Love for Those on the Outside

Romans 12:9-21

Lately Pat and I have been talking about taking a trip to Europe.  It would be our first trip there.  Anyone going to Europe faces a problem.  You see, Europe isn’t like Texas; Europe is big.  So, unless you plan a really long visit you have to limit where you go.

Pat would like to go to Italy and I, being an unabashed Anglophile, would like to go to England. I don’t have anything against Italy, but I do worry that I don’t know how to say, “Ketchup only on that cheeseburger, please” in Italian.  I.

Anyway, Italy has a lot to offer.  There are magnificent churches, great art museums, and places of historical interest.  I could see the coliseum where so many Christians died, visit the supposed site of Peter’s crucifixion, or go to Manheim prison where Paul would spend his last days before being executed.  Yes, the early church suffered greatly in Italy.

But that raises a question.

You know that Jesus commanded his followers to love.  You know that the early church was famed for its love.  One critic actually marveled that the Christians loved each other even before they met.  Yet, so many hated them.  What was that all about; after all, doesn’t everybody love a lover?  Why were these men and women who were famed for their love tossed to the lions?

It’s a question that we can answer only if we remember something about the character of Christian love.  Remember, agapé love, the love to which Christians aspired, involved the mind more than the heart.  It didn’t reject feelings but it sure wasn’t driven by them.  It’s great aim was to seek the best for the other.  As Barclay described it, agapé always seeks a person’s  “highest good.”  Now, when you hear that, remember that to the early Christians a person’s highest good always involved having a right relationship with God.

Today, however, we tend to think that a person’s highest good is self-affirmation.  So, in our contemporary understanding, love involves making a person feel good about himself or herself.  Love should build our self-esteem, we’re told.  Not only does love mean never having to say you’re sorry, it means never saying you should be sorry.

Last week [October 2003] over 2500 Episcopalians gathered in Dallas to discuss what they should do in the face of the recent election of a homosexual bishop.  One of the attendees explained their position by referring to Jesus’ response to the woman caught in adultery.  The minister explained, “Jesus said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.’  Yet, some, out of a false understanding of love, represent Jesus as saying, ‘Neither do I condemn thee, go and accept yourself.’  But that’s not Christian love, Christian love is transforming love.”

Our culture’s understanding of love is so distorted that some expressions of Christian love are regularly described as hate-speech or acts of arrogance and bigotry.  If there is a bias against Christianity in some areas of American life, and I believe there is, it is almost certainly focused against those Christians who are consistently carrying out the demands of love.

Very likely that’s what happened to the Roman Christians. 

Because the Christians loved the Romans…

--they told him that their idols were false, that their mystery religions offered empty promises, that Jesus Christ was the only God-ordained way of salvation.

--they challenged their sensual lifestyles which endorsed adultery, homosexuality, and pedophilia.

--they defied the policies permitting the deaths of unwanted infants through exposure to the elements or starvation.  (In time, Christians were considered enemies of the state because they rescued so many of these children.)

--they insisted that God’s love extended beyond the narrow boundaries of any one group or people.

--they violated the laws which would have silenced their witness to Jesus.

Although the resistance to Christianity was not as intense as it would eventually become, the Christians in Rome had probably encountered some who had treated them badly because of their commitment to Christ.  If those who mistreated them weren’t officials of the state, they may have been neighbors, employers, masters (if the Christians were slaves), spouses or other family members.  How were they to respond to such mistreatment?  And, how should we?

The same principle that governed their relationship with those within the Christian community governed their relationship with those outside that community.  They were to relate to them with sincere love.

Genuine love should shape our response to those who oppose our Christian world-view.

Paul lists four priorities for those Christians attempting to lovingly respond to those who mistreat them.

1.  Make being a blessing a priority.  “Bless those who persecute you…”

The recommended response to persecutors may have been just a little shocking.  Retaliation is so much a part of our make-up that we expect it to shape our response to mistreatment.  Iraqi police sergeant al-Dharaji, who was injured in last week’s car bomb attack on the police station in Baghdad, said from his hospital bed, “We will have our revenge for this.”  Most people hearing that would understand his sentiments.

