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Romans 12:9-21
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit,1 serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.2 Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it3 to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 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.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
[1] 12:11
[2] 12:16
[3] 12:19
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Couple of weeks ago, we were looking at what Paul had to say about us being part of the body of Christ. And during that sermon I mentioned, if any of you, you know, wanted to email me, I would love to hear some stories about how the body of Christ has ministered to you, how you've been cared for because you've been part of the body, and quite a number of you email me, and I was so so encouraged reading through those emails. And, and since this morning, we're actually gonna be continuing with the same theme, I thought I would just read you some of the excerpts from a few of those emails before we even open up our time in scripture.
Joel Brooks:And so I'm gonna be editing some of these on the fly. I'll take out the names, but, here's one of the emails. I just joined the church last July in the midst of COVID, and a few weeks later, I met my home group for the first time. That first night, I was able to share about some serious health and financial issues that I was burdened with. Everyone in my home group listened and prayed for me, and for my family.
Joel Brooks:And for the first time in a long time, I felt supported and loved and a part of a family. Flash forward to last Christmas and my home group helped me. They helped me to buy presents, and they even gave my mom a gift card in which to buy groceries. I will never forget watching my mom cry in the car saying to me, no one in my community has ever offered to do anything like that for us. And she said I said to her, now you see why I go to redeemer.
Joel Brooks:Another email. When our child was in the hospital, yet again, one of our one of Redeemer's members who is in residency there heard about it. And although it was her day off, she left her home and her family and went and got some coffee and some other treats and brought them to us since she knew no one else would be able to come and see us due to the COVID policies. It blew my mind that she went to that trouble. It was truly the greatest blessings to have a cup have a hug from a friend along with some amazing coffee.
Joel Brooks:Another email. I I struggle with same sex attraction, and I feel that Jesus has called me to follow him in a life of singleness and celibacy, if that's what it takes. I guess I get to be like Jesus. I'm writing you because what I have been given cannot compare compare. What I have given up cannot compare with what I have found in the body of Christ.
Joel Brooks:I am loved in a way I did not think possible. Another email. 2021 was just brutal for us. My husband lost his stepdad. We had a miscarriage, and the suffering seemed like more than we could bear.
Joel Brooks:But thanks be to God that we did not bear it alone. We couldn't. Our home group rallied around us praying, weeping, empathizing deeply, and believing for us. I love that. Believing for us.
Joel Brooks:One member even made a playlist for us of worship songs. Another watched our kids during the funeral. The valley was deep, but thanks be to God for His presence and for His people. I could go on just reading email after email like this, But instead, I just wanna thank you. Thank you, church, for being the body of Christ and for caring for people.
Joel Brooks:Thank you for the numerous hospital visits, the gift cards, the encouraging notes that you have sent. Thank you for going to people in their depression and just literally giving them a hug or going on a walk with them, for providing extra seats at a dinner table for those who are lonely, for paying for some people's bills. Some of you have given people cars. Thank you so much for the way that you have ministered to the body of Christ. And, I cannot thank you enough, and it makes me so encouraged that I'm part of this, this body.
Joel Brooks:So that's our introduction to the today's text. Romans 12. We'll begin reading in verse 9. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil.
Joel Brooks: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.
Joel Brooks: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.
Joel Brooks: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.
Joel Brooks: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.
Joel Brooks: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 doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head.
Joel Brooks:Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This is the word of the lord. It is to be done. You would pray with me. Father father, thank you for allowing us to be part of your body, to be members of the body of Christ.
Joel Brooks:Thank you for the love that you have poured into our hearts, the love that I see so visibly demonstrated all over this church. And, Lord, now through your spirit, I ask that you would speak to us through your word and that through your spirit, you would fan into flame even greater love for one another and for our enemies. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen. If you remember, Paul has just finished talking to us about the spiritual gifts, and now he's gonna write to us about how we are to love one another and to love our enemies. And you need to see that these thoughts are connected. These are not 2 separate thoughts. He's not beginning some new section of Romans and transitioning away from spiritual gifts and being part of the body.
Joel Brooks:He's showing us how we use our gifts, how we are part of the body of Christ. If you look at elsewhere in scripture where Paul has written about the gifts, especially in first Corinthians where he writes about it most extensively, in chapters 12 through 13 or through 14. So he writes 3 whole chapters there on the spiritual gifts. But what do you have right in the middle of chapters 12 and 14, right in the middle of talking about prophecy, and gifts of tongues, and all of that? You have the love chapter.
