A Transformed And A Renewed Mind In Action

Transcript

Well, saints, we find ourselves back in Romans chapter 12. If you have your Bibles, I’d like to invite you to open to Romans 12, and we’re going to be looking at verses 9 through 21 today. Romans 12, verses 9 through 21. And once you open your Bibles there, I’d like to invite you to stand, if you’re able, for the reading of the Word of God. 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. 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. Says the word of the Lord, saints. Please be seated. Well we’ve reached the end of Romans 12 in this little mini-series, and it’s been a bit of a journey these last three weeks. Over the course of our first study, we looked at verses 1 and 2, where we saw this broader

theme of a life of worship. We saw that the whole of the Christian life is a life of sacrifice for God’s purposes and for the good of others. Our lives are not our own. Our lives are not just our destinies being lived out, but our lives are lives that are given over to God for his purposes. And stepping into and living this life is only possible when a person’s mind and really their whole life are transformed by Christ. And then last week, we looked at verses 3 through 8, where we saw what it means to be gifted for the good of others. Where our gifting is not just ours to enjoy, where it’s not just ours to esteem in, it’s not just ours to kind of prop up so that others can look at us and just be like, wow, amazing, this guy is so great.

A Transformed Mind in Action

Hopefully that’s the case, and we try to encourage one another, but our gifts are for the good of others. We considered being gifted by God in order for those gifts being used specifically to build up the body of Christ. We saw that we are to grow in Christlikeness, and if our witness is to grow, and if that is to happen, we need one another. Our gifting is for one another. And today, we’re going to consider part three of this series, where we’re going to look at a transformed and a renewed mind in action. Let me apologize once again, I continuously forget to send over the PowerPoint. And I tried, I scrambled to get it during the service, and then, yeah, it’s not, it’s not there. So I’ll just, luckily for you, I’m not the kind of preacher who has like 14 points and sub points and all of that.

I keep it real simple, because I know I’m going to do this. But today, we’re going to be looking at a transformed and a renewed mind in action. The question we want to answer is, how do we live out the things that God does in us? When God transforms us, when God changes us, when God makes us more and more like Jesus, how is that then fleshed out and lived out? And notice the flow, saints. Notice how this chapter has gone. A life of worship or a life of sacrifice leads us into using our gifts for the good of others, which leads us into being the kind of Christian who lives out a Christ-like life in the world around them. You can’t have one without the other. You pull any one of those things out. Or if you just do parts one and two and don’t get it to part three, we become an insular

community where all we do is focus on ourselves. And so what God is telling us is that when our minds are transformed into the mind of Christ, when our lives are given over for the good of others, when our gifting is used to build up the church, what happens then is each and every part of that body changes more and more and more into Jesus. And each of us become that to one another. And as we go out being built up and edified and drawn closer to him, we live that out in the world that so desperately needs to see Jesus. Amen. This isn’t meant to just be used here, but predominantly and primarily it’s built out here. That’s what God is telling us. And this is the mature Christian is what we see. This is the growth in love. This is the growth into Christ likeness.

And this is what our pastor Thomas was talking to us just a couple of weeks ago from Ephesians 4 verses 11 through 16, well really verses 7 through 16, where we see that our maturity happens here and it happens by us using our gifts for one another. And it is in that mature manhood that we go out and serve the world around us and point them to Jesus. This is what we see all throughout the Old Testament or the New Testament and the Old Testament. This was the call of Israel to be set apart, to be different, to point people to God. But this is what we see throughout scripture. And this is what we’re hoping to see more and more happen at Trinity Church, right? And so there’s a life to live. And let’s talk about that life. Christianity isn’t just about knowing the right things.

Inward Change

Christianity isn’t just about believing the right things. Christianity isn’t just about what we do here on Sunday for a couple of hours. Christianity isn’t just about me and my maturity. Christianity isn’t just about me and my time in scripture, me and my time in prayer. So what does that life look like? And that’s what we’ll be looking at today. So we’re going to look at our text in two portions. First we’re going to look at the inward change that needs to happen in each and every one of us. Inward change first. And second, we’re going to look at the outward change that God expects of His children. So let’s first look at the first point, inward change. And here we’re going to be looking at verses 9, 11, and 12. We’re going to skip verse 10 and we’re going to come back to it. So verses 9, 11, and 12.