It’s true that some cultures seem to have eradicated retaliation from their behavior.  But they have done so for different reasons—not because of love for the persecutor.  That’s a far different reason than a belief in the ineffectiveness of retaliation.

Of course, the Christian is not simply to avoid retaliation.  The Christian is to bless the persecutor.  In the Bible, “blessing” someone means to call down God’s best on them.  How tough is that.  If someone mistreats us, it is so tempting to secretly wish that God would somehow, in some way, mess with them, send just a few boils or frogs their way.  Instead, we are wish for God to give them the very best.

There’s something implicit in this command that I don’t want us to miss.  When we “bless” or when we “curse” our words are involved.  Although Paul doesn’t say it directly he seems to be reminding us that we even need to watch what we say about those who have harmed us.  Another tough assignment.

2.    Make integrity a priority.  “Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.”

Integrity seems to be a central idea in this verse.  If Christians were to repay evil with evil, how different would they be from the rest of the world?  The command echoes what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. 

    "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  [44] But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  [45] so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  [46] For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  [47] And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  [48] You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48 (ESV)

At the heart of the word “perfect” in that passage is the idea of completeness.  Just as God’s love is complete, extending to all, so, too, should his children’s love extend to all.  For a child of God, a Christian, to engage in plots of revenge against an enemy is to deny his or her identity.

When we spend time imagining the downfall of our enemy we entertain thoughts that should not be part of our mental repertoire.  Yet, I have to admit such thoughts sometimes find fertile soil in my mind.

That’s when we need to remember the second part of this call to give priority to living with integrity.  Paul says, “Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.”

“Be careful” could be translated as “Give careful thought to….”   The idea seems to be that we should give some thought to how we live before others.  Revenge and retaliation are often carried out thoughtlessly, Paul wanted his readers to carefully consider how their Christian convictions ought to shape their behavior.

Of course, this isn’t a call to be disingenuous in our actions;  sincere love wouldn’t allow that.  But it is a reminder that our claims are often assessed by our actions.  Of course, as Douglas Moo points out, the outside world does not set the standard for Christian behavior; instead, Christians are to live their good lives before the world.  Some of those good things Christians do are seen as good by the world, but other good things Christians do will not immediately be seen as good.

Nothing fuels the argument of the critic of Christianity like Christians who don’t act like Christians.  Paul is calling us to live with integrity even before those whose goal is our destruction.

3.  Make peace a priority.  “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

That may come as a surprise to some.  There are Christians who might make us wonder if one of the gifts of the Spirit might be the gift of pugnaciousness.  Some Christians approach the non-Christian world spoiling for a fight.

Now, Paul seems to recognize there are times when conflict is inevitable, but he warns against a demeanor that is unnecessarily abrasive.  There are enough genuine sources of conflict in a culture dominated by non-Christian values that we don’t have to create issues.  We need to realize that it’s one thing to defend our right to live by our core beliefs and values but quite another to insist there must be a crèche on every courthouse lawn.

Now, I know some of you may disagree with what I’m about to say and that’s okay.  If we can’t disagree in a Baptist church, where can we?  Indeed, if we can’t disagree in a Baptist church, we’re probably not in a Baptist church.  Anyway, I think that when Judge More of the Alabama Supreme Court placed that Ten Commandments monument in the courthouse he provoked an unnecessary conflict.  At home, at school, at the workplace, there will be times when we have to take a stand, to risk offending people who don’t agree with us but that should happen only when we have no other way to maintain our integrity as Christians.

Often, when Christians face an opponent, they try to completely discredit that opponent.  Imagine the impact on a critic trying to discredit Christianity if we were to begin our response by saying, “Of course, I don’t agree with your fundamental premise, but you do have a couple points which have merit.”

4.    Make transformation a priority.   “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.’”

Hey, now that sounds good.  Heaping hot, burning coals on your enemies head.  Now you’re talking, Paul.   Wouldn’t that fulfill a lot of fantasies?  Talk about your bad hair day.  If only Paul hadn’t said, “When it comes to pay-back, don’t.”

No matter how unjustly we have been treated, revenge should not find a place on our agenda.  Notice how Paul addresses his readers in affectionate terms, “Beloved.”  Maybe he does so because he is sympathetic with their pain and understands their desire to see some kind of justice here and now.  Yet, he calls for them to have patience.  They are to leave the matter in God’s hands.

