it, that goes out to conquer. And the overriding characteristic of that love is it’s absolute, transparent, honesty. There is nothing hypocritical in it.

It is so easy to fake love, to display “love” because you have to. “Now Joey be sweet to your Aunt Matilda, because she has money.” “Joey, act nice to your brother.” “Joey, be quiet in church, and speak respectfully to the older people, because you are in the house of God.” We grow up learning how to fake love, how to act “properly” no matter what we feel or desire. The word, “Hypocrisy” here means “to pretend,” “to play a part or role.” And we develop the ability to “look” loving to fit the occasion. It doesn’t matter what our motives are, or why we look loving; we just do it to fulfill the expected role.

The over-all command in this passage is to quit playing that role; quit thinking that your “play-acting” is serving God in any way. He didn’t “play-act” love for the world. He gave His all, He gave His best, His only Son to die for the world’s needs.

I think the rest of the passage describes this genuine love. How does this kind of love act when you see it? There are 12 “parts” here. Think you can handle 12 parts? I think we can divide the passage into “areas” where Paul is helping us think through what genuine love looks like. And the areas are first, “self,” then “others,” and then people I would call “irritants.”

I. Love is without hypocrisy INTERNALLY (9-12). What does “without hypocrisy” mean in one’s personal life? What change does God’s love bring when it enters and fills our hearts? You see it’s effects in four contrasts:

A. Good rather than evil – Verse nine says that genuine love honestly pursues what is good and abhors what is evil. The two verbs here are extremes, “abhor” and “cling.” One pictures the strongest horror, like turning over a rock and seeing maggots, and the other pictures the strongest glue, like Krazy Glue, that fastens itself tightly to good. “Love” and “good” are inseparable. God’s love comes with a passion for good. “Love” and “evil” are totally disconnected.

So if you sort of “enjoy” that which is evil, don’t sing too loudly on “Oh how I love Jesus.” The Psalmist said, “do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.” Love for God manifests itself in perfect hatred! We can evaluate our love by our hate as well as by what we are glued to.

B. Others rather than self – Verse 10 describes an attraction toward others that genuinely enjoys their presence. “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love.” “Brotherly” suggests that we enjoy their presence because we view them as part of our family. In fact we give them honor (“in honor giving preference to one another”) because they are a special part of our family. “Honor” means to put a price on someone and thus to value them. You love to be around other brothers and sisters because they are such valuable members of your family.

Two weeks ago we were in Georgia for Martha’s mother, Velma Hearn’s funeral. Joy Griffin was there; Jerry and Nisa Cowen were there. These were young people that Velma and her husband, Howell had led to the Lord and nurtured in the Christian faith. They consider themselves a part of the Hearn family. And the Hearn’s do too! What a blessing to be around them at a time of sorrow. And that’s the point. As members of the same family we should seek excuses to be together.

C. Enthusiasm rather than Passivity – Love is excited about life as a servant of God in verse 11. “Lagging in diligence” describes someone who is discouraged, burnt out, passive, tired. Have you ever been there? You can’t see the purpose or value of it all, and don’t have ambitions much higher than getting more sleep. The tragedy is that we can serve the Lord that way – as passive, depressed people. “I am called to carry an unusually heavy cross, and have struggled under the burden alone lo these many years, and see not even a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel.” The person who says that doesn’t know God’s love and doesn’t understand who he is serving!

I can see someone becoming discouraged and passive when they are working for a difficult employer at minimum wage for years. You’ve been a ditch digger for 40 years and are still receiving only $2.22 an hour. But as a Christian you are not a ditch digger exclusively; you work for the Lord Christ. And what does He pay? Think about that question: “what does He pay?” More like $100,000 an hour, or $1 million per hour. Paul was thinking about God’s pay scale in II Cor 4:17 when he mused, “for our light affliction, which is but for a couple of seconds, is working for us an exceedingly heavy weight of glory.” That’s an enormous return for a small investment of effort!

And you are going to serve Him half-heartedly? Passively? Depressedly, just going through the motions? That’s an insult! That’s not His love at work in your heart. That’s your love faking it. His love is “fervent in spirit.” The word “fervent” is “boiling,” someone whose spirit is at 220 degrees in his passion to obey the Lord.

Why doesn’t the Love of Christ bring everyone to a boil when they understand what Grace they have received from the Lord and the privilege they have of serving the Lord Christ Himself? It ought to.