And so to kick off this exhortation, which is often referred to as the marks of the true Christian, what does Paul start with? What does Paul direct the mind and the attention of the reader to? Love. More specifically. He doesn’t just say like, love. That’s the Christian thing. He says, let love be genuine. Let love be genuine. Let your love be free of hypocrisy. Let your love be sincere. Let your love be genuine. The Christian is being called to not just love, but to analyze their love. To consider, what am I doing when I do the thing that I call love for the people around me? What does my love look like in action? The Christian is being called to make sure that their love is the real deal. And so Christian, I ask you, how do you love others? How do we as a body love others?

It’s obvious that we are to love others. It’s obvious that we are to be known by our love. We see this throughout the scripture. We see that this is the fulfillment of the law of God. We see that this is the whole of what we’re doing here. It’s this fulfillment of love, our ministry. Everything is to be rooted in love, grounded in love, and the direction is love to others. And so if we’re to be known by our love, how do we know if it goes beyond mere words? How do we know if it’s real? How do we check to see if there’s falsehood in our love? Is there pride that perhaps stands in the way of me loving others? Real love, it seems, looking at our verse, is always aligned with God’s truth. Because Paul doesn’t just say, let love be genuine and then move on.

But he attaches something to that. Real love is rooted in our relationship with God, our love of God, and it’s out of that we can truly love others. The more that this love changes who we are, the more that our minds align with his mind, the more that we come to have the mind of Christ, which we’ve been talking about these past three weeks. This then leads us into this phrase that almost seems to be kind of oddly placed next to love, abhor evil and hold fast to good. This flows out of genuine love, which comes from a deep and a true relationship with God. This is why when there’s this flow of genuine love, what naturally comes out of that is a hating evil and a holding fast to what is good. Why? Because we’re aligning our minds with the mind of Christ.

We love the things that he loves and we hate the things that he hates. We can’t love the things that are offensive to God. We can’t go against him and his will. And so there’s this aligning of ourselves and making sure that the love that we say that we have for the people around us is rooted in the truth of God. It’s rooted in the word of God. It’s rooted in the way that God wants us to love others. And friends, I will say that when we think about this, when we think about how this is lived out, it takes a lot of intentionality to love good and to hate evil. It’s more than just a feeling, but this is that thing that we’ve been talking about aligning my mind and my decisions and my life and the flow of everything that I do with what I know

to be true. It’s aligning my life and the whole of my intention and what I’m pursuing and what I’m longing for with this. If we’re not doing that and we say that we love people kind of abstractly, well, what’s guiding that love? What’s shaping that love? What does love really look like in the face of something that is deeply offensive to God? There’s a stark contrast between these two things when Paul says them. When he says, abhor evil and hold fast to what is good, it’s this very sharp contrast to hate one thing and to love another. And look, this word abhor, this is a really strong word for hatred. This is much deeper than just like, I really don’t like this thing. This isn’t just a dislike of evil. This is to despise something, to be disgusted by it. And what we’re talking about here is not that we’re just like disgusted by the people around

us in the world. It’s not that we’re just like hating people and we’re just pushing ourselves further and further away, but it’s having the right outlook on what’s happening in the world around us and identifying it as what it is. And the more that we do that, do you know who was really, really offended by the things that he was constantly seeing around him? God. When Christ came to earth to live a perfect life and to die in the place of sinners, do you think it wasn’t offensive for him to see what was going on in the world around him? And more than just what was going on in the world around him, he knew people’s hearts. He knew people’s motives. He could hear their thoughts. So he was deeply offended and clearly he wasn’t just pushing people away and casting them aside and getting rid of them.

This isn’t what the text is telling us to do. But having this mind of Christ, loving what he loves and hating what he hates, this is to draw nearer to God and to adopt real, genuine love for sinners. This is to adopt the kind of heart and the kind of disposition that opens me to truly love people and to truly care for them. And most importantly, to not be indifferent with what happens to these people, to care for their souls, not just for their feelings in the present moment, because sometimes saying the truth is pretty offensive. And having the mind of Christ is a mind that is rooted and grounded in love, but one that nevertheless pursues the sinner and loves them and cares for them and doesn’t let them go and take seriously what it means to be a Christian in the world. And so if we’re to love what God loves and hate what he hates, I want to ask you, friends,

how do we react to what God hates, to the things that are offensive to him? Do we excuse certain things because they’re personally not offensive to us? Because I really don’t care all that much about this thing or that thing. Do I excuse them? Do I gloss over them? Do I maybe even participate in the things that are offensive to God? Do we ever use the logic of the ends justifying the means in regard to evil? When we’re told to cling to the good thing, what this is telling us is, conversely, from abhorring what is evil, we are deeply rooted in the good. We are rooted in it and we’re holding on to it tightly. We are known as those who hold on to the good. We are known as those who surround ourselves with good. And more than that, we’re known as those who do good.