Christians do believe there will be a final accounting, that everyone will face the Judge of the universe to have his or her fate pronounced.  There may be delays and continuances but the Day is coming.  Hurting Christians who long for justice can take some comfort in that.  Yet, there’s a kind of fly in the ointment, Christians also believe in a bothersome thing called “forgiveness.”  In fact, the Christian is only able to look forward to that Day of Judgment because we believe our sins have already been judged, judged on the Cross of Christ.  We believe he received the punishment that should have been ours.

What if our enemy, the one who has been so cruel to us, should come to faith in Christ?  Lets make this a little less personal.  Suppose, for example, that Saddam, in his wanderings to elude capture, should come across a New Testament.  Suppose he should read it and become convinced, contrary to all he had ever been taught, that Christ is the Son of God, that He died on the cross and rose again, that He is the way of salvation.  Now, suppose further that this brutal dictator should place his faith in Christ.  According to the New Testament he would be forgiven, accepted as a child of God, made our brother in Christ.  Now, suppose the same thing should happen to your worst enemy.

That’s hard for some of us to imagine.  Yet, if loving your enemy means anything, if wanting God’s best for your enemy really means wanting God’s best, we will want that for our enemy.

I suspect that’s why Paul won’t allow his readers to simply sit back and wait for God’s judgment to fall on their enemies.  They are not just to avoid taking revenge, they are actually to act with positive kindness toward their enemies.  Remember what he says, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him;  if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.”

One commentator pointed out that this covers meeting the basic needs of life.  How easy it would be to watch our enemy starve, how satisfying it would be.  Paul says we can’t; we would have to intervene. 

The word translated “feed” is literally “to feed with morsels.”  It’s the word used to describe how you might feed a young child, breaking off small pieces and placing them in the child’s mouth.  It certainly suggests giving personal attention; but there’s something more.  The image also reminds us of a custom that was widespread in Paul’s day among some of the desert peoples, a custom which would have probably been known in a cosmopolitan place like Rome.  If a host were to invite an enemy to his home or tent for a feast, that enemy could go knowing the laws of hospitality would keep him safe.  And, if during the meal, the host should take a morsel of food and offer it to his enemy, it would signal a desire to end hostilities, a desire to become friends.

This is what was behind Jesus offering Judas the morsel or “sop” during the Passover meal on the night before the crucifixion.  It was a final offer of friendship which Judas refused.

So, Paul is saying we should try to make friends of our enemies.  We should give priority to transforming the relationship.

But, if that’s so, what is all this “coals of fire…on his head” business?

I’ve seldom run across a passage over which the commentators are more evenly divided.  There are two basic interpretations.

--One says “heaping coals of fire” refers to God’s judgment being heaped on your enemy.  According to those who hold this view, each time your enemy greets your act of kindness with harshness or cruelty he only adds more judgment to his account.  Frankly, in my opinion, for Paul to suggest that Christians should derive satisfaction from this just doesn’t fit in with what’s been said so far.

--For this reason, I prefer the other interpretation that sees “coals of fire” as either warm feelings of gratitude or shame.   According to those who hold this view, each time you respond to your enemy’s harshness or cruelty with kindness you erode away some of the hostility.  The New Living Bible’s paraphrase has this idea in mind, “Instead, do what the Scriptures say:  ‘If your enemies are hungry, feed them.  If they are thirsty, give them something to drink, and they will be ashamed of what they have done to you.’  Again, the goal is to transform the relationship.

Paul knows there are those who will receive the acts of kindness and continue to remain hostile.  That’s a fact of life.  Yet, we are to live in the hope that the warmth of loving kindness will, perhaps, thaw the coldest heart.

When that happens, we will have won a great victory, a twofold victory.  On the one hand, we will have had victory over our natural tendencies to respond to mistreatment with hatred and revenge.  We will have not been overcome by evil.

And because we have chosen to act benevolently toward our enemy, we will have won another victory—a victory that in some cases might actually result in our enemy becoming our friend.  But, in any case, we will have overcome evil with good.

