Romans is divided into chapters 1 to 11, the doctrinal part, and chapter 12 to the end, the practical part. In the practical part Paul talked about the principles of the Christian life。 Now here in today’s passage he talks about the foundation of the relationships of brothers and sisters in the church. This foundation is love. Please look at verse 9.
The basis of the Christian life is love. When Christians become one as the body of Christ, the church, then they are really the body of Christ. No matter how great of gifts we have, if we have no love then there is no meaning at all. In I Cor. 13 too like this passage Paul taught about the gifts and after that spoke about love. In chapter 12 of First Corinthians Paul taught about the gifts and in chapter 13 he taught about love.
I Cor. 13:1-3
Love is the root that actually supports all works and gifts. It is the belt that ties everything together. Today let’s look at 3 aspects of living in true love.
I. Real love (vs. 9)
First “love must be sincere”. (9) The meaning of “sincere” is that we are not to love like an actor on stage. In this world there is an enormous amount of love that is just being acted out. There are many cases which look like real love, but in reality the person is just wearing a mask. In many cases superficially they seem loving, but in their hearts they aren’t. However, “love must be sincere”. (9) In other words, we have to love sincerely, with real love.
Here one characteristic of real love is given. “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” (9) Real love hates evil and clings to good. It is not happy over wrongs and rejoices in truth.
There is a huge gap between the love that the Bible teaches and what the world calls love. Love in the Bible puts the emphasis on the motive behind the love. However, in this world the emphasis is on what is done and the result. In his world people who give money to the poor and food to the hungry are thought to be full of love and to have good morals, but love in the Bible isn’t determined just by actions and results, but by the motives. Therefore, no matter what beautiful deeds you do, if the motives aren’t right, it can’t be called love. From the Bible’s viewpoint, love is the real love given to us within our relationship with God and which is the outcome of motives also given to us by God. That is because love is from God.
I John 4:9, 10
Real love is only in God. God sent his only Son to this world and was put on the cross “as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (I John 4:10) Therefore, only by being filled with God’s love, can we share in the joy and sadness of other people around us. If not, that person whether he is conscious of it or not, his love becomes a deliberate and carefully planned out love for his own self satisfaction. Such deliberate and carefully planned out love will definitely not grow into real love.
II. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love (vs. 10)
The second point is to ”Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” (10) Here the word that Paul uses for “brotherly love” (10) is “philadelphia” in Greek. This is different from the word “love” that appears in verse 9. The word “love” that appears in verse 9 is “agape” in Greek. “Agape” expresses the love that God has towards us. This “brotherly love” that appears in verse 10 is the love that is seen among Christians. In other words, Paul is saying here that Christians who have experienced God’s one way grace and love need to have confidence in that love and then among the brothers and sisters in the church they must love each other. “To be devoted to each other” is a word that is used for love within the family. For people all around the world the family is the source of blessings. That is because in the family there is fellowship of wonderful love. With that type of love we are to love each other. That is because the church is God’s family, and Christians are brothers and sisters.
Those who do not know God’s love can’t “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” (vs. 10) Romans 1:29-32 tells us what those who “although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him” (1:21) “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools” (1:22) are like.
Romans 1:29-32
All of the characteristics of those types of people are thoughts and actions that are inconsistent with love. Society which is separated from God and worships idols as gods, are all selfish. They don’t have any love at all. Especially look at verse 31 at the word, “heartless”. This is the same word that is used in 12:10 for “Be devoted to one another” except it has an “a” in front of it. In Greek an “a” prefix is like an English “un” prefix. In other words, “heartless” is not being “devoted” and to have no family love. To be “devoted” is to have a heart and to have family love. “Heartless” is one element in a long list of things that are inconsistent with love. In other words, one characteristic of those who don’t know God and are deep in sin is that they can’t have real family love. They can’t honor their parents, and do what they say. Depravity, gossip, strife, deceit, malice, disobeying their parents, and their attitude and acts of self centered living become the characteristics of their family relationships.