Joel Brooks:And it wasn't like Paul was writing on spiritual gifts and like this is what evangelism is, this is what prophecy is, this is what tongues is, and all of a sudden he gets, you know, distracted and thinks, I wanna write something that will be used in weddings for the next 2000 years. You know, and it gets all poetic. You know, love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy.
Joel Brooks:Does love does not boast. That's not what Paul's doing here. He wrote in 1st Corinthians in the middle of all those spiritual gifts, the the love chapter in that most beautiful poetic way because he wants to anchor the gifts in love. Every gift of the spirit has to be anchored in love, otherwise they're worthless. That's why he says things like, if I speak in the tongues with tongues of men or of angels, but have not love, I'm nothing more than a clanging cymbal.
Joel Brooks:If I have prophetic powers and can understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith so as to remove mountains, but I have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, if I deliver up my body to be burned, had the gift of martyrdom like we talked about a couple weeks ago, but have not love, I gain nothing. Gifts do not matter apart from love. That's why he writes this. And if you did have 1st Corinthians 13 read at your wedding, it's perfectly okay.
Joel Brooks:It's it's okay to not yes, it's about spiritual gifts, but it works appropriately at weddings. Lauren and I, we had it read at our wedding. We also had our reception in a gym and had, like, you know, lime sherbet float punch for our wedding. So then, you know, take it for whatever it's worth, but I think you're good. This section of scripture that we're at here in Romans 12 is actually really hard to break down when you're preaching through it because Paul gives us 22 commands, 22 exhortations.
Joel Brooks:He just rapid fires all of these marks as to what being a Christian should look like. It's almost like after 11 chapters of writing this meticulous doctrine, he's like he explodes finally with all of this application. He's like, you wanna know how to live out the gospel? Spin as you try to go through them all. And so I I wanna try to, like, at least give 2 headings in which I think you can understand all of these commands.
Joel Brooks:And they don't fit perfectly into this, but it's mostly under these two headings. He says, I want you to love your friends and to love your enemies. Love your friends and love your enemies. I'll try to get through as many of these 22 exhortations as possible. Let's look at loving your friends.
Joel Brooks:In verse 9, Paul says, let your love be genuine. That means to let your love be sincere. The actual word is to be unhypocritical. So Paul might have written this 2 1000 years ago, but remember he had the gift of prophecy so he could look ahead and he could see the southern Christian and he knew what we needed to hear. I mean he had southerners in mind.
Joel Brooks:He said our love is to not be phony. It's not to have, you know, the the veneer of pleasantness, but inside is full of poison. I have often wondered if that exhausted, Chick Fil A employee really wants me to have a blessed day. I mean, I don't know if you've wondered that, but I've wondered like are they being sincere? And and perhaps they're just better than me because I know that I have certainly faked love for another person.
Joel Brooks:I have certainly faked it. Haven't you? Haven't like the words or the expressions on your face not match the sincerity that you've had, what you've what's actually been going on in your hearts? I mean, when you text someone looking forward to seeing you later, does it really need that many exclamation points? Are you trying to project you're way more excited than you actually are?
Joel Brooks:So what are we supposed to do when, you know, our heart isn't matching the things that we say? Are are we not supposed to do that? Are we supposed to just fake it or not fake it? Are we supposed to just be jerks? And I'd say not at all.
Joel Brooks:Not at all. I would say that even if you do not feel anything, you should go through the motions of love. Even when you feel nothing, go through the motions of love all the while repenting for your lack of affection. Remember, love is predominantly an action, not a feeling. So out of love for Jesus, go through the motions of loving other people.
Joel Brooks:All the while praying, god, would you match my heart with these actions? And what you will find is over time, god gives you the affections He will do so. It might take time, but he will do so. Alright. After this, immediately after Paul says, let your love be genuine, he goes on to say, abhor what is evil.
Joel Brooks:Hold fast to what is good. It's kind of unusual in a section that's all about love that all of a sudden he's talking about abhorring evil or holding fast to good, but the reason Paul brings this out at the very start of the section of love is because he understands human nature. And he understands that when we love someone, it often distorts our view as to what is evil and what is good. Haven't you found that to be true? That sometimes because you love someone so much, you don't really see some of the things they do as evil?