Some Observations on Responding to Our Enemies

Before I conclude I want to take a moment to offer some final observations on responding to our enemies with sincere love.

1.    We can respond to an enemy with sincere love only to see no positive response.

There are hard cases whose hatred of Christ and Christianity know no bounds.  And sometimes those hard cases may be in your family or among your acquaintances at work or school.

2.  Nothing in the Christian call to respond to our enemies with sincere love demands that we stay in harm's way.

Shortly after the end of the first century the church began to wrestle with this issue.  In time, its wisest leaders concluded God did not demand his followers to stay in danger zones.  If forced to defend their faith in the face of death, they should do so; but, if given an opportunity to escape to safety, they should take it.

There may be times when the church needs to stand with these people to help them get settled in a new life.

3.    Sincere love in response to an abusive enemy is a noble goal to which we should all aspire but failure to achieve that goal is an almost universal experience.

It’s a rare Christian who never struggles with forgiving some enemy.  When we understand the almost universal experience of failure, even among the saintliest Christians, we realize that our experience does not mark us as spiritually warped. The possibility of failure doesn’t excuse us from striving toward the goal; it reminds us of our continuing dependence upon God’s grace.

4.  As with so much associated with a life directed by Christian love—agapé love, treating our enemies with benevolence begins more with a resolution rooted in a new way of thinking than with our emotions, no matter how powerful they may be at the moment.

Conclusion

Paul began this chapter with a call to thoughtful commitment, a commitment growing out of a renewed mind transformed by Christ and living out the implications Christian world-view. 

One of the most vivid reminders of the radical nature of that transformation is seen in the Christian approach to enemies.

This same passage teaches us to show love to those within the Christian community.  We fail if we don’t have that love.  We also fail if we have only love for one another and have no love for those on the outside.

Treating our enemies with benevolence is one of the greatest challenges we’ll ever face.  At the same time, it provides one of the greatest opportunities to demonstrate how our lives have been changed by Christ.

Love Within the Church

Romans 12:9-21

A college roommate of mine used to quote his grandmother's definition of love.

"Love," she had said, "is the feeling that you feel when you feel the feeling like you've never felt before."

Than definition expresses a common conception of love. Even the standard dictionary tells us that love is an emotion, a feeling.

That's certainly true, but if we think of love exclusively as an emotion, we'll misunderstand what's at the heart of the Biblical concept of love.

In fact, to understand what the Bible means when is calls us to love, we need a new way of thinking about love.

The early Christians seemed to realize this. Out of the several Greek words for love available to them, the writers of the New Testament chose a little-used word, agape, and made it their primary word to describe their understanding of love. They didn't so much give it new meaning as they revealed the meaning which was there potentially.

William Barclay defines agape in a way that seems particularly appropriate for this context of thoughtful commitment.

"Agape has to do with the mind: it is not simply an emotion which rises unbidden in our hearts; it is a principle by which we deliberately live. Agape has supremely to do with the will.

"It is in fact the power to love the unlovable, to love people whom we do not like. Christianity does not ask us to love our enemies and to love men at large in the same way as we love our nearest and dearest and those who are closest to us; that would be at one and the same time impossible and wrong. But it does demand that we should have at all times a certain attitude of the mind and a certain direction of the will towards all men, no matter who they are.

"Let a man be a saint or let a man be a sinner, God's only desire is for that man's highest good. Agape is the spirit which says: 'No matter what any man does to me...I will always seek nothing but his highest good." That is to say, Christian love, agape, is unconquerable benevolence, invincible good will."

Love in the New Testament is not measured by feelings but by action. The New Testament writers knew that anyone can talk about love; acting in love is another matter.

This is the kind of love Paul is talking about when he says, "Love must be sincere." The grammatical structure of that statement is interesting. It contains no verb; it says simply, "Sincere Love." It stands almost as a heading for what follows.

The remaining verses of the chapter describe the outworking of love toward those within the Christian community and toward those outside the community. Such love is to be "sincere," or literally "unhypocritical." There's to be no play-acting when it comes to expressing this love.