When the first people Adam and Eve sinned, their relationship crumbled. They lost the wonderful fellowship that they had, and their family relationship was destroyed. This is what happens in the human relationships of those who are deep in sin. However, Christians are not so. Christians, who by the love of God had their sins atoned by the cross of Christ, are brothers and sisters, God’s family, so they use that love to accept the other brothers and sisters. They must love each other. With brotherly love we should be compassionate with each other.
In order to do this Paul says next, “Honor one another above yourselves.” (10)
Phil. 2:3-8
Here Paul says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” (Phil. 2:3) And then as a model he shows Jesus. “Jesus who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant , being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on the cross!” (Phil. 2:5-8) This is considering “others better than yourself.” (Phil. 2:3) In other words, to “consider others better than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3) is not to compare yourself with someone and think that that person is better than yourself. Jesus did not do that. This is not saying that someone is better than someone else. Jesus doesn’t think that way. This passage says, “in humility consider others better than yourselves.” (Phil. 2:3) Jesus considered us to be very important so He came to this world and died on the cross for us. If Jesus thought that he was more important, then he would not have come from heaven to this earth. However, Jesus didn’t cherish his glory in heaven, but threw it away. That is because he considered us as more important than himself. Therefore, he left behind the wonderful fellowship that he had with the father and the Holy Spirit and became a man like us and came to this world to save us from sin and death. That is really a one way love. If the other person surpasses yourself, then you would think of giving your life away so that person can live. However, Jesus was in all aspects higher and higher, infinitely better than us. If we compared ourselves with Jesus, we not only do not surpass Jesus in any way, but we are completely filthy. We are really sinful, self centered fools, but even so Jesus loves us, and cherishes us, and gave himself for us. That was the cross, the cross of love. The Bible uses the word “agape” to explain this love over and over again. “To consider others better than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3) is the love of the cross, the love that Jesus showed us. When we have this love then love is born within us and it becomes possible for us to “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” (10) This love needs to be the basis of the church.
III. Be joyful in hope (12)
The third point is to ”be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (12) If we looked at the reality of this world that we can see, we would not able to “Be devoted to one another,” (10) When we think over and over again about the many different phenomenon that we see, we get angry, sulky, and become pessimistic. That is because this world is a battlefield. There is fighting everywhere. We run into many different problems. However, even on the battlefield if we put our eyes on heaven, because there is hope that we will receive eternal blessings in the eternal kingdom, we can experience spiritual joy and freedom.
Paul in Romans 8:18 says, “Consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Those who believe in our Savior Jesus Christ are promised a future of victory, and glory. This glory is promised. Because this glory is promised to us we can deeply rejoice, and overcome difficulties. We don’t rejoice because the circumstances we are facing now are pleasant. Even though it is not so now, because we have the hope that someday we will have glory and blessings, we can rejoice. Because of this hope we can “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love” (10) even with a person that is tough to deal with. We can “honor one another above ” (10) ourselves.
Recently on the T.V. program “Unbelievable” there was the story of a Chinese family that took into their home an injured Japanese soldier. He couldn’t talk and his brain was injured probably from being shot in the head so he was like a three year old child. For 47 years the family took care of the soldier being terribly persecuted for doing so. During that time the father died saying that his will was that the family would take care of the Japanese soldier and help him find his family. Finally the son was able to find the Japanese soldier’s family and took the soldier to his family in Japan. This is truly an unbelievable story that a family would for 47 years take care of the soldier in the midst of persecution. That’s not something that most people could do. The reason the family could do this was because the father had experienced being abandoned as a baby and when he was at the point of dieing experienced being saved.
We too were dead in sin. By the love of God, we were saved by the atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross. Our life is not ours, but Gods. We want to live by the will of God. The will of God is to live in God’s love.
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.” (9,10) Let’s desire loving personal relationships. May we not put our eyes on the world, but by looking at God’s love be able to begin to place our hope in the eternal home in heaven.