Love does no harm

Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. – Romans 13.10

We know that love is the perfect fulfillment of the law. God made that clear when he summarised the law with ‘love God and love each other.’ Love is clearly the foundation mark of God’s people. Here we read that one thing that love does not do is to cause any kind of harm.

In fact love does just the opposite and the Bible tells us all about it. Love does no evil, but it is:
Patient
Kind
Humble
Thoughtful
Caring
Not provoked
Trusting
Truthful
Hopeful
Enduring

I am sure you recognise and probably noticed that I combined a couple of things, but that is what love does instead of harm

The phrase ‘loves does no harm’ is a wonderful reminder. We can get angry or fleshly and then do something to purposely hurt some one we love. Folks, there really is no excuse for that. Our actions or words or whatever should never, ever, in no wise, under no circumstance do anything to harm.

It can be easiest sometime to harm the ones we are closest to, and even more so a spouse. We know the words or actions or looks or tones of voice that hurt. Sadly, we can even use them.

That’s just wrong. True love doesn’t harm – ever.

Owe no one anything - but...

Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. – Romans 13.8

Owe no one anything but to love each other.

That says a lot, doesn’t it? It is a clear warning against being indebted to others. Nothing can cause more struggles in a relationship with another like owing them something. Sure, the Bible enjoins lenders to be kind to those indebted to them. It speaks against excessive interests and punishing unpaid debts. Here though we are told that we can avoid the issue by just not going in debt.

I am sure that we are not just talking about financial debt here. We should not be indebted by our feelings or emotions. We should not be indebted by cultural or peer pressures. Any obligation we have should be based on one thing – love for others – because that, at the end of the day, summarises the whole law of God.

I owe love to my family. I owe love to my brothers and sisters in Christ. I owe love to my friends. I owe love to my neighbours. I owe love to my coworkers. I owe love to those who oppose me. I owe love to those who may mock me and ever persecute me. I owe love to my enemies.

We can’t get away from it, can we? Love God and love others sums up all that we believe and should sum up how we act.

For conscience sake

Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake.  For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing.  Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour. Romans 13:5-7

It is one thing to obey because we fear getting a ticket or being arrested or avoid some other deterrent. Most of us can make ourselves do that. Our kids can obey because we are bigger than they are. We can obey laws because we don’t want to pay fine or go to jail or whatever. That is obeying out of fear.

Proper submission goes a bit farther. God wants us to obey ‘for conscience sake,’ or simply because it is the right thing to do. God doesn’t want us to obey because we are forced to. We don’t want our kids to obey just because if we don’t they will be punished. God desires submission from a submissive heart that wants to please Him.

We really ought to do right simply because it is the right thing to do. One of those is to obey those in authority. We oughtn’t quibble and look for loopholes or strive to skirt the laws.

Do right because it is right to do.

That starts where everything does – with a right heart.

Be subject

Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. – Romans 13.1-2

There aren’t a whole lot of texts that stir as much controversy as this one. It follows on with the passage above which speaks of overcoming evil with good. Part of overcoming evil with good is how we respond to the governing authorities. What do we do about laws we do not like? What do we do about laws we find inconveniate?

God’s word is clear – there is not much room for debate really. Let everyone be subject the governing authorities. Governments are ordained by God. Whoever resists that authority is resisting God’s ordinance and are bringing judgement on themselves.

Authority is a big part of God’s plan. I think there is a reason. We are told to submit to God, to our parents, to each other, and to our spouses. The one about submitting to governing authorities is a tough one though because our secular leaders don’t seem like they deserve respect or obedience. Their laws are often difficult or troublesome. Sometimes they don’t make any sense. Sometimes they are offensive to us. And sometimes they fly in the face of God’s word.

Let’s look at the last one first. Laws that fly in direct contradiction to the word of God are not binding on us. Sometimes we have to obey God rather than man. Even here though we need to realise that if we don’t obey the law we may very well suffer the consequences. Just ask Daniel or his three friends or Peter or Paul and Silas. Still though, in those cases we must obey God and, like they did, trust Him with the results. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could not obey the law they told the king who threatened to throw then in the fiery furnace. There answer was clear. The said with respect, ‘we still can’t bow down. Our God is able to deliver us, but even if he doesn’t we can’t bow down.