Paul is saying, let your life be defined by good. And then, continuing this inward look and considering this inward change, Paul says something really interesting in verse 11. Do not be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Not being slothful in zeal means that we ought not to be lazy. We ought not to live lazy Christian lives. We ought not to live consumeristic Christian lives. We’re called to be busy. And busy with what? Not just like doing stuff and shifting things around and moving things from one place to another. No. Busy with the things of the Lord. We need to be passionate about the things of God. The kingdom should excite the Christian. Eternal things should excite the Christian. The worship of God and the serving of people and seeing people come to saving faith should excite us. And so, friends, how do we think about eternal things?

Are we captivated by what God is doing or are we often focused on lesser things? Are we often consumed by fleeting matters? Beloved, this life is here today. It’s gone tomorrow. And as we’ve discussed our last two Sundays, what are we living for? What are we striving towards? Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. We’ve all known people that have died, quote unquote, prematurely. And it’s really only premature by our timing because tomorrow is never guaranteed. Every day is in the hands of the Lord. And so if tomorrow is my last day, tomorrow is my last day. That’s it. There’s nothing I can do about that. So how do I live today? What do I strive for? What do I build towards? For the Christian, the kingdom can’t be a secondary priority. It can’t be something that’s an afterthought. And first, it’s my life and the things that I’m building here.

What Paul is giving us here is this warning against apathy. Paul is giving us a warning against indifference in our Christian lives. So how would we protect against this? This apathy happens, dear friends, when we grow used to God. This apathy happens when we stop being amazed at Him and what He does. Friend, have you walked with the Lord for some time now? And do you find yourself not really being all that excited about this? About what we’re doing here? About the fact that when we sit under the preaching of the Word of God, we’re not sitting under a man speaking for an hour, but we’re sitting under eternal truths that God in love has given us and has graciously allowed for us to have and to revel in and to grow in. This is a gift. This happens, this apathy happens when we see Christianity or worship or church as something

that we consume. This happens when we approach this whole thing that we do here seeking just to be served and seeking just to receive something. Now I don’t want you to hear this as just legalism. I don’t want you to hear this as like, do this and don’t do this. We receive so many blessings here. I receive so many blessings here. This is a beautiful place to be. This is a wonderful place to be. And it’s a great thing to get to participate in body life. But the Christian life, as we saw earlier in our chapter, is a life of sacrifice. The Christian life is a life of sacrifice for the good of others, for the building up of the kingdom. It’s an outward focus. It’s not in inward focus. I’m not just sitting here thinking about what I get out of this. I’m thinking about what I can give.

Protect yourself from apathy. He’s saying fervency of spirit is what should define us. And this is to be on fire for God. We need to encourage this in one another. If we see somebody kind of mellowing out in their Christian walk, not being excited. If we’re in tune with one another, if we’re doing life together, let’s stir that up. Let’s fan the flame in one another. Let’s get each other excited about what the Lord is doing. We need to encourage this. And as we go back to verses three through eight again, we need each other for that. I don’t often notice this in myself. I don’t often notice when that flame gets a little dim. And so we need one another in order to fan that flame. Friends, what we’re doing here is that we get to experience God. Have we grown used to that?

We come here and we hear the words of God. We sing and we pray and we cry out to the creator of the universe. And he hears us and he cares and he loves us. Have we gotten used to that? How crazy is it to get used to that? What else is there to be fervent and zealous and excited about? So ask yourself, are you lacking zeal for God? When did that start? What happened? At what point did it drop off? At what point did this start being boring? There’s a poem written by an English poet and hymn writer named William Kalper. I want to read it to you because he touches on this very thing as he’s reflecting on his own struggle with growing distant from the Lord. Oh, for a closer walk with God, a calm and heavenly frame, a light to shine upon the

road that leads me to the lamb. Where is the blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul refreshing view of Jesus and his word? What peaceful hours I once enjoyed, how sweet their memory still, but they have left an aching void the world can never fill. Return, oh holy dove, return, sweet the messenger of rest. I hate the sins that made thee mourn and drove thee from my breast. The dearest idol I’ve known, whatever that idol may be, help me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee. So shall my walk be close with God, calm and serene my frame, so pure light shall mark the road that leads me to the lamb. This is how we need to be guarding our hearts against spiritual apathy. Saints, this is how we need to fight indifference towards the things of God.