George Croly penned,

Teach me to love thee as thine angels love

One holy passion filling all my frame

The baptism of the heaven-descended Dove

My heart an altar, and thy love the flame (from “Spirit of God, Dwell Thou Within My Heart” by George Croly, 1854).

Have you ever prayed this way? Not just for blessing, not just for things, not just for comfort, but for God’s holy passion to possess every part of your frame? That’s what God’s love is – a holy passion. What kind of passion drove you to church today? Did you come with a passion? Or did you come passively?

D. Hope rather than Despair – one of the rather unexpected things about life is that things don’t go smoothly, even for Christians, who are serving the Lord faithfully. You would think that when you passionately serve God, He would bless you, at least by making your life comfortable in some way. But sometimes things get worse after you obey. Some of God’s choicest children live in the most frustrating circumstances. If you were a prophet of God in the Old Testament, your chances were pretty good that your life would be miserable and your own people were ultimately going to kill you (Matt 23:30-31).

The truth of the matter is that we don’t have to read our level of success from our circumstances. Genuine love rejoices in hope. That’s a notch above “having hope.” Love doesn’t have to include its circumstances in its thinking. It focuses on the object of its love – the God behind it all. He has promised to be with us (Heb 13:8), He has promised to superimpose His good plans on our random circumstances (Rom. 8:28). Love delights in the power and purpose of the One loved.

And that delight enables us to be patient in tribulation. We normally don’t stay under anything difficult unless we can see a benefit to it. And perhaps the value of the tribulation is seen more clearly by those who are continuing steadfastly in prayer. “Steadfastly” suggests constant attention, repeatedly praying about every aspect of one’s situation.

I have been surprised at how my prayer life depends on hope. “Why should I pray now?” “Why should I take this moment to pray?” “What difference is it going to make in my life?” So often my prayer life is governed by my “rejoicing in hope,” delighting in the word that promises that GOD ACTUALLY DOES HEAR AND ANSWER – even someone like me!!

The issue in the heat of the problem is, “will you continue to hope?” No, correction, the question is, “WHO or what will you hope in?” Hope in yourself and your abilities will drag you down; hope in the God of all Grace will bring delight.

What is Genuine Love? Love without hypocrisy? It is passionate about good, it is passionate about others. It serves the Lord enthusiastically even in the middle of discouraging conditions – with delight because of the loads of hope that He gives us. Do you see how strong God’s love is? It’s not some mamby, pamby, syrupy, sloppy sweetness that smiles at all. The truth is that PASSIVE, LAZY, UNFOCUSED CHRISTIANS DO NOT CONTRIBUTE TO THE SERVICE of GOD ON EARTH, NO MATTER HOW NICELY THEY SING or HOW MUCH MONEY THEY GIVE (or how much they smile at the pastor). LOVE IS FERVENT! LOVE IS PASSION!

II. Love is without hypocrisy TOWARD OTHERS (13-16). What does “without hypocrisy” mean in our relationships with others? What change does God’s love bring when it enters and fills our hearts? We see it’s effects in four more areas:

A. Fellowship - “distributing to the needs of the saints” (13). The word “distributing” is the word koinonia, “fellowship,” “joining” those in need for the purpose of meeting their needs. Those in need can’t make you help them. Love joins them to help.

The phrase “given” to hospitality means “pursuing,” “chasing after” hospitality, making your house a place where outsiders can find rest and peace. Genuine love turns your house into a place of ministry. It becomes more than your castle, it becomes God’s temple, a place where others meet Him.

Have you thought of opening your home to take in one or two of Katrina’s victims for several months? Martha and I have talked about it. But “what if they mess up the house?” “What if they steal stuff from us?” “What if they aren’t very nice people?” All of those are important questions; and all are possible, but none are significant in light of the Love of God.

B. Blessing - “Bless those who persecute you” (14). Love wants good to come upon bad people, even those who make your life miserable. By “blessing” them, you are pronouncing on them what is for their best. Think of the person who is your greatest pain. What do you “wish” for them? “Good?” Or “bad?” The command is to respond to these people in the same way that you respond to your best friends!

The opposite word, “curse,” does not mean profanity (cussing the person out) as much as calling down divine curses upon a person – i.e. wishing bad things upon him/her; speaking to or of him or her in a bad light. Have you ever wished this upon someone who is making your life miserable? It is so easy to become misguided by the ugliness of others, and allow their ugliness to turn us to ugliness.