Disobeying the law, even to obey God, will have consequences.

How about all the laws that don’t require us to disobey God? Those are simple –we must submit and obey. 

Overcome evil with good

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. – Romans 12.21

It is easy to buy into the trap of thinking that the only way to respond to evil is to fight back in kind. The best way to fight fire is with fire, right? That’s what the world says anyway.

But God’s way flies in the face of that proverb. God says that the way to overcome evil is with good. God’s way says that if we try to overcome evil with more evil we are no better than the world.

Plus, if we, as God’s people try to overcome evil with evil we will never succeed. Evil is what the world us expert at – God’s people should be expert at good.

The clearest example of this was the early church under Roman rule. It was a terrible time of persecution and opposition. Chrsitans were being brutally tortured and executed for their faith. They had no rights.

So how did they resond? With protests and civil insurrection and violence?

No, they resonded with love. One of the Roman empowers was mystified by their response. He said that the Christian had the gall to not only love each other, but they loved the Roman oppressors. When they brought food to their love ones in jail they brought food for the jailers and guards. No matter what happened they responded with good.

Eventually God’s goodness would be victorious. Goodness should be our specialty. It is God’s way. We do it and we trust God with the results.

Live at peace

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.  If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.  Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.  Therefore
  “If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
 If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
 For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.” Romans 12:17-20

I know that social media is not the real world, but I think it can be a reflection of it. There is one reflection that really disturbs me deeply and which I try, by God’s grace to avoid. I think we can destroy our testimony and our witness to this world because of the way we present ourselves on social media.

God’s way flies in the face of this nothing:

Don’t repay evil with evil
Regard good things in the sight of all men – and in every situation
You do your part to live at peace with all men
Do not seek vengeance – let God sort it
If your enemy is hungry, feed him
If your enemy is thirsty give him a drink

This is the way of Christ. This is the way of God’s people. This is the way we ought to be seen in everything we do. It is how we treat our neighbours. It is how we treat our friends and coworkers. It is how we treat those who oppose us. It is how we treat those we disagree with.

It is how we act on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. It is not mocking politicians we don’t like. It is not sharing ugly memes and hateful comments. It is the way of Christ.

Strive for peace, not for conflict.

Associations

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. – Romans 12.15-16

Rejoice when people rejoice
Weep when people weep
Have the same mind
Do not set your mind on the higher things in the world
Associate with those who are humble
Don’t base your wisdom on your own opinions

Wow! There’s a lot there.

One phrase is sticking out to me today – it is that phrase ‘associate with the humble.’ We are like to rub shoulders with the high and mighty. We like to drop names and talk about the famous people we have met. Somehow it gives us a view that we are kind of special. People crowd stadiums or public appearance of the well known. We want to sit at the head table with the important people.

Here though we read that God wants us to associate with the humble, not the mighty or proud or well known. We are to seek out those who need us. We seek out the less fortunate and those who seemingly have nothing to offer us. We learn to see the people Jesus saw and see them the way that He saw them.

This whole section of Romans has one theme – putting others before us. That’s not the norm and never has been. How we treat the less fortunate is a real sign of how we walk with Jesus.

Blessers

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. – Romans 12.14

The notion of persecution for the church in the west is something we have not thought about much, at least not in my lifetime or the places I have lived. I have never suffered real persecution. I may have had people mock me or make fun of me. We think persecution is when a boss won’t allow us to take a Sunday off or a baker must make a cake he disagrees with.

We do though get that petty opposition that can be frustrating. People attack us for our faith or our ideas or our stands against sin. People can be ugly and its not easy to take. How are we to respond?

I fear that the natural inclination is to respond in kind. Those who hate us deserve to be hated back. Those who say bad things about us deserve to have us respond with bad things. They can’t get away with that, after all.

That’s not God’s way. His way says ‘don’t respond in kind.’

When people curse us we are to bless them.

How do we do that?

We can only do that by following the spirit instead of the flesh. The flesh calls out for payback. The spirit begs us to act like Christ and pour out blessings on our revilers.

The church needs a change in this world where social media is quick to ignite fires of discord. No matter where, in real life or in this crazy new online world our response to people matters and makes a difference.