We ought to be in prayer for God’s spirit to move mightily among us, to stir us up, to remove those things that distract me from the things of the Lord, to remove those things that constantly pull my attention to other things, to ask him to stir us up to love and good works, to enjoy him, to love him. And we need to be honest, each one of us, about the things that divert our attention and divert our affection away from Christ to the things of this world. And then it’s zeal and fervency of spirit that allows us to live in the way that we see in verse 12. And this verse says a lot about Christianity. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. Finding joy in hope, being patient in the midst of struggle, suffering, having a prayerful life, the common understanding of hope as we, most of us would probably define it as

something that we would hope to see come to pass. We would like for something to happen. But this isn’t what Paul is referring to in the text. The Christian’s hope is a much deeper and a much truer, a much more abiding reality. It’s something that defines the whole of who we are. It’s something that defines the way that we look to the future. R.C. Sproul had this to say about hope. The New Testament concept of hope has to do with absolute certainty that the promises of God for the future will come to pass. Faith looks backward, trusting in and relying on what God has done in the past, but faith also looks forward and finds its anchor for the soul in the future promises of God. That is the foundation of our joy. No matter how painful the present moment may be, we can still have joy because we know

that the pain and suffering and tribulation we endure now is but for a moment. God has laid up for us such treasures in heaven that the brief moments of pain and suffering we have to endure now are not worthy to be compared to them. That beloved is what Christian hope is. We don’t just hope that the present circumstance might be a little bit better. We don’t just hope that something might change, it might not. This isn’t just throwing caution to the wind and just seeing what happens. Whatever the circumstance, we know that God is with us and God is for us and our future ultimately is secure. And I know when we’re in the midst of suffering, when we’re in the midst of struggle, patience can give us peace, but man, it’s hard. And we know that if I can’t just get to be patient, it can be so calming.

I can know that God is doing something. God is working something out, but man, it can be so hard. Being able to rely on God’s timing and not my own changes everything. It reminds us that we’re not God. It reminds us to have this humble reliance on him, to know that he’s doing something beyond what I can see and I just have to trust him. What makes this hope and patience possible is this life of constant prayer that Paul mentions. It’s this life that is constantly in communion with God. This isn’t just having regular times of prayer, although very important, but this is a constant conversation with God, being very aware of his presence at all times. Keeping the line of communication always open and enjoying being in communion with your heavenly father. This is what ties in this hope. This is what ties in this peace.

This is what ties in this joy. If any of these things are missing in your life, is prayer missing in your life? Is being a person who is regularly in communication with God missing? Saints, do you notice a common thread here? Each of these things that we’re being called to, whether it’s genuine, unhypocritical love, to be those who are known by good, zealous, fervent faith, or whether it’s constancy in prayer, patience in tribulation, joyful hope, these aren’t things that we conjure in and of ourselves. This isn’t something that I just work out and just get better in. This isn’t something that I can just be really, really great and exemplary in and of myself. God has to do these things in me. He has to make us these people. Being a people changed by Christ, by Christ, being a people filled with the Holy Spirit,

Outward Change

the Holy Spirit, we are called to live lives that are very, very different from what we see around us, and this has to be a supernatural work that God graciously does in us. This isn’t us just being great. This is God being great in us, in his people, weak and frail as we are. God is glorified when he uses vessels like us to work out his plans in this world. Just like some of you may remember hearing from those late night infomercials, but wait, there’s more. It’s not just the inward change that we’re being called to here, but there’s also a drastic difference in how the Christian, after being inwardly changed, interacts with the people around them. And that brings us to our second point, which is outward change. And here we’re going to look at verses 10 and then 13 through 21. In verses 10 and 13 through 21, we see what happens to the man or woman of God specifically

and how they relate to others, both within the church as well as with those outside the church. And looking first at the 10th verse, this brotherly love of which Paul speaks is a shared love. This is something that happens in community. I mean, take a look at this verse. This is beautiful. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. That’s stunning. This is so beautiful. And this happens in community. This happens in family. These are the people who share a family. These are the people who share a life. And so, as we consider what it means to live that out, as we consider what it means to be obedient to that, friends, how do we engage with the people around us? How do we engage with our church family? Are we loving? Are we kind? Are we gracious? Are we patient with one another?