Christians are to "abhor" whatever is evil-whatever might spring from a failure to love. One translation suggests that they were to "regard evil with horror." (Goodspeed) At the same time, they were to "cling to what is good"-or whatever springs from love. The language is the same as that used to describe the marriage relationship. Montgomery incorporates this in her translation, "Wed yourselves to what is good."

Paul began this chapter with a call to thoughtful, transforming commitment; no such commitment would be possible without sincere love.  As sincere love shapes our attitudes and actions, our life within the Christian community will be transformed.

I

SINCERE LOVE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY

IS MANIFESTED IN OUR SPIRITUAL FERVOR

(11)

As the words flow from Paul's pen (or at least from his mouth as he dictates to his secretary) he rapidly shifts from one topic to another. Rather than trying to follow him, I’m going to pull together what he says in a more topical manner.

At first glance, this verse is primarily concerned with love toward the God whose grace has placed us within the community of faith. This love is our response to God who rescued us from alienation, drew us to himself, and made us a part of his one new people. To use one of Paul's favorite terms, we are "in Christ;" we are in communion with Christ and in the community of Christ.

We respond to this blessing with a passionate devotion.

Negatively, we are to "never be lacking in zeal." A realist, Paul knew that the temptation to allow our ardor to wane is very real.

Perhaps Paul was already seeing Christians growing weary in the struggle against the entrenched immorality and error of their culture. Perhaps some has just allowed other concerns to crowd out the proper devotion they should have given to Christ.

In any case, Paul calls all Christians to counter the tendency to allow devotion to flag by "being aglow with the Spirit," as the RSV translates "keep your spiritual fervor." Ralph Earle suggests that Paul's idea involves allowing our human spirit to be set aglow by the Holy Spirit.

While Paul's words are clearly concerned with our personal spiritual condition, we can't forget that our level of enthusiasm for spiritual matters will impact the quality of spiritual life within the community. Our failure to "be aglow with the Spirit" may dampen the ardor of others.

At the same time, people are sometimes drawn to a church because of the enthusiasm its members fell toward it.

Of course, Paul knows that mere enthusiasm is not a measure of devotion, the real outward evidence of devotion to the Lord is service. That's why he links "spiritual fervor" to «serving the Lord." I'm sure you've seen the bumper sticker which says, "IF YOU LOVE JESUS, HONK;"  there's another one which says, “IF YOU LOVE JESUS, TITHE-ANYONE CAN HONK." Paul would appreciate the sentiments of the former-for he was capable of great outbursts of praise, but he would especially see the wisdom of the latter-for he understood how important it is to backup our words with actions.

II

SINCERE LOVE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY IS MANIFESTED AS WE RELATE TO ONE ANOTHER AS A FAMILY

As Paul expresses the ways sincere love shows itself in the Christian community he draws on the analogy of the church to the family. The word translated as "be devoted" was often used to describe the love of husband and wife, parents toward children. Paul reinforces the call to familial devotion by saving it was to be marked by "brotherly love." He may have risked being redundant but he wanted to make his point. To Paul and to most other early Christians the church was an extended family.

Our affection and devotion toward others in the community are to reflect the reality of the relationship we have in Christ. Other Christians are our spiritual brothers and sisters; our love should reflect that relationship.

In a world of alienation and loneliness we Christians must let those watching see the reality of our relationship through Christ.

We will do this, in part, as we flesh out our familial relationship by showing "honor" to one another. In fact, the verse suggests we are to outdo one another in showing honor. To show honor is to recognize the value of another. Rightly understood, it blends affirmation and appreciation.

While we often expend our energy by seeking honor for ourselves, Paul says we ought to be at the forefront in showing honor to others. Sometimes we hear young people complaining because someone had "dissed" them, meaning someone had done something to show disrespect, the opposite of honor. Paul seems to be saying that no believer should come away from a gathering of fellow Christians feeling dissed. That won't happen if we continually compete to show honor to our fellow believers.

III

SINCERE LOVE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY 

IS MANIFESTED RESPONSIVENESS TO THE NEEDS OF OTHERS (13)

There were many, many poor people in the Roman world. That some of them responded to the gospel should not be surprising. Then, too, some of the Christians may have become poor after coming to Christ. They may have been disowned, may have lost their jobs, may have been thrown out of their homes by an angry husband or other relative.