Joel Brooks:That that that lines, those clear lines that you once used to have as to what were was evil also become a little blurry to you, a little less evil? We even have songs, about this. You know, if loving you is wrong, then I don't wanna be right. Love can make us blind. It can make us blind to some evils.
Joel Brooks:This is why we can look at the Bible and we can speak of divorce as being wrong, except for in the cases, you know, of of infidelity or abandonment or abuse. And we say, scripture says it's clearly wrong. But when someone you know whom you love deeply comes to you and they said that they're miserable in their marriage and they just want out, all of a sudden the lines become blurry. You're like, well, divorce really wouldn't be that bad in this case. Love can blur the edges off of certain sexual sins.
Joel Brooks:Whether it's unmarried sex or whether it's homosexuality because you deeply know and love someone, a person who is living this way, that evil just seems a little less evil. Doesn't it? You see parents all the time at their kids' games, I'm speaking hypothetically here, watching their kids be total jerks out on the field. Watching their kids, like, just push somebody to the ground and yell a profanity, and I'm looking over at or someone's looking over at their parents. The parents are like, my boy's just really competitive, isn't he?
Joel Brooks:It's like, no. He's evil. Like evil. But love distorts, doesn't it? It distorts the view we have of good and evil.
Joel Brooks:And so Paul knows at the very start, he's gotta remind us, abhor evil. Cling to what is good. Can I tell you some of the ways, some of the times, love, the best love that you could give someone is by abhorring their evil? Looking the other way is not love. Ignoring their evil is the opposite of love.
Joel Brooks:Alright. Next, Paul tells us this. He says, love one another with brotherly or I would add sisterly affection. The word is fileo there. It's where we get, you know, Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, which if you've been there, you wonder why it's named that.
Joel Brooks:But Paul is saying here, family. The church is not a country club. It's it's not a team. It's a family. There's a reason we call each other brother or sister, because Christ has united us so closely together that we are family.
Joel Brooks:Now what does being a family mean? It means anytime, anywhere. That's what I think family means. Means anytime, anywhere. There is absolutely nothing you will not do for family.
Joel Brooks:You will always be there for them. And it doesn't matter if you don't like your family, which I know for some of you, it's really hard trying to like your family. You don't have a natural affection for one another. I mean growing up, I have a brother who's 4 and a half years older than me, and we just hated one another. But if ever you said something against him, I'd have his back.
Joel Brooks:We used to fight so much all the time. There were times like literally he would stuff me in a sleeping bag and he would just drag me down the steps. And then, I mean, I'm I'm just I'm so much smaller than him. But you know what? Anytime, anywhere, I'm there for my brother.
Joel Brooks:And he's there for me. Because blood unites us. That's what it means to be family. But Paul here is saying there's something greater than blood. The spirit of Christ unites us.
Joel Brooks:I mean, there's nothing I wouldn't do for my daughters because they're my family. They they're my blood. I love them with this intense fierce love. As a parent, maybe you've had this when your children are Mother's Day out. Did you ever get one of those notes that was like, you know, your child bit another friend?
Joel Brooks:Like, you get it's like just just a shame. Like, you get that? So we got that for one of our children. You know, your child bit another friend, and you're not disowning them. I mean, they're your child.
Joel Brooks:A matter of fact, honestly, my first thought was this, I bet that other child deserved it. You know, that was that was my first thought, it's like, because you you come along your family, and that might be, you know, a case of love being blind, but, you come along your family like, I've got you. Here's the truth. Like, the closest ties that we have in love in our culture is that between a husband and a wife, in which you have that covenant love with one another. But the reality is this, that those bonds don't endure forever.
Joel Brooks:That death is gonna separate the bonds of marriage between my wife and I. She is not always going to call me husband for all of eternity, but she will always call me her brother and I will always call her my sister. That is how tightly Christ unites us through his spirit. He's given us bonds that endure forever. Now one of the things that is extraordinary about this family relationship that Paul's describing here is because it crosses across all races, all socioeconomic backgrounds, and there was no other organization, no other religion in the world that united people like this.
Joel Brooks:This was unheard of in Roman society, but the Holy Spirit unites us. And this is why brother Alton Hardy, who's over in Fairfield, who's come and preach here a couple of times, although we have nothing in common, We are different skin, different socioeconomic background, different education. You name it. We have nothing in background, and yet that man is my brother. 100%.