I’ve talked about this a lot these last three Sundays, but these relationships, they’re not optional. Brotherhood and sisterhood and loving one another and serving one another and getting to know one another, that’s not like, take it or leave it. If you feel like you need it, take it. If you don’t, just do your own thing. No, the way that we grow, the way that we become more like Jesus is here. And friends, let me just say, I’m so encouraged by how you all do this. When Katia and I came to this church, I mean, this summer, it’ll be two years, we were greeted with such kindness and such openness and such kindness and openness, though with a little bit of healthy caution like, I don’t know if we can trust these people yet. You know, there is a lot of news about the Russians like hacking elections and stuff,

and these Russians just showed up, you know, hospitality, inviting us into your homes, loving us, feeding us, praying with us, encouraging us. You all already do this so beautifully. And so I just want to encourage you. I know it can be hard. I know it can be tiring. Trinity Church has grown a lot. I mean, we became members last January and it was around 120 members. It’s like 170 plus now. That’s a big growth for a church of this size. That’s a lot. And so I just want to encourage you saints, you’re already doing this. And I’m so grateful. You’ve blessed so many people. You’ve blessed our family so much. I just want to encourage you, when it gets hard, it’s a blessing to people. It’s good. It shows God’s love to the people around you. And I just want to encourage you, when you’re tired, don’t give up.

It’s such a beautiful thing. It’s such a great way to show God to people. It’s such a great way to show love and acceptance and warmth. We felt like we came home. Like from our first and second Sundays here, it was such an amazing gift from you all. So I just want to encourage you to continue to do that, to continue to show love, hospitality and warmth to people. What Paul is saying here is that we ought to engage with the people around us. We ought to grab hold of them and bring them into our lives and bring them into our homes. And it’s interesting because he also says we ought to do this with humility. We show honor. We prefer others. And this really embodies this heart and this life of a servant. And again, just by way of reminder, we are to be sacrifices.

And this thread is continuing throughout this whole chapter. And Paul is saying that when we do this, when we outdo one another in showing honor, when we give our lives and our preferences and everything else for the good of others, we embody what Jesus did with his life and what we’re called to do with ours. We are to celebrate the people around us. We are to encourage the people around us. We are to build up the people around us. And this is the idea of outdoing one another and showing honor. Esteem your fellow brothers and sisters. Esteem Christ that you see in them. Build them up. Encourage them. It feels so good to know that you’re loved. I mean, there’s a lot of talk about like self-esteem and all of this other stuff in the culture, and that can be overdone, definitely. But we’re created as relational beings.

We’re created to love and be loved. And when you know that the people around you love you and care for you, and they’re not indifferent when you’re gone, it feels good. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful gift from our Heavenly Father. So give that gift to people. Loving one another with brotherly affection means being on someone’s side, aligning yourself with them. And this is interesting because in a family, and you all know this if you have brothers or sisters, in a family, people don’t always like each other. Like you might not like your brother or sister, but man, if somebody says something about them, those are fighting words. You’re going to hold on to that person. You’re like, I don’t like him, but only I get to say those kinds of things about him. And this is how we ought to be. Even if we don’t like each other, just keep hanging out until you love each other.

Get past that. And so this brotherly affection is that we’re attached to each other, and we stand up for each other, and we’re in each other’s corners, and we’re cheering each other on, and we’re celebrating one another. As Paul continues into verse 13, he’s continuing to flesh out what it means to love genuinely. You are to pay attention, he says, to the needs of people. You are to seek to find ways to be hospitable to others. As those who are brought into the family of God, as those who are shown kindness and acceptance, so too ought we to show kindness and acceptance to others. Friends, hasn’t God been kind to you? Hasn’t he been so loving and gracious and accepting to each of us? May we be the kinds of people who are overwhelmingly kind and generous to the people that God sends our way.