God makes us blessers instead of cursers.

Others

distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. – Romans 12.13

Everything we see around us tells us that we need to take care of number one. We are told not to be taken in by takers. We are told that we are not to let people drain us. To a certain extent all this is true. We do need to be careful about the stewardship of our times and resources.

Sometimes though this takes on an ugly side. Sometimes we can get the notion that we are never to let anyone take advantage of us we become selfish with what we have.

God’s word is different though. As we learn to meet the needs of the saints and as we learn to be open and hospitable we take risks. We might be taken advantage of. We might get hurt. We might get ‘ripped off.’  We may even been seen as that dreaded doormat.

True, that might happen. God says though that we are to use what we have to meet others needs. We need to open our homes and hearts to receive people is. People need to know that they have a place with us when they need it.

That’s what Jesus would do and in the end it will be worth the risk as others see Jesus in our lives.

Others, Lord, yes others. Let this my motto be - that I might live for others so I may live like Thee.

Rejoicing and patience and prayer

rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; - Romans 12:12

I really love this little verse. I love the way it summarises how we get through our days and how we deal with the every day trials and struggles we face. We see every day how broken this world is. We see how things are turning more and more against anything having to do with God and His people.

In the midst of all that is going on and all the violence and bad news and hatred and anger and confusion we can keep on plugging away because we when we have presented our bodies as a living sacrifce we can:

Rejoice in our permanent settled hope in Christ
That hope allows us to be patient and endure trials
We have the wonderful opportunity to keep on with stedfast prayer

The only way we can possible hope to do this is if we keep pur hearts and heads in the right place. We can’t get out of focus and get distracted by all the mess around us. If we do we are going to get really discouraged.

No matter what though, if we focus on rejoicing and patience and prayer God can carry us through whatever we are facing.

Diligence

not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; -  Romans 12:11

One thing I have learned about serving the Lord over the years is that it is not about momentary great victories or crushing defeats. We have those ups and downs and good times and bad, but in the end there is one things to do – just keep on keeping on.

We read about it other places:
Be stedfast and immovable and always abound in God’s work
Don’t be weary in well doing
Since we have the ministry God has given us we are not to lose heart

God isn’t looking for superstars. He is looking for men and women who are faithful and determined and diligent. He is looking for people who are ‘fervent in spirit’ and who are serving, a continuous present tense, the Lord.

God says that the thing that is required of His servants is to be faithful. Faithfulness requires that we be diligent in our lives. Diligence is not just being diligent about spiritual things. It requires that we do all we do for and to the glory of God.

Stick at it folks. Keep on keeping on. Don’t let up. It will be worth it all.

Preferring others

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another; - Romans 12.10

Let your brotherly love be seen in your kind affection to each other. Give preference to each other based on a desire to honour end elevate the other.

Can you imagine what the church would be like if we took that to heart? Can you imagine what social media would look like? Show affection. Show kindness. Show love. Show honour. Show preference.

It’s pretty simple – put the other guy first.

Our problem is that the world has taught us that it is okay to be mean and vicious and vengeful and to be the tough guy. If someone disagrees with us the best thing to do is to do show them that they can’t get away with it.

God’s way is the way of humility. It says that we love and let our love be seen not with a begrudging ‘I guess I have to love you’ attitude, but in showing genuine affection for those around. It says that we seek to honour others and elevate them instead of us.

What if we took this to heart and didn’t feel like we had to be the tough guy. What about if we responded the way Jesus did?

How different would our world be?

Evil and good

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. – Romans 12.9

Good and evil. How much more disparite can we get? North and south, black and white, hot and cold, up and down, light and dark, good and evil. These things are mutually exclusive. It’s the kind of thing where we can’t go halfway and do a little bit of good and a little bit of evil and a lot of halfway in between.

Abhor evil – hate it – be repulsed by it – refuse it – get rid of it – literally ‘detest it with horror

Cling to that which is good – love it – rush to it – accept rid – add it daily – literally ‘be glued to it’

You can’t get much different than that.

Why then do we, serious, dedicated, committed Christian who love God and want o live for Him still dabble with evil while we try to be good?

