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The Practice of Love (Part1): In Church
Romans 12:9-16
Mari Ikeda
Today I was planning to read the Romans 12:9-21, but I decided to divide the passage into two parts, as its content is quite broad. So we’re going to read the first half today, which is verse 9-16.
The very first sentence of the first verse today, 12:9, says this: “Love must be sincere.” It means, love must be true and genuine. What does it mean specifically? We’ll learn it from the passage we’ll read today and in the next time.
The passage up to v.16, which we’ll read today, talks about the practice of love in church, while the passage after v.17, which we’ll read next time, broadens the topic to the practice of love in society. However, it doesn’t mean that we practice love discriminately according to whether in church or outside church. In fact, “in church” can be paraphrased as among your friends and family members, whereas “in society” can be the same as among people whom you don’t know or those who are hostile to you.
Now, let’s start. Let’s read the whole passage.
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
1. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good (9)
First, v.9 says, “Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.” The word translated as “hate” originally has a meaning of a very strong hatred, with a nuance of “hate exceedingly.” On the contrary, the word translated as “cling” in “Cling to what is good” is originally the word used for expressing a very intimate kind of human relationship, and can be translated as “become one body.” So, if we read the whole sentence again, it reads, “Hate what is evil exceedingly, and become one body with what is good.” In other words, it’s suggesting us to discern well what is evil and what is good, so that we can establish justice.
This leads us to remember 12:2 we read last time.
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.
A sincere love means for us to seek what God’s will is and establish God’s justice, instead of trying to make our own wishes come true. Therefore, it begins from ourselves by being transformed by God, and becoming able to hate what God hates and rejoice what God rejoices, rather than us attempting to eliminate people who do evil things.
2. Honor one another (10)
Verse 10 tells us to love and honor each other as family members in our relationship with others in church. If we literally translate the original text for the sentence translated as “Honor one another above yourselves,” it reads, “Go ahead one another in honoring others.” That is to say, “Take the lead one another in honoring one another.” I think this is a big challenge for us, for we live in the society where we always have to compete with others and get so used to judge each other. At the same time, it is also a challenge but an important thing for us both in society and in church to remember that each of us is a different person, that none of us is a possession of someones else, and that all of us share an equal relationship with each other regardless of age.
3. Worship the Lord with spiritual passion (11)
Verse 11 sounds very passionate, for it says, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor.” This does not mean that we need to gather up our strength by ourselves to be passionate. Both English and Japanese translation cannot but fail to reflect the original meaning here. The word “spirit” in the phrase “your spiritual fervor” is meant for not our own spirit, but God’s spirit, namely the Holy Spirit. It is only by the work of the Holy Spirit that we are able to have faith in Jesus. Similarly, the phrase “Never be laking in zeal” means “Don’t be slow but always willing and active in seeking the help of the Holy Spirit.” Otherwise we’ll easily lose sight of God and slip back to the selfish way of thinking. That’s also the reason why this verse ends with the command to serve the Lord. This links with 12:1 we read last time.
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
To serve the Lord day by day through all the ways of our life by seeking actively the Holy Spirit’s help is the worship we give to God.
Worshipping God is the driving force of our love. The love we naturally have is very limited and fragile. However, God’s love is never-failing and always being poured out on us and people around us all equally. We make sure it is so again and again by seeking the help of the Holy Spirit, and by worshipping God we’ll be able to join the work of God’s love without being caught up in our own limited amount of love.
4. Pray in the midst of suffering and remain hopeful (12)(Romans 8:24-27)
Verse 12, which says, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer,” was probably widely known among the early churches, and so Paul also taught about it many times. We also have heard it from him in the Romans chapter 8. Let’s look back 8:24-26.
24 … But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
To believe, to pray, and to have hope cannot be separated from each other, which we come to understand in our suffering. When someone suffers, we pray together and believe in the hope yet unseen. That is the most important part of what it means to love each other in church. Even when we don’t understand why God doesn’t take away our suffering, or even when we feel as if God remains utterly silent, we remind and make sure each other that God has a good plan that we cannot see yet, that the fact God loves us never changes, and that there is hope. Church is the community in which we pray together, believe together and keep hope together in that way.