Christian, provide for people. Open your home. Rush to meet needs. And this happens when we get to know people. This happens when we show interest in people. This happens when we have conversations with people. And I just want to say, I know that there are different seasons of life, there’s different opportunities, there’s limitations, and at times, whether it’s, you know, new little humans in the home or illness or whatever is going on, that we can’t be as present as we would like to be, but may that be the exception and not the rule in our lives. Is this something that we’re striving to do? Is there something, is this something that we’re praying for? And if this is not the season, am I waiting for when that season will come? Am I praying for that season? And then as if verses 10 and 13 weren’t a tough enough pill to swallow, we go on.

Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. What we see here is the Christian being a person who blesses their enemies. We pray for blessing and God’s grace for our enemies. Man, that’s hard. That’s really, really difficult. Paul is saying, yes, this is hard. Yes, this is, this is going to hurt. But this is what love is. Friends, it’s so easy to hate those who hurt you. It just, it happens naturally. It’s how we’re wired. Somebody hurts me, it’s like, whatever, get away, dude. We want to be rid of the pain and we want to be rid of the person that has caused the pain. We want to shut them out. We want to shut them up and we want to be done with them. It’s easy to do this. But how does this show a person Christ? How does this honor God?

How would that emulate Christ who loved and prayed for his enemies as they were killing him? And that wasn’t just some people in a distant past in the Middle East. Friend, if I was there, I would have been screaming, crucify him along with them. And he prayed for them and he loved them and he didn’t want them to die. He didn’t want them to perish. Bless your enemies. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. If someone around you prospers beyond where you are, if someone’s been blessed with something that you may want, we are to rejoice with that person. We are to be glad for their blessing. Celebrate people’s wins, Christian. Don’t ever celebrate someone’s downfall. And likewise, when one of us hurts, we all ought to hurt. When we hear that someone is sick, when we hear that someone’s child is sick, when we

hear that someone is going through something difficult, it ought to hurt all of us. We need to feel each other’s pain. And again, for that to happen, we need to be present. And I’ll say it’s hard to be present when someone’s suffering. It’s much easier to go to a celebration. It’s difficult to be around someone who’s suffering, but to sit with someone in their pain, to step into that pain, takes love. As we saw in verse 9, genuine, authentic love. Love is sharing the joy of a brother and sister, but it’s also not avoiding the house of mourning. We often won’t have the words to say at these difficult times, and so we feel like, what’s the point of going if I don’t know what to say? But our presence and love will be plenty. We don’t always need to know the right thing to say.

And people don’t even hear what you’re saying when they’re suffering and when they’re mourning a loss. And sometimes it’s easy to use this just to kind of spiritually beat someone over the head. Just to sit with someone. To step into that hurt. To hold their hand. To cry with them. This is Christian love. Living in harmony with one another. Speaks to the way in which we show love to one another, and this is flowing out of that affection that we saw in verse 10. And what we see is that we are to show love to the whole body. We are to be united to our brothers and sisters. This then flows to not being haughty, but associating with the lowly. What’s that all about? What Paul is pointing to is a love that seeks to have a unifying effect with the people around you. Again, he’s speaking here to a body of believers.

He’s writing to a church. And this is the kind of love that doesn’t elevate certain people above others. It doesn’t choose who I’ll be friendly to and who I’ll skip talking to. He’s saying don’t be arrogant. Don’t have an air of superiority about you. That’s not how the Christian church works. That’s how the world works. That’s not Christian love. That’s fake love. That’s disingenuous love. And more than that, friends, doesn’t associating with the lowly sound a lot like Jesus? The one who spent his life and his ministry with people who were very, very different from him. Who didn’t have anything to offer him. And that leads into this other thought that Paul is sharing of never being wise in your own sight. How do we interact with others? How do we disagree? How ready are we to see another person’s perspective? To understand them without demonizing them?

To hold to a different opinion or point of view without shutting that person out? And this is pressing in 2024, election year, because we might hear some differing opinions around here. We might hear some differing points of view. Some different voting patterns than what I think is right. How do I engage with people without elevating myself above them and being like, wow, you’re really dumb, dude. It’s really easy to do that, but that’s like what we’re bombarded with in social media. That’s what we’re bombarded with in our workplaces. That’s what we’re bombarded with in the world. Is that really how the Christian is to interact with another believer? A person whom God has rescued and saved? And if God hasn’t rescued and saved them, is that going to be the winsome thing that brings them to show, brings them to see the love of God in you?

