INTRODUCTION
Opening Statement: Perhaps on Friday of this past week, you assured your valentine that you would climb high mountains to be near them; swim wide oceans to sit at their feet; cross burning deserts in the heat of day in order to sing love songs to them in the moonlight. But somehow on Saturday, when you were asked to help with the dishes, your energy level sank, and no amount of poetry could revive the gusto of the day before.
Illustration: There’s an article that traces the tendency that occurs in marriage to drift from a height of bliss into the humdrum of routine attitudes. Called The Seven Ages of the Married Cold, this article reveals the reaction of a husband to his wife’s colds during seven years of marriage.
This is the first year: "Sugar dumpling, I’m worried about my baby girl. You’ve got a bad sniffle and there’s no telling about these things with all this strep around. I’m putting you in the hospital this afternoon for a general checkup and a good rest. I know the food’s lousy but I’ll bring your meals in from the Sherman House. I’ve already got it arranged with the floor superintendent."
Second year: "Listen, darling, I don’t like the sound of that cough and I’ve called Doc Glasser to rush over here. Now you go to bed like a good girl, please? Just for papa."
Third year: "Maybe you’d better lie down, honey; nothing like a little rest when you feel ill. I’ll bring you something to eat. Have we got any soup?"
Fourth year: "Look dear, be sensible. After you feed the kids and get the dishes washed, you’d better hit the sack."
Fifth year: "Why don’t you get yourself a couple of aspirin?"
Sixth year: "If you’d just gargle or something, instead of sitting around barking like a seal!"
Seventh year: "For Pete’s sake, stop sneezing! Whatcha trying to do, gimme pneumonia?"
Transition: True love manifests itself in sacrificial action. Love and sacrifice go hand-in-hand with husbands and wives, with brother’s and sister’s, with teammates, with business partners, with God and humanity.
Title: Love and Sacrifice
Background: The twelfth chapter of Romans opens with one of the most powerful exhortations in the New Testament, as we are urged to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, refusing to be conformed to the world, but instead being transformed by the renewing of our minds (12:1,2). Then Paul proceeds to show us what a transformed life and a renewed mind look like. Paul fires off a volley of short, sharp injunctions with very little elaboration. They are like little biblical bullets that are to impact the reader. The common theme that connects these biblical bullets is love.
Quotation: John R. W. Stott, the English commentator, calls these bullets, “staccato imperatives” and each one adds a fresh ingredient to the apostle’s recipe for love.
Recitation: Romans 12:9 Love must be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. 12:10 Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another. 12:11 Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord. 12:12 Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer. 12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality. 12:14 Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 12:16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited. 12:17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people. 12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people. 12:19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. 12:20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Key Word: Love is not just a feeling; it’s also a sacrificial action. Romans 12:9-21 answers the question, "What are some practical, everyday ways in which God expects us to exhibit love in our relationships?"
This passage gives to us the “actions” of love in FOUR ATTENTION SHIFTS alternating from love and sacrifice as it relates to believers and love and sacrifice as it relates to non-believers. We will put the thought units together and deal with Love and Sacrifice in Christian Relationships (9-13, 15-16) and Love and Sacrifice in Non-Christian Relationships (14, 17-21). The first deals with how love looks in the family. The second deals with how love looks in the world.
Notation: Last week was part 1. Today is part 2.
Love and Sacrifice in Christian Relationships (9-13)
•Love is sincere and honest with the truth. (9)•Love gives preference to other believers. (10)•Love relishes Christian service. (11)•Love responds positively to trials. (12)•Love practices generosity and hospitality. (13)
Love and Sacrifice in Non-Christian Relationships (14)
•Love reacts positively to persecution. (14)
Love and Sacrifice in Christian Relationships (15-16)
•Love empathizes with a fellow-believer. (15)•Love shows special regard for the down-and-out. (16)
Love and Sacrifice in Non-Christian Relationships (17-21)
•Love refuses to react in kind to evil. (17-18)•Love rejects all motives of revenge. (19-21)
OUTLINE
Observation: Exhibiting love in the way that the Bible advocates is truly miraculous. The Bible says that one day a man came to Jesus and asked him: “Sir, which is the most important command in the laws of Moses?" Jesus replied, " ’Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second most important is similar: ’Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.’ (Matthew 22:36-39TLB).” The greatest thing that you and I will ever do in our lives, according to Jesus, is to love! If this is true, how can we become a better lover of people?