Paul doesn't want such people to be forgotten. In fact, there is an ongoing element of his ministry of evangelism that involved gathering funds to help the church in Jerusalem where Christians were suffering from a famine.

A more specific way to help was mentioned as Paul said, "Practice hospitality." Hospitality, which literally means "love of strangers," was an important ministry because some Christians were homeless because of their faith and due to the numbers of traveling evangelists who were on the road during this time.

Meeting the needs of our fellow Christians is still an important expression of our love.

Just a few verses before this Paul mentioned those who had a God-given grace or gift that allowed them to be especially benevolent in their giving. Paul might have been addressing these words to such people but it's more likely he is reminding every one of his readers about their opportunities to help meet the needs of fellow believers.

IV

SINCERE LOVE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY IS MANIFESTED THROUGH SENSITIVITY TO OTHERS

(15)

“Share the happiness of those who are happy, the sorrow of those who are sad.” (Phillips)

Paul's words have often been misunderstood. Years ago I heard a very young Christian argue that this verse proved Christians are never to share their feelings but only be a sounding-board for others. Nothing in this verse suggests that. In fact, in the opening chapter of this epistle Paul shared something of his frustration and puzzlement at the roadblocks preventing him from traveling to Rome, a journey he had longed to make for many years.

This verse is not about our feelings, it is about how we respond to the feelings of others. It reminds us that love challenges us to get outside ourselves to the degree that we are able to stand with the one who rejoices or with the one who mourns. If our disposition at that moment is different that can be tough. But with God's grace we can respond with loving sensitivity.

While Paul is not demanding that we deny our own feelings, it does seem to suggest that we recognize those times when we ought to temper our responses.  It may mean that when we hear someone recount the blessings of their day we don’t respond with, “Yeah, well, let me tell you about my day.” 

Douglas Moo comments, "Love that is genuine will not respond to a fellow believer's joy with envy or bitterness, but will enter wholeheartedly into that same joy. Similarly, love that is genuine will bring us to identify so intimately with our brothers and sisters that their sorrows will become ours."

We can't ignore the feelings of others. To that brother or sister in Christ whose heart has been broken we can't say, "Don't bring that up just now, you'll bring everyone down." To that brother or sister in Christ whose heart is bursting with joy we can't say, "Cool it! We don't want people to think we're a bunch of fanatics." In a broader context Paul is reminding us to never trivialize the feelings of others.

V

SINCERE LOVE WITHIN THE COMMUNITY

IS MANIFESTED AN EGALITARIAN SPIRIT

(16)

I like the word "egalitarian." I like the way it sounds. Unfortunately, if you use the word "egalitarian" very often, those who hear you use "egalitarian" will think you aren't.

To be egalitarian means you regard others as equals. We often say we do but don't prove it. An American history teacher I once had used to say, "Thomas Jefferson believed all men were created equal, but some were more equal than others." Well, if we would display sincere love, we will not only declare that all are equal, we will live like it.

One sign that we're living like it will be "harmony" in the community of faith. Harmony in English can be a musical term. In light of that Paul might have said, "Try to live in such a way that there are no discordant notes." That would be very important for a church living in a culture that was not always sympathetic to its cause.

Paul by no means is suggesting that we will always agree. But he does seem to suggest that any disagreement will not erode our fundamental unity. For that to be true we will regard those who hold contrary opinions as equals; we will not allow pride to deny them the right to disagree with us.   Elsewhere, Paul makes it clear that we can't live in harmony with those who deny the fundamentals of the faith; but that's a very different matter than living in harmony with those who disagree about which political candidate will do a better job or some other similar issue.

The harmony that transcends these differences is rooted in and reflected in a kind of Christian egalitarianism, a view which sees others as having the same worth as we do. Several translations support this notion: "take a real interest in ordinary people" (JBP), "associate with humble folk" (Moffatt), or "mingle with the lowly" (Norlie). The church hasn't always remembered that.

