Love in Romans 12

A follow-up on "The Love Chapter", this chapter further describes us loving one another

Love in Romans 12

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

            Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

            Paul goes into Romans 12:9 by previously saying that each one should serve one another with the gifts God has given him. He says in verse seven, “If service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching . . . .” As 1 Corinthians 13 says, “Love insists not his own way.” While 1 Corinthians 13 describes what love is, I believe Romans 12 shows what love does. By knowing what love is like, we can love others with that love. By knowing what love does, we can imitate it in our lives.

            Let love be genuine. The Scripture first desires that love be true. It is possible to show false love. False love is based on wrong motives. Saying this, the Scripture is aptly saying that we should have a right motivation in order to have genuine love. John 15:5 says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” You know those people that seem to be happy and good all the time and seem to love others all the time, however, when they get around a particular person, you see them explode. This is not genuine love. Genuine love is based on a love that is founded on Jesus Christ. A child can love someone just to hope to a present. A teenager can love their parents just to hope to hang out with their friends a little over curfew. Even a parent can love their spouse just so they can get something in return. Love that seeks to satisfy its own desires is not true love.

            Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Hate must have a reason to hate. To hate evil is to hate what evil does to you. Because of evil, we have the Fall. If Eve hated eating the fruit and if Adam hated the fruit and following his wife, than we would not have the problem(s) we are having now. When we are not hating evil, we are holding fast to it. We are gripping a hold of that particular evil and are protecting it for ourselves. Jesus said, “You cannot serve God and money.” Whenever I make a decision, I find out afterwards that either I hate evil and love good or vice versa. To abhor means to be a stench to. If I truly hate something, I will make any precautions and I will do anything to not do evil again. I will do anything to kill it. Fortunately, God has given us an option in killing evil and that is by the cross. Galatians 2:20 states, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” When I hate evil, I cling onto the hands of Jesus so that I may not drown in the sea of iniquity. To hold fast to what is good is to put every effort in maintaining the biblical necessities: prayer, the Word of God, fellowship with believers, and the such. It’s either one or the other. The mark of a true Christian loves to hold fast to what is good and hate evil.

            Love one another with brotherly affection. We discussed earlier in this book that an affection is the inclination of the will to do good unto others. Love will do anything to help others. It shows hospitality (1 Peter 4:9). It shares with the sufferings of dear Christians (Heb. 10:33). It has compassion (Heb 10:34). Love has a deep desire for others that says, “Let me be with you.” This desire does not come naturally since we are stained with sin. It first comes by taking the initiative in getting to know others. It than helps them out. The more we love, the more Christ’s love will dwell in us. What’s amazing to recognize is Paul is making all these commands. If I do not have genuine love, or if I do not hold fast to what is good or love others with a brotherly affection at one point of the day, I break the whole law or I break grace.

            Outdo one another in showing honor. The NIV says, “Honor one another above yourselves.” To honor is to respect. No age group is specified to respect. Both the young and old hold the responsibility in being respected. However, it does not go so far as to seek the respect but to love others. We exalt others by giving them a good name and treating them highly. This is what love does.

            Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. This love is now directed to God. Zeal in Webster’s New World Thesaurus means eagerness, enthusiasm, intensity, initiative, push, perseverance. We are continually commanded to keep the fire for our Lord burning. Never should it fade

or slacking. God calls us to continually be in awe and in wonder in His presence. The moment we lose our awe in our infinite God is the moment we stop thinking of God as awesome. There should be no reason for us not to be zealous for God, because God does mighty things. God made the stars by his breath (Ps. 33:6) and He holds the waters by the hollow of his hand. When we think about this world God has made, we truly see His greatness. Our mind must be continually active to see our great God and how he works around us. What we do when see the majesty of God should be a humble response and that is serving the Lord. A servant is basically a doulos �" one whose will is one with the Master’s will. That is how Paul was, that is how we are suppose to be also. Our zeal for the Lord is directed for us serving the Lord. When we do not serve the Lord, we have stopped being zealous for Him.

            Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. We are all called to be slaves for God; however, few are actually joyful about being a slave for Him. We are all called to rejoice in what is going to be given to us. Hope is the thing that drives us on. We should all be looking forward to something. When you are working, you do not focus on the task that you are doing for that is depressing, but you look forward to what is in store. Likewise, in the Christian life, we hope for something and rejoice in it because it’s what we look forward to. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and  perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hope and patience go hand in hand, all we can do is hope what is to come and just persevere the circumstances we are going through. The trials we go through may not be easy, but we should still rejoice and be patient. However, one thing we can do is pray about it. By praying, we grow to love God’s ways more than ours. As we pray more, The Holy Spirit comes to our spirit and reveals to us the hidden things of God (1 Cor. 2:10-15).  As a result, we can persevere and be joyful through the circumstances we go through, despite if God answers our requests or not.  Persevering trials is all the state of the mind, but it also must focus on God rather than us focusing on our circumstances.

            Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Perhaps one of the most neglected and desire attributes is a giving spirit. Jesus said that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Although some people are better at giving than others, all people should be able to give. Now giving can be giving to others out of need or out luxury. The main thing is “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” But also, we should keep a heads up that we should be a good steward to all that God has given to us. Saying this, every person has an obligation to each other in giving. However, God loves a cheerful giver. No one likes somebody who has false motives. As we discussed earlier, love is genuine. Saying this, giving to others come out of a pure heart and it does not spur forth out of gratitude but rather a love to others. If a friend is hungry, it does no good in wishing in your head or telling someone that you wish he would be full with food. But rather our responsibility should be able to provide for the person as much as possible. We should do our best and not worry about it, for God’s grace will see us through. Also, showing hospitality is giving people a good home in live in. When strangers would sojourn, there would be someone to wash  his feet and the host would prepare food for him to eat. Likewise, when someone comes to our house we should be willing to be a servant to them and care for them. We should not withhold anything from them. If we withhold just one part from what we have, that is basically us saying we do not want God in our whole lives only 95 percent into our lives. Since Jesus contributed to the needs of others, we should do what he did also.

            Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.  Unusual as it is, we are called to love our enemies. Even enemies love those who are kind to them, but the difference between a Christian and an unbeliever is that the Christian loves everyone, no strings attached. As Jesus not only gave the right to salvation to those who crucified Him on the cross, he also did not condemn them. Likewise, whenever we experience harm or evil from someone, we do not lash out and go against them. What we do is we still love them. What kind of love? All the love we have been talking about from 1 Corinthians 13 and such. We may not experience abuse, but we may receive emotional or social persecution. Instead of being hurt, and hurting others, we should love them as Christ loved them. And we love by focusing on the love that Christ had for us. Christ had his love for us, by the joy and fellowship with God the Father. The joy with God the Father and glorifying Him forever overcomes everything in what we might experience on this side of heaven.

            Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those weep. Now I would like to ask you to remember the days when you were in high school. There would always be that one person who would boast about his grades and asking others what their grade would be. Now the kid would have high grades knowing that others would have lower grades so he would ask them about it. Instead, of feeling bad about their grade, he would rejoice in him doing good. Bitterness and jealous usually settle in to those who do not rejoice with those who rejoice; and a person who does not weep with those who weep are not acting out of love. Either way, the point is clear, we look out for the other person and are sensitive to their feelings. As Ecclesiastes 3 says, “There is a time to rejoice and a time to mourn.” We can rejoice with those who rejoice by us being glad for the person for the good that has benefited to them. We rejoice because we like seeing the joy in the other person being fulfilled. We can weep with those who weep by having compassion. Without compassion, it would be hard to relate to someone and  to feel sorrow. However, our job is to put ourselves into the other person’s shoes and wonder how it would feel to be like them.