C. Empathy - “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (15). How easy it is to fake this – pretending that we are rejoicing when inside we are not? Often we are jealous of those who rejoice, and indifferent to those who weep. Think of the victims of Katrina this past week, people without homes, jobs, relatives, even families, with no place to go? Have you wept with them? Or have you been too busy? Maybe we ought to just stop this message and spend time contemplating what our lives would be like if we lost comparable supports.

It’s easy to ignore or overlook the weeping. We are busy; we don’t like to dwell on sad things; we wouldn’t know what to say to them anyway. So we tend to give them a Bible verse, or send a card, or make a contribution, and go our way. But what the weeping person needs is just someone to be there to weep with him/her. Love stops to take notice of the weeper. It may not have anything to say, anything to give them, it is just there.

The command is to honestly, genuinely, without hypocrisy join in completely with those that rejoice, and feel the pain and suffering of those who weep. Have you ever done that? That’s the great opportunity we have this week with our brothers and sisters on the Gulf Coast.

D. Unity - “Be of the same mind toward one another” suggests honestly thinking along with others. Since we are in this together, we need to think it through together. We can’t be like the man in James 2 who says to suffering children, “be warmed, be filled,” and gives them nothing. Just because the hurricane missed us doesn’t mean that we get off scott free. Love joins others, concerned about thinking the way they thing, feeling what they feel, participating with them in the highs and lows of their lives.

In order to do this, “don’t set your mind on high things” (the big, famous, well known, popular things) with delusions of grandeur, “but associate (get carried away) with the humble” (the lowly, the poor, the minorities, the victims of hurricanes). The big names, the powerful and popular are always attractive, but God’s love is “carried away” by the humble, the lowly. What a contrast between our ways and His ways. We yearn for the rich and famous while He takes a seat next to the “poor, who are of a contrite heart, who tremble at His word” (Isaiah 66:2).

Who do you look up to? Who do you want to join? Who are your heroes today? If we were to take a BBC poll of “most admired people in the world,” what names would you add? Would there be any lowly people on that list?

Here are four effects that God’s love brings to our relationships with others. Have you ever seen this kind of LOVE? Isn’t this an amazing description of the character of God? Here is the motivation that sent Him to earth to die for us. Here is the passion that led to His Passion. He didn’t “nickel-and-dime” our need as He went on to do other, more important, things. He stopped. Then He came all the way down to the level of our poverty.

That is genuine love. And that’s the kind of “good” that smashes evil! Genuine love has the capabilities of a reverse terrorist. It can walk into a crowd and demonstrate Holy Spirit concern and interest and “blow up” all evil – leaving people with a desire to imitate what they have just seen and experienced. That’s Romans 12:21 in action.

One of the most amazing stories to come out of WW II concerns a church leader in Bulgaria named Metropolitan Kyril. When the Nazis rounded up the Jews in his city and herded them into a barbed-wire enclosure, he decided to act.

The train that was supposed to take the Jews to Auschwitz pulled up at the station. The S.S. guards were just about ready to load the Jews into the box cars that would take them to the gas chambers when suddenly, out of the darkness, Metropolitan Kyril appeared. He was a tall man to start with, but as an Orthodox priest, he wore a miter on his head, which must have made him appear like a giant as he emerged out of the darkness. He was wearing his black robes and his white beard hung over them. Marching behind him were many of the townspeople.

Kyril went to the entrance of the barbed-wire enclosure, which was then surrounded by his supporters. When the Nazi guards tried to stop him, he laughed at them and pushed aside their guns. He went in among the Jews and as they surrounded him, crying hysterically, he raised his hands. He quoted one verse of Scripture, and with that verse he contributed significantly to the changing of the destiny of a nation. Quoting from the Book of Ruth he declared to his Jewish friends, “Whither thou goest, I will go. You people will be my people, and your God will be my God!”

The Jews cheered and the Christians joined in cheering. They were no longer separate peoples. They had become one in the declaration of the Word of God.

It is interesting that not a single Bulgarian Jew ever died in a Nazi concentration camp during WW II, in spite of the fact that Bulgaria was one of the Nazi powers. When a man is willing to lay down his life to oppose oppression and injustice, amazing things can happen (from Tony Compolo, Let Me Tell you a Story, 133-135)

Notice what Kyril did — he chose to join a lower group, to take a more dangerous road, to put himself out for others. That is God’s love.

III. Love is without hypocrisy toward irritants (17-21). I chose the word “irritant” to reflect those who make our lives more difficult than the preceding eight verses. I could have called them “enemies,” but I find quite a few people who don’t think that they have any enemies. They have people who are irritating, painful, even disgusting, but they refrain from calling them enemies, probably because of our PC culture today.