Listen to this excerpt from the history of North Church in Portsmouth, NH

From the 1600s through the mid 1800s, New Englanders of most denominations were seated their houses of worship according to social rank, whether by assignment or purchase. This expressed a nearly universal Christian perception of social rank as part of a divinely ordered hierarchy of creation. The highest ranking pews were close to the pulpit, the lowest furthest from the pulpit.

Some pews were set aside as general seating for special groups. Variants included reserving seats for adolescents, Native Americans, the poor, widows, the hard-of-hearing, and black people, whether enslaved or free.  [These last were located farthest from the pulpit].

That's just the kind of attitude Paul opposed.

Now Paul was a realist and knew there were differences among people. Some were at the bottom of society's rank, others--though not many of them in the church--were near the top.  [Some historians and sociologists believe there may have been more wealthy people in the early church than once thought.  Paul, they remind us, said there weren’t many, not there weren’t any.] He says, "condescend" to those in low positions. That word from the King James Version may be misunderstood because it means something different today than it did in the seventeenth century. Today it has a negative note of snobbery; then it meant "to depart from the privileges of superiority by voluntary submission..." Translating it as "associate with" is accurate.

The final warning against conceit is appropriate. It's a reminder that Paul began his survey of the new way of thinking by challenging us to stop thinking more highly of ourselves than we should.

One of the reasons the early church turned its world upside down is the fact that all kinds of people became a part of it, worshipped together equals.

Conclusion

When sincere love shapes our attitudes and our actions the church of Jesus Christ--wherever its local expression may be found--will make a difference.

This passage also contains some clues for loving “outsiders,” those who aren’t part of the Christian community.  We’ll look at those in the next message in this series.

Keep in mind: Some of these outsiders may be our enemies.  Paul believes we can change that situation.  But be sure of this:  You won’t make a positive impact on those outside the church if there’s no love inside the church.

Ministry--In a New Way

Romans 12:6-8

Even though I’ve been in Ohio for more than a decade I still receive a newsletter from the Amarillo Baptist Association.  More and more it mentions names I don’t recognize.  But recently the name of one church caught my attention.  Under the heading “Pray for Our Pastorless Churches” was Temple Baptist Church, Hereford. 

That could only mean that H. W. (this was Texas, he was known by his initials)  had, at long last, retired.  H. W. was a fixture in Hereford and over the years while I served in a neighboring community we had the opportunity to become friends.  H. W., who had stayed at the church long after he could have retired, once told me that he wanted to leave the church on a high note.  I hope he did.

But right now I’m want to tell you about another experience he related to me.  In the early 1990’s he called on a young couple who had visited Temple on a Sunday morning.  After a brief conversation the wife asked, “We didn’t see a family life center or a gymnasium, do you have one?”  H. W. said, “No, we don’t have one.”  Incredulous, the husband asked, “Then, where do you play?”

Some people still come to churches asking, “What’s in it for me?  What will this church do for me?” Even though I believe such people have got it all wrong I do understand why they might ask such questions.  You see, we ought to expect to get something out of being part of the church since the church is filled with gifted people.

Gifts of a Gracious God

Using the illustration of the parts of the human body, Paul affirmed our interdependence as believers:  We need each other.  And why do we need each other?  We need each other because believers are specially gifted to minister to one another.

Paul discusses spiritual gifts three times in his letters, here in Romans 12, in I Corinthians 12-14, and in Ephesians 4.  Each time he stresses the source of these gifts, abilities, or faculties;  they are given to believers by a gracious God.  They are called “spiritual gifts”  because they are the result of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives.  The word translated as “gifts” is “charisma”.  Unfortunately we use charisma to describe a persons innate attractiveness.  That loses sight of the fact the word has the same root as the word “grace”.  We do not receive a charisma because of any worth of our own, we receive a charisma solely because of the benevolence of the Giver.  Forget that and all sorts of trouble will follow—just ask the Corinthians.

Still, any mention of spiritual gifts or “charismatic” gifts will cause some Christians to hold their breath.  They know there’s a lot of controversy swirling around this topic.  Those who hold the extreme views in this controversy may be called “the charismatics” and “the ceasationists”.  