Joel Brooks:He is my brother. So tight are our bonds through Christ. Alright. I gotta pick up the pace. We're never getting through this.
Joel Brooks:Next, Paul says that we're to outdo one another and showing honor. I like how he phrases this. It's it's almost like it's a competition. Gotta outdo one another. But the thing is if you actually win, you're the person you're showing honor to wins.
Joel Brooks:To honor means to show someone or to treat someone like they're precious or like they are valuable. And we do this with everyone, no matter how many flaws we see in them. We can honor anyone, no matter their flaws, because we know as Christians every person is created in God's image. Therefore worthy of honor. And throughout history, churches have held in high esteem people to whom the world has said is of low esteem and of worthy of no honor.
Joel Brooks:Do you know this? Do you know how do you know why churches some churches have cemeteries. Do you know how that started? It started early early in church history back in Roman culture. If you were a person of low socioeconomic background, you were you were poor, you were a slave or whatever, you could not afford a burial plot.
Joel Brooks:You couldn't afford land. When you died, you were discarded as trash. Literally thrown out with the trash. Burned. And the church said no.
Joel Brooks:And so the church pulled together money, bought property so they could give the poor, a burial of dignity, saying these are people who are created in God's image and deserve honor. Do you know how the first orphanages started? Once again, similarly in Roman culture. The Romans would discard their children for a number of reasons. If the child had a birth defect, they would them.
Joel Brooks:If it was just an inconvenience to them, they would discard the child. Or sadly, if the child was just a girl, often would be discarded. The Christians knew where they left the babies. They would literally go on what they called baby runs. And they would go and they would gather the children, then they would pull together all their resources so they could raise these kids.
Joel Brooks:It was the Christians who started the first orphanages. Christians found ways to honor those whom the world rejected. And as Christians, we are to outdo one another in showing honor. And I'd say especially showing honor within the church to our brothers and sisters. Take time to thank and to praise people.
Joel Brooks:Can I tell you, you cannot honor people privately? I have written so many letters to people in my mind, and it has done you no good. Take the time to honor people. Let's move to loving our enemies. Gosh.
Joel Brooks:I'd love to. Oh, and let's just say this about hospitality. I can't just jump over hospitality. Just notice real quick. He says seek to show hospitality.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't say hospitality. He doesn't say be hospitable. You don't, like, welcome the stranger when they come to you? To seek to show hospitality means you go and find the stranger and you bring them in. Hospitality is not passive.
Joel Brooks:It's active. We are to actively be looking for strangers that we could pull in and treat as family. Okay. That's hospitality done. If I could do the whole sermon in 5 minutes if I treated it like that.
Joel Brooks:Loving our enemies. I can't go through all 22 and so we're we're just gonna select some. How do we love our enemies? Do you have an enemy? I mean, do you have someone who actively tries to hurt you?
Joel Brooks:Someone who's super passively aggressive to you? Someone who, honestly, when you think about them, just makes your blood boil? Don't look at that person. But I want you to think about that person. Think about that person.
Joel Brooks:As as as we go through this, think about how you were to love that person. In verse 14, this is when Paul begins to transition here from talking about how we love those inside the church to those whom we love outside the church. He tells us that we are to bless those who persecute us, and then he's gonna give us all these practical ways to do that. And since we don't have time to walk through all of them, I want us to mostly look at the hardest one. Paul says that we are to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
Joel Brooks:Be honest. When you think of that, we've heard that. We rejoice with those who rejoice. We weep with those who weep. Haven't you almost always thought about that is our relationship with other Christians within the church?
Joel Brooks:And it is within the church. We rejoice with those who rejoice. We weep with those who weep. But Paul's transition now has already talked about blessing those who persecute you. This is this is a command that really goes with both inside the church and outside the church.
Joel Brooks:This is how we are to respond to our enemies. We're to be happy when they are happy. So when our enemy gets that promotion, gets the new car, gets the new house, gets engaged, you know, win some race or some CrossFit award or something.
Caleb Chancey:You guys
Joel Brooks:have family, children are perfect, child goes to Harvard, full scholarship. Be happy for them. Rejoice with them. Do you think I mean, that's nearly impossible, isn't it? Apart from Christ?