Pride kills unity. Remember, he’s giving us these things in our text to help us grow closer to one another, to better bless one another, to better love one another, to better serve one another. Why? Because we need each other. If we have trivial things that divide us and push us into opposite corners of this room because this camp votes this way and this camp votes that way, we’re divided. We can’t serve one another. We need the gifting of the people that think differently and act differently than we do. We need them to grow in Christ-likeness and they need us. Maybe God is sending these people my way to challenge me and to help me grow. Maybe I should stop being resistant to that. Christian unity is very different from what we see in the world. Christian love is very different from what we see in the world.

And then he says, repay no one evil for evil. And boy, we sure do long to repay evil for the evils done to us, don’t we? We have to make things right. We have to set the record straight. The problem is, most of us, when we want to set the record straight, we aren’t just trying to get even. We want to win. We have to have the upper hand and it’s precisely because of that sinful disposition that we’re told not to seek to repay evil done to us. That’s not how the Christian life works. That’s not how Jesus functioned. God doesn’t give us that responsibility. That’s his alone. Not only are we not repaying evil for evil, but we’re also told to do the honorable thing to all. Beloved, this standard is, it’s painful. Like this was a struggle to work through this text and to walk through this and just one

after another. And I know my heart and man, this is hard. This is really rough. We’re being told that when people look at us, there ought to be nothing in our life and in our conduct to which somebody can point that minimizes our weakness, our witness and turns people away from Christ. There ought to be nothing like that in my life. And then to further bring that point home, if possible, so far as it depends on you live peaceably with all. Come on, Paul, cut me some slack. What about what they’re doing? What about what they’re saying? Surely I can have a say in setting the record straight. Surely if someone’s talking about me and shooting me down and ruining my life, I can step in and say, hey, that’s enough. That’s evil. That’s wrong. Hey, and I’m going to talk a little bit about you now because you need to understand what

you’ve done to me. But friends, Jesus says, blessed are the peacemakers. And it’s interesting that Jesus there in the sermon on the mountain doesn’t say blessed are the peacekeepers. He doesn’t just say blessed are the people that know how to smooth the situation over. Blessed is the person who steps into a situation that lacks peace and creates it. We’re being told something that’s very hard to swallow, brothers and sisters. If someone hurts you, if someone offends you, if someone harms you, if someone disenfranchises you, if someone puts you down, if someone ruins your reputation, don’t strike back. This is really, really difficult. But this is what Jesus did on his journey to save sinners like you and me. He did it throughout his earthly ministry, and no one could accuse Jesus of being a pushover. So why do I feel like I’m being a doormat when I forgive somebody?

Why do I fight so hard to prove my rightness and to show just how wrong someone is when they hurt me? Why do I feel like I have to right the wrong done to me? Why do I always feel like I have to be right? I got to say, this text has been brutal. I really struggled. And these last three weeks have just been an interesting journey. The first week when I was talking about this truth that we see in the first two verses of being a living sacrifice and giving your life over to God completely, there were three people in my life that died that week. And so I was thinking all week as I’m prepping the sermon what it means to give your life over. And I saw a really vivid example of we can’t hold on to this life. Then the following week when I was preaching on our need for other people and our need

to be ministered to by people and to minister to other people, my body was just like falling apart. I felt really sick. I landed in the ER last week. And a bunch of you reached out, praying for me and encouraging me and talking to me and loving me and caring for me. And I saw in a very practical way how the body ministers to and strengthens and builds up its individual parts. And then this week when I read the text, I was like, oh no, enemies? I don’t want to deal with enemies this week. But God was really gracious. He didn’t send new enemies. But he broke my heart this week because I saw just how much of a hypocrite I can be when I talk about this from behind the pulpit and I have a really difficult time forgiving people that have hurt me. And I saw how challenging it is to let go of the wrongs done to me and how quick I am

to point to the wrongdoer and to make them seem at least just a little worse than me. This has been a real struggle. And I want to ask, please pray for me. I need you all to pray for me. My brothers and sisters, I struggle with this. This is hard. We’re not naturally predisposed to just love people that hurt us and to jump right into forgiveness when there’s sin done to me. But this is what Jesus was like. This is how Jesus loves. This is how you and I came to be a part of this family. It’s not just that I’m slightly better than my enemy, it’s that He is so much better than all of the gross stuff that I’ve done and the life that I’ve lived. And then when he continues in verse 19, as if to let the Roman Christians know just how