Because we are selfish and want to gratify us more than we want to gratify others. We feed our lust and selfishness and hatred and mean spiritedness because it gives us some kind of perverse pleasure. We still like evil, or at least what it can do for us.

I wish I could find a valid excuse for dabbling with evil instead of detesting it with horror. But I can’t. It is just a simple matter of doing what I want instead of what God wants me to do. We all need to have that abhorrence for all things evil. We all need instead to grab on to things that are good.

Until we get this straight we are not going to be able to do much for God.  

Pure love

Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. – Romans 12.9

Love is of course at the core of our faith. Love sent Jesus to the cross. We love Him because He first loved us. God, indeed, is love and as such love is centre of it all. To make it clear we read that the greatest commandment and the summary of the law is that we first of all love God and second only to that is that we love each other.

Here Paul gives one of many aspects of the kind of love we supposed to have. He gives a more full account in 1 Corinthians 12. Here he simply says ‘let your love be without hypocrisy.’

Both the modern word hypocrisy and the older word dissimulation have the notion of false motivation or intent. Not only are we to love, but we are to love with a pure love where our only desire in loving is to meet the needs of another. It has nothing to so with us. We don’t love to be loved back. We don’t give to get.

That means that we don’t feign love for people in order to ‘convert’ them to our way of thinking or to meet a standard or to say what a wonderful Christian we are. The love of Christ constrains us to love others with the love of Christ and if we do that we are share our lives and our faith with them simply because we want to see them revel in the joy of God’s love. When we learn to love that way sharing our faith will be the most natural thing in the world because it is the purest evidence of true love.

Love is of God. He who does not love with this pure love is not really of God.

How do you and I love?

Come over and help us

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. -  Acts 16:9-10

This words are familiar to anyone who has studied missions at all. Is it the famous Macedonian call by which God called Paul and his team to a whole new field and to their ‘uttermost parts of the earth.’

On this St Patrick’s Day I want to look at another similar call about 300 years later.

‘I saw in the night the vision of a man, whose name was Victoricus, coming as it were from Ireland, with countless letters. And he gave me one of them, and I read the opening words of the letter, which were, `The voice of the Irish'; and as I read the beginning of the letter I thought that at the same moment I heard their voice---they were those beside the Wood of Voclut, which is near the Western Sea---and thus did they cry out as with one mouth: `We ask thee, boy, come and walk among us once more.' And I was quite broken in heart, and could read no further, and so I woke up.’ – Patrick’s ‘Confession’

This is always a personal blessing to me. I am not sure about dreams and visions and all that, but I have no reason to doubt that God can use anything to call people to where He wants them, and this call certainly was Biblical. Our own call was not a vision, but an Irishman over lunch saying ‘come over and help us.’ There was no doubt in my mind and still no doubt today about the reality of that call.

We have been discouraged. Sometimes we have wondered ‘is this really where we need to be?’ But then another section from Patrick’s Confession comes to mind.

'I could wish to leave them to go to Britain. I would willingly do this, and am prepared for this, as if to visit my home country and my parents. Not only that, but I would like to go to Gaul to visit the brothers and to see the faces of the saints of my Lord. God knows what I would dearly like to do. But I am bound in the Spirit, who assures me that if I were to do this, I would be held guilty. And I fear, also, to lose the work which I began – not so much I as Christ the Lord, who told me to come here to be with these people for the rest of my life. May the Lord will it, and protect me from every wrong path, so that I do not sin before him.'

May indeed the Lord will it protect me from every wrong path, so that I do not sin before Him.

Gifts

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,  so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.  Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;  or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;  he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.  - Romans 12:4-8

What a mess it would be if everyone in the body had exactly the same gifts or the same calling. We would get nothing done if everyone was the preacher or if we all played the piano or if we all took care of the books and finances or we all worked in the children’s ministry or creche or whatever.

Paul addresses some specific gifts. All of these are things that we should all be doing, but these are things that some of us are especially gifted at. Preaching and teachings and ministering and exhorting and giving and leading and be merciful are traits for us all to some extent.