Quotation: The Apostle John wrote: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers ... Little children, let us stop just saying we love people; let us really love them, and show it by our actions (1 John 3:16NIV,18TLB).” Love is more than a feeling; it’s also a sacrifice of actions. And in the spirit of Romans 12:1,2, I want you to think of these actions as a “sacrifice” or “a living sacrifice.”
Question: What, then, is the first “staccato imperative” that Stott references in his commentary on Romans and that Paul gives to us here?
Love and Sacrifice in Christian Relationships (9-13)
Love is sincere and honest with the truth. (9)
Exposition: Verse 9 reads, "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good." We learned last week that true love must leave the stage of “play-acting” and walk the paths of real life. To not do so, is evil – hypocrisy, and we are to hate hypocrisy and counterfeit love. But what is the good? It’s defined in the next 11 verses. We are to cling to love and sacrifice and the next 11 verses tell us how.
Observation: So we learn from the start that the old adage about “Love being blind” is not true of biblical, sacrificial love. Instead, biblical love is discerning, able to distinguish between good and evil, the false and the authentic.
Love gives affectionate preference to other believers. (10)
Exposition: Remember, we are talking about the family of God here. Verse 10 reads, "Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves." I bring you back to the Romans 12:1,2 concept of sacrifice. Love sacrifices our preferences for the preferences of another.
Love relishes Christian service. (11)
Exposition: I bring you back to the Romans 12:1,2 concept of sacrifice. Love sacrifices time and energy in service, despite the setbacks. Verse 11 continues: "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." Paul argues that love issues forth in caring service.
Love responds positively and patiently to trials. (12)
Exposition: I bring you back to the Romans 12:1,2 concept of sacrifice. Love sacrifices the right to a bad attitude. Verse 12 reads, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." The three elements mentioned in this verse are intimately related to one another. The call to persevere in tribulation is significantly sandwiched between hope and prayer. The way the Christian avoids sinking under his present trials is (1) to be buoyed up by the hope of future glory, and (2) to experience the divine strength, which is imparted by prayer.
Observation: You notice here that trials are not really optional. Paul assumes they’re going to come--he’s concerned about our response.
Application: Some of you are right now going through enormous trials--some family-related, others health-related, some emotional in nature, still others financial. “Hang in there!” is the message. Don’t give up! Never stop hoping and never stop praying and let your attitude reflect that life principle.
Illustration: A lady that just responds so positively and patiently among us is Roberta Struewing. She lost her husband a few Christmas’s ago. I still remember a sermon that I did where I talked about buried beneath the straw and manger of life, you’ll find a baby that will bring hope in your despair. I fought to get through that sermon, knowing that there was one among us whose husband had been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and that she was looking for hope that Sunday as Christmas approached. It’s not been easy for Roberta. The entire family loved Dick Struewing. In fact, the song that I played while showing a slide show commemorating Dick’s life entitled “Angel’s Among Us” is also true of Roberta. Even though times are hard, she faithfully teaches Sunday School, listens to my son tell his stories, and usually leaves church with a chuckle. A couple of weeks ago, she said Levi told her the entire Ground Hog Day story with authority! (You have to understand, that when Levi tells you something with authority, it usually about 10 decibels louder than his normal voice. I think that he thinks the louder you tell it, the truer it is!) Recently, Roberta has been through some other tough times – friends who are getting ill, a mother who is growing older, and a deep lonely place in her heart for a husband whose been gone now for a couple of Christmas’s. Roberta’s life message is never stop hoping, never stop praying, and always reflect this in your attitude with others. That’s biblical, sacrificial love.
Love practices generosity and hospitality. (13)
Exposition: Paul wrote: 12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality. I bring you back to the Romans 12:1,2 concept of sacrifice. Love sacrifices food and time. Poverty and persecution were rampant in the early church, thus the injunction here was immensely practical. One way to meet needs, which virtually everyone can practice, is hospitality. The average American views his home as his castle, reserved exclusively for his own pleasure, but God says our homes are all leased from Him and are to be used as places of support and strength for others. Hospitality reaches out to people who are unlikely to ever pay you back. The Christian family is characterized by generosity stemming from love.
Quotation: One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving. -- Amy Carmichael
Illustration: There’s a young man and his wife in our congregation that just loves to be hospitable. It’s Terry and Barb Olive. They love to cook for you and have you come in and eat with them (Terry also likes to come and eat with you too!). Terry has a small business on the side and has employed men who have been looking for part-time employment or looking to fill in some down time while laid off from work…contributing to the needs of saints and pursuing hospitality.
Quotation: I love the quote that says: “You are not necessarily called to do something great; you are called to do small things with great love.”