An Impossible Standard

hard this all is, Paul softens things up a little bit. He says, Beloved. He softens his tone and he’s telling them, look, I know this is hard. I know this is painful. I know it seems wrong, unjust, unfair. But God is calling you, dear Christian, brother and sister, to a higher standard. He’s calling you to a different life. He’s calling you to live and function in a different way than the world does. So when you do the right thing and when you love and when you serve and when you try not to sin against others and they still sin against you, as hard as it is, don’t seek vengeance. You will be so tempted to avenge the pain that you feel. But friends, we are not God. Our understanding of justice and equity are conveniently often skewed in our favor. But God is a just judge who does every single thing exactly right.

And he will right every single wrong. We often don’t want to just right wrongs. We want revenge. And the problem isn’t with vengeance. It’s that it isn’t ours to dole out. It’s God’s. So if your enemy is hungry or thirsty, you be the one to feed him. You be the one to give him a drink. If someone is hurting, if someone is in need, you be the one to come to their rescue. If there’s a need before you, meet it. What is more Christian than to meet the need of a neighbor? And what shows the love of God, which far exceeds anything that we see in the world, to meet the need of an enemy? How is this to be done? With what disposition? Verse 8, cheerfulness. There may be a season where that’s done through gritted teeth. But we pray that this is done in cheerfulness, eventually.

When we don’t take vengeance into our own hands, we keep ourselves from sin and fault, and we pass that person over to God to take care of. And maybe, Lord willing, they might, through our Christ-likeness, consider their actions, repent, and change. When we repay evil with good, when we don’t seek retribution, the world, and sometimes our fellow Christians, get to see God at work. And that’s what our lives are. Sacrifices, given over to God for the good of others. So beloved, what are we to do with this impossible standard? In our strength and by our efforts, we’re not even going to get close. But with Christ, empowered by the Spirit, frail, falling along the way, messing up, we stand a chance. And just picture this person. Just imagine this person. Someone always ready to love others. Someone who’s hospitable. Someone who’s generous. Someone who forgives others and doesn’t hold their sins against them.

Someone who is peaceable, and hopeful, and prayerful, and encouraging, and always available, and whose home is always open. Isn’t this a beautiful person? This is a beautiful person. This is an incredible person. I want to be this kind of person. I want so badly to be this kind of person. I want so badly to be less of the person that I am. I want so badly for my mind to just go quieter with thoughts focused on me. And for it to go louder with thoughts focused on all of you. The question we need to be asking ourselves as we see this beautiful person in our minds and as we strive for this standard is who can possibly do this? Who could live like this? In the complete sense, it’s only Christ. He was falsely accused. He was misunderstood. He was betrayed, unjustly punished and killed, and his love was greater than the evil and

hatred of the people that inflicted it upon him. He would go on to die for his enemies. Enemies like who? Like me. Who hated him and who wanted nothing to do with him. I’m on the receiving end of this person and what they’ve done. How then, after all I’ve received from him and continue to receive on a daily basis, could I not extend grace and love and forgiveness to others? What does a transformed and renewed mind look like in action? It’s love in action. The love that called lost sinners like you and I home to God, forgave us our sins, gave us new hearts, gave us a family, and brought us into the beautiful work of a loving God. That is what spurs us on to show others just how good and how beautiful and how worthy our God is. And that’s a life that we’re called to.

Amen? Amen. Would you bow your heads with me? Our great God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, we glorify you because you are so beautiful. You’re so wonderful. You are so loving. You’re gracious and kind and merciful. And you’ve called us to yourself. You’ve called us to model these beautiful traits to others. And Lord, you know that I can’t do this. You know that none of us can do these things perfectly. And so we ask for a supernatural work to be done here at Trinity Church of Portland. Empower us, draw us closer to one another, help us to love one another more, help us to love you more, to cling to you, to rely on you, and to see our lives as sacrifices that we would gladly give for the good of the people around us, for the salvation of people all around our city. We want for our lives to honor you, Lord, but we need you to help us with that.

So please, Lord, act mightily among us and be honored by us. We ask in Jesus’ wonderful name, for his glory, amen.