How does love respond in a genuine, non-hypocritical way when it is getting mistreated, and actually harmed by others? How do you react to people whose goal is to ruin you? What change does God’s love bring when it enters and fills our hearts? Again we can see it’s effects in four areas:

A. Love doesn’t repay evil (17). In spite of the fact that someone has “done” you really wrong, and your emotions are stirred in your system, and you want to give them what they deserve (and even more than they deserve!), love refuses to payback wrong. It may be difficult to convince yourself that “letting-it-go” is a better way. In fact, withholding the expression of your anger may feel hypocritical. But this passage argues that we can “destroy” our enemies in a better and more complete way — by making them friends! By overcoming evil with good.

B. Love lives at peace with others (18). “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” The verse doesn’t promise that you will always be able to live at peace with people. But, when there is a lack of peace, make sure that it is not your fault. Make sure that “as much as depends on you,” you are at peace with others. “Whether you actually live at peace or not, will depend, then, solely on how others behave toward you” (Alford).

C. Love refuses to avenge wrong (19). “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath.” Let God take care of the situation. He is the final judge, He knows the hidden things, and He will judge fairly. Here is our problem: when our emotions are aroused, especially with personal injury, we have difficulty waiting for God to fix the situation. We can’t trust that His “delayed” justice will be fair. Our emotion cries for an immediate response.

Thus the command could perhaps be re-written as, “don’t obey your emotions;” “don’t trust your feelings when you are upset.” If you choose to say “no” to your emotional desires, God will help you figure out how to do something good for your enemy! And THAT will change the situation!

Think of what happened to Jesus Christ. Throughout His life, He was treated unfairly, even by “religious” people who were supposed to be His friends. Almost every detail of His arrest and trial was illegal and unfair. In spite of that, Jesus Christ never asked for judgment against His persecutors. He never tried to avenge Himself. Instead He “committed Himself to the One who judges righteously” (I Peter 2:23), and said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

God will sort everything out accurately if we allow Him to. Think of how we “complicate” God’s job by trying to “avenge” ourselves and punish our enemies in our half-cocked and ignorant way! “Give place” means “do not get in its way, do not run before it.” “Let it come and judge in its time.”

D. Love helps its enemy (20). We have seen a progression from “blessing” the enemy (14) to letting his infraction go (17) to committing it all to God the final judge (19). When a person does that, s/he is FREE! They can approach their “evil-motivated” enemy in the same way Christ approached us – to meet our needs and give us His best.

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." Love overcomes evil by introducing its enemy to a brand new concept – that someone in the world thinks so highly of him that they want the best for him. In the middle of his attack on them he is most vulnerable to an attack of love on him. To meet someone who honestly seeks to meet his deepest need is absolutely life-changing.

Your enemy knows how you “should” respond. And when you don’t; when you instead love him by trying to help him as a friend instead of remaining an enemy, he doesn’t know what to do. Your response doesn’t fit any of his categories. And he sits there and says, “WHY did she respond like that?” And when he realizes what you are doing (which may take awhile), it will be like the sun coming up in his life to melt his hardened heart and give him new insight into what he is doing (or has done) to you.

As a result of these 12 descriptions of love, verse 21 comes to the climactical conclusion that Love can conquer evil. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” The worst thing you can do when your enemy mistreats you, is to mistreat him back. Then he has succeeded in making you like himself. He has “overcome” you by making you angry and vindictive. He has perpetuated evil by growing it (usually quickly) in your heart. But Jesus said, “I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33). He fought that battle and didn’t give in. He responded with love that attacked his enemies at the core of their lives, He hit them in their “theological spleens” with love and kindness, and smashed their evil intentions.

Evil wins the battle when it makes us hypocrites, when it teaches us to say that we love God at the same time we are hating or mistreating those around us. Love is genuine in the sense that what it holds toward God it holds also toward all God’s creation.

And that kind of love wields incredible power on earth, in society. Hypocritical love is worthless and probably counterproductive. It is the kind of stuff that has made us sick all of our lives. What we hate in others we often don’t recognize in ourselves. But when we get a taste of the pure stuff, what a difference! It’s like a big gulp of pure water after drinking ocean salt water for way too long.

How will “bad” people ever get a taste of God? When they catch a glimpse of non-hypocritical love. And that will usually take a sacrifice on our part, being honest with God and others, giving up the masks, coming out of the closet, confessing our sins one to another and praying for one another that we might be healed from this curse of pretending.