Joel Brooks:It's like the hardest thing in the world to do, to be happy for those type of people. But what you're doing when you rejoice, when your enemy is rejoicing there, is you are showing them the grace that you've been given. You are not deserving of love. It was God's grace that he he lavished on you. Remember, we looked at it in Romans 5:8 when it says, God shows his love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Joel Brooks:For a couple verses later, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. While we were enemies, God lavished his grace on us. So we rejoice when our enemy rejoices. We come alongside them also in their pain, and we weep when they weep. Do you think that's how the world sees Christians?
Joel Brooks:Do they feel our love? Do we make our enemies feel like enemies? Or do we make our enemies feel like friends we just disagree with? I mean, it's hard to even imagine, like, rejoicing with our enemies or or coming alongside the marinara stars. It's hard to even imagine that in this toxic culture that we live in.
Joel Brooks:Don't we? I mean could you imagine this? And I want you to try what it would look like in our culture if we actually loved our enemies this way. I think we should try to find out what it looks like. Paul goes on to say we shouldn't be haughty.
Joel Brooks:We shouldn't think of ourselves as wise. Shouldn't repay evil with evil. And then he says, as much as it is possible, which means it isn't always possible. Paul's a realist here. As much as it is possible, live peaceably with all.
Joel Brooks:Just make sure if you can't live at peace with somebody, it's their fault and not because you haven't shown love. Once again, can you imagine a world how the world would respond if we did this? Paul ends this section by saying that if we do these things, things like feeding our enemies when they're hungry or giving them a drink when they're thirsty. We will heap burning coals on their head. Some of you are like, finally.
Joel Brooks:Yes. Now I can love my enemy. We honestly have no idea what that expression really means. It's some idiom. I don't think Paul's actually talking about, you know, getting heaping coals and throwing them on on your enemy's head.
Joel Brooks:Otherwise, he's like, just forget everything I've said before. You know? We're just gonna go with this. Most scholars think that means you're gonna wake up your enemy to where they might feel remorse. Kinda like throwing we'd say like throwing cold water on their face.
Joel Brooks:It wakes them up, and they can maybe see their sins, and they can actually feel remorse. Can I tell you that you what will never ever bring about remorse in the church's enemies? Never responding to evil with evil. Fighting evil with evil will never ever bring about remorse from your enemies. And can I be just super direct with you?
Joel Brooks:Some of the evil that we see happening in the world is actually the church's fault. It's because we have tried to fight evil by exchanging blows. Evil hits us and we don't turn the other cheek. Instead, we just respond right back instinctively with evil. We fight insult with insult.
Joel Brooks:We fight a mean tweet with a mean tweet. We fight people giving us the cold shoulder with us giving them the cold shoulder. We fight gossip with gossip. We fight evil with evil. And then we are surprised that the world is still evil.
Joel Brooks:We're the ones who kept evil in circulation. When we fight evil with evil, we will always lose because we get it and instead of taking it to Jesus, we take it and we keep it in circulation. Let's keep it going. Let's keep it going. That's why Paul here, he ends this section by saying, do not be overcome by evil, be overcome evil with good.
Joel Brooks:Love conquers evil. It takes evil out of circulation. Isn't that what we looked at last week on Easter when we looked at the death and the resurrection of Jesus? When Jesus came to this world and He came to take on evil, He didn't fight evil with evil. He fought it with love.
Joel Brooks:He let the world do its worst and do your evil. Sin against me. Hit me. Curse me. Take away everything I have.
Joel Brooks:Do it, and I will take on all the sin and all the evil of the world, and I will take it to the grave, and I will only show you love in return. When Jesus rose from the dead, He gave us his spirit, he gave us a new life, and he gave us a new heart that now beats with that same love. The gospel is the only way we can live this way. If you're having a hard time loving your enemies, it's because the gospel hasn't really hit your heart. This is how we show the gospel.
Joel Brooks:We have been given a love to do this because of Christ. We're gonna close our time by coming to this table because it reminds us of how we are to love our enemies. Also, how we are to love one another. As Alan said earlier, we remember that Christ gave his body to create a body. To create us here.
Joel Brooks:A family that loves one another and loves the world. Alright. Let me pray for us. Father, I pray for this time of communion that it would indeed be a time we commune with You. That through faith, our souls would be nourished as we take this bread and of this wine.
Joel Brooks:I pray that we would remember how you loved us when we were your enemy and how you took on the greatest enemies of all sin and death and took them straight to the grave and how you have given us new life. Lord, I pray that we would meditate on that love. We would be transformed by that love as we come to this table. And we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.