            Live in harmony with one another. As born again Christians, we are called to live heaven on earth. Another attribute of love is peace. We are called to have a right relationship with everyone. No one should find any faults in us and it says in 1 Peter that we live so others might be ashamed. Others might be enemies to us, but it is our job to be allies with those are enemies to us. When we love, we are actually in peace with others. If you are not in peace, you are showing division or a dislike of some kind. Peace is a natural clothing for the Christian. He should not think about putting it on because it is already on. Paul speaks about having peace with one another because we all have relationships with people, and must learn to not just forbear them  but have a loving peace with them that points back to Christ.

            Do not by haughty, but associate with the lowly. Love does not boast in its achievements or in its own doing. Proud people will hang out with prideful people. It never associates with the lowly because it thinks that they are not good  enough for him. Loving people look at all people without partiality and look at them for who they are: made in the image of God. Proud people do not associate with certain people. A loving person associates with every class. Association involves getting your life dirty with those around you because that is what it loves doing.

            Never be wise in your own sight. Love always takes someone’s consideration and is not afraid in being wrong. It takes another’s decision and takes their course of action in place of your own. Love is always open that he or she may be wrong. Have you ever thought you were following something down to the note and insisted that it was right, yet it was not until much argument that you persisted your point. Later you found out that you were wrong. It is an embarrassing situation to be in, but there is no danger in yielding to someone. It is better to be humble than to be proud and be guilty of sin. The Pharisees are an example to everything that which is not love; however, they always thought that they were right. All in all we are the last person to trust.

            Repay no one evil for evil but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. In no circumstances is evil justifiable. Romans 12:21 says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Man cannot play the role of God and decide a man’s fate, that is God’s job. God is the avenger and he will make sure wrath will be given to the wicked in this life or the next. Our focus upon the wicked should not be on their prosperity, but they should be content in all their circumstances. Every man deserves to be shown respect and good to. Enemy or no enemy, love should be given to them. As a couple verses later from Romans 12 states, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.” Not only are we called to give thought to do good to others but we must do it. How we think will dictate how we act.

            To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. We usually call an enemy an enemy if they are against us in that point of time and not fulfilling our needs or expectations. However, that does not give us a reason for us not to fulfill the needs of others. When somebody does evil to us we doo good to them. So Paul expands to this by giving reasons as to how to do good to others. We provide for the physical needs of people. We can only provide for the physical needs of people by us getting our lives involved with people Love loves to involve its life to other people. It fulfills the dictate life touching life. If we cannot fulfill the physical needs of people, we can satisfy them  in other means: entertainment or emotionally. Love keeps itself involved in the interests of others. By doing good to others, you fulfill the Great Commandment and are a shining light to the person you love. That light will condemn the evil person for you are a witness to that who is Good.

            If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceable with all. Love makes personal sacrifices in order to be at peace with a person. This does not mean that you should betray Christ in order to please others. No, Jesus said that he who does hate father or mother cannot follow Christ. The only thing in this world that matters is Christ, he that is at peace does everything to be a testimony to the light. If there seems to be confliction with someone like awkward silence all the time or the evil look, than it is our responsibility, no matter what, to love the person. Either talk more or less or to do something or not to do something to appease the person. Love seeks not its own. It wants to make others feel comfortable as long as it is glorifying Christ Jesus.

            Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This statement can be expounded by the victory Christ had over death. Though it does not seem like it, since love always seems weak, love has its way in overcoming evil because that is how God works. God works only through love. Only bad things happen when we try to make our own initiative, because we choose our own way rather than God’s way.

Conclusion

            Romans 12 is an excellent chapter in showing us how to love others. Instead of complicating life, we can make it much simpler by loving God. Simplicity comes only by living the heavenly calling. By loving others we truly will be satisfied for we fulfill the calling of  our need to love.

Author's Note

This chapter is not yet completed.