I think the key lesson here though is that we need to be happy the use the gifts God gives us. I am teacher. I ought to be a teacher who can proclaim the gospel and minister to others and give and exhort and lead and be merciful. At the core of me though is a teacher. We need to realise that God uses all of us with our gifts. Paul builds this into a wonderful picture in 1 Corinthians where he describes us as a body and the importance of heads and hands and eyes.

Find the gift God has blessed us with and use it for His glory and the love each other.

More highly than we ought

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Romans 12:3

Pride is a killer. Pride has been the problem since before the beginning. Satan’s pride had Him cast out of heaven. Adam and Eve’s sin brought sin into the world. Cain’s pride resulted in the first murder – and I could fill a book with more examples.

Here is the root of pride – thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. This can show itself in a lot of ways. It can make us arrogant or selfish or jealous or entitled or privileged or demanding. It can lead us to sin because ‘nobody can tell me what to do.’

It can also cause another problem when it makes us doubt God.

How does that happen?

It happens when we are so sure of ourselves that we think God is not taking care of things properly. We think that we know better than He does. We worry because we can’t see the end and we feel like we ought to have control. Pride really gets in the way of faith because it makes me think either I could do better or that He isn’t able to do what He says. Fear comes because I think it is all up to me.

In other words I think more highly of myself than I ought to think every time I doubt God and trust me.

God forgive us.

Nor conforming, but transformed

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. – Romans 12.1-2

To conform or transform?

That’s a question that faces every believer many times every day. What do we do when confronted by a world that seems like it is constantly struggling to drag us downhill?

There are two clear choices here:

Conform to the world
Let your life be transformed by the word of God

Conforming the world is the easy choice. Nobody really wants to be different. We all want to fit in. We don’t like being labelled as weird or some kind of freak.

Plus the world is so alluring. The pleasures of sin for a season draw us. Sin and worldliness would not be such a problem if they did not give some kind of pleasure. It is easy just to slide into the ways of the world. I heard an old preacher put it clearly one day – ‘even a dead fish can float downstream.’

But our call is to be transformed by our new mind in Christ. There must be a change in us once we have the mind of Christ. We are new creations. The world is no longer our home. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are to look at things above instead of dwelling on things in this world.

How are we going about our lives. Are we just ‘winging it’ day by day kind of attaching a little bit of God when we need Him. Or our we letting our minds be transformed day after day after day?

Don’t conform – be transformed.

A living sacrifice

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. – Romans 12.1-2

If there were one passage of scripture that could really sum of what Christian living and our progressive sanctification is all about it would be this one.

Progressive, or practicable, sanctification is how we live out our holiness in between our positional sanctification in Christ and our perfect sanctification to come.

Paul’s answer is clear. We are called, like Isaac, to crawl up on the altar and offer our lives as a sacrifice to God. Isaac didn’t know what was going to happen, but he trusted God and his dad.

I don’t know all that it means when I present my body as a living sacrifice. I do know that it means I yield my desires to Him. It means I follow the spirit and not the flesh. It means I give my all, all me, every fibre of my body, mind, and soul to wish will. I literally offer everything to Him, my wife and children and my job and my time and my resources are now all His to use as He desires.

When we wonder about God’s will this is it at the core. I do what He wants from me. I choose His way and not mine.

Is my all on the altar of sacrifice laid?

My heart does the Spirit control?

I  can only, I can only be blessed

And have peace and sweet rest

After I have yielded unto the Lord

My body and my soul

Who can comprehend?

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

“For who has known the mind of the Lord?

Or who has become His counselor?”

“Or who has first given to Him

And it shall be repaid to him?”

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. – Romans 11.33-36

What a beautiful passage. Paul certainly had a way with the Holy Spirit’s words, didn’t he?

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

One of the wonderful things about God is one of the things I can struggle with. His wisdom and knowledge are far, far above our own wisdom and knowledge. His ways and His thoughts are as far above mine as the heavens are above the earth. His judgments are unsearchable and His ways are above finding out. Everything we encounter is of Him and through Him and to Him and are for His glory.

If I could get my thick head around this truth I would be much better off. I really, truly, honestly, ignorantly, and stupidly can think as times that I know what is best. How can I do that?

Actually, I know – pride. Only pride lets me think I do better that the God whose thoughts and ways are beyond my human ken.

Lord, I believe You know best, but help my unbelief.