5. Meet each other’s material needs (13)(Matthew 25:35)
Verse 13 says to meet each other’s material needs. Perhaps this is one of the best examples to explain that love involves our concrete actions, rather than it is just a saying or a personal emotion. It can happen to anyone that we need some particular support from others in times of various trouble such as when our health condition becomes bad or when we get exhausted by caregiving. I hope we can seek and give help for each other in this church in such times. In order for that, we need to get to know each other and become friends in normal times.
However, in the meantime, the second half of v.13, which says, “Practice hospitality,” encourages us to help those in need generously even if we meet the person for the first time. It is best explained by Jesus’ word in Matthew 25:35.
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
What we do to others is what we do to Jesus. That’s why we want to value as being equally loved by God whether a long time friend of ours or a new comer to the church for the day.
6. Bless, don’t curse, those who persecute you (14)
In verse 14, it is said to bless, not curse, those who persecute us. In Japan today we never get arrested or tortured for our faith, and we seldom get socially excluded or become a target of discrimination either. But we should understand that Jesus taught us to love our enemies, and that we need to practice that love by having the attitude of blessing, not cursing, those who persecute us. We’ll learn about this in the next time when we read the passage after v.17.
7. Rejoice together and mourn together (15)
Verse 15 says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” This tells us not just to share both joys and sorrows with each other; it means more than that. When we say we love each other with a sincere love, joy cannot be separated from sorrow. As we read in v.12, we are the community in which we are called to pray together in our suffering, and by praying together we believe and make certain together that there is a hope and rejoice together. We rejoice together for something, because we have wept together before. When someone we love suffers, in most of the times we are unable to remove the suffering for them. But even if we grieve for our powerlessness, we are only to keep praying and believing in hope on behalf of them when they may lose hope. That’s how we can trust God and rejoice together even when the situation does not change.
8. Be humble and work toward unity (16)
Finally the last verse of today, v.16, tells us to be humble and live in harmony with one another. This links to v. 10, which we read as, “Take the lead one another in honoring one another,” but here it takes a step further saying, “be willing to associate with people of low position.” In the original text, the word translated as “people of low position” does not necessarily mean only those of low social status, but it means people who are weak, insignificant or small in general. It can also refer more than just people, meaning to tell us to be diligent in small matters.
Churches often say, “Anyone is welcome,” but a church tends to become a gathering of people who share a similar background. On the one hand, it is natural and not always bad, as we can support each other well when we are in a similar situation. But on the other hand, church should be the place where everyone can feel that they are God’s beloved. That’s why we always need to face the challenge of giving up our own comfortableness. We also need to try to see people who are rather invisible, instead of people of popularity, and pay more attention to the voices of the weak than to that of those who have power. I hope we are in harmony with each other in our pursuit of that direction.
Today I wasn’t able to touch the most important part of why we practice love in this way, as the content of today’s text focuses on practicing. So I encourage each of you now, as we start our worship to God through music, to stand before God by yourself and test and approve the depth of God’s love for you, so that you may have the strength to keep walking your life to love others sincerely.
(Prayer) Dear God, we now ask you to pour out your Spirit on each of us, let us not overwhelmed by our anxieties and sorrows, and make us able to listen to your voice well. Help us and enable us to notice pains of people we love. Let us not defeated by feeling powerless in facing a great suffering, but let us remember there is hope in you. We are grateful that you have brought us here and made us get to know each other. Dear our Lord Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen.
Summary
Love is not an emotion or liking something, but is an act of sacrifice for the good of others. Love requires us to forgive and to accept even those who have hurt us. Jesus taught us this love by the act of dying on the cross. Are we loving, not just toward those who are important to us, but also to those who cause trouble and suffering in our lives?
For Discussion
1. How, specifically, can you practice the command to “love one another” within the church?
2. Who is your “enemy”? What does it look like to love them?