The charismatics claim that all the gifts listed in the New Testament (and some not listed) are normative and to be expected in the church today.  In fact, if the more spectacular gifts, like speaking in tongues, aren’t part of the believer’s life, that believer is somehow spiritually deprived.  In fairness, not all charismatics nor all Pentecostals hold such an extreme view, but unless their emphasis on receiving the Spirit as a “second blessing” is very carefully stated, it’s easy to conclude that they see the ordinary Christian as a kind of spiritual second-class citizen of the Kingdom.

The ceasationists, on the other hand, claim that spiritual gifts—especially the more spectacular gifts—ceased to be given about the time of the last apostle’s death or about the time the New Testament was completed.  They would argue that phenomena like “speaking in tongues” are, at best, psychological aberrations or, at worst, works of the demonic.  The beloved Bible teacher G. Campbell Morgan held the ceasationist position so strongly that he once described Pentecostalism as “the last vomit of hell.”

Both perspectives are wrong.  In I Corinthians Paul argues that the gifts do not necessarily denote spirituality.  At the same time, nothing in Scripture suggests that such gifts are signs of spiritual immaturity.  And, when cooler heads prevail, New Testament students admit that there are no grounds for arguing that the gifts were to cease at the end of the first century.

Craig Blomberg addresses the issue of the “reappearance” of spiritual gifts in a very persuasive way.  He argues that such gifts seemed to disappear from the church due to “a growing, unscriptural institutionalization of the church and an overreaction to the abuse of the gifts in heretical …circles.”  At the same time, he argues that “the twentieth century resurgence of the gifts cannot be attributed to the arrival of the last days, since for the New Testament ‘the last days’ refers to the entire church age.  They may, however, reflect a recovery of more Biblical, spontaneous, and all-inclusive worship and ministry.” 

Does this mean that charismatic and Pentecostal churches should stop speaking in tongues?  No, it does mean that they should stop claiming spiritual superiority to their fellow Christians and, just as important, stop placing God in a box by claiming to know how He must act in each believer’s life.  Does this mean Baptists and others should start speaking in tongues?  No, it does mean that they should stop looking with disdain on their fellow Christians who happen to disagree with them and, just as important, stop placing God in a box by claiming to know how He would never act in a believer’s life.

 A more balanced view of the New Testament materials underscores a couple important principles to keep in mind regarding the gifts of the Spirit.

1.     The Spirit is sovereign in bestowing the gifts.  He is not obliged to give gifts according to the formula prescribed by any group.

2.     The Spirit is concerned about the unity of God’s people.  When one of his gifts creates disunity, you may be sure that that gift is being abused and misused.

3.     The Spirit is purposeful in the bestowal of gifts.  On the one hand, He gives his gifts “for the common good.” (I Cor. 12:7)  No gift is to be used for selfish purposes;  gifted Christians ought to seek to use their gifts to minister to others.  And, the Spirit gives his gifts to help the church accomplish its task in the world, including the task of evangelism (Acts).

With this in mind let’s look briefly at the gifts Paul mentions here and then see how what he says applies to us.

The Spirit gives the gift of prophecy.  A careful look at the New Testament should keep us from holding the once popular view that this is just another name for preaching.  Something else is involved here.  This seems to be a spontaneous utterance of the Spirit through a believer.  Such expressions will never contradict Scripture but they may be more specific than Scripture.  In particular, prophecy seems to have played a role in helping congregations discern God’s will.

Paul adds a cautionary note:  He tells the prophet to exercise the gift “in proportion to your faith.”  Some believe Paul is telling the Roman Christians that prophets must measure their words by the standard of orthodox faith.  That’s not a bad idea but it’s probably not what Paul has in mind.  I think it’s more likely he means the prophet shouldn’t present, as a word from God, anything that the prophet isn’t ready to believe.  It may also suggest that if the prophet has any doubt about the origin of the prophecy then it would be best to keep quiet.

The Spirit gives the gift of service.  The word translated here has to do with giving practical aid.  It has the same root as the word “deacon” but there’s no reason to believe that the gift of service was limited to those who held that office.  While all Christians are called upon to respond to the material needs of others, some seem to have a special capacity to understand the nature, cause, and solution to  problems others face.  Many of those who regularly exercise this gift have a kind of godly toughness.  They can smell a scam a mile away;  while you and I are reaching for our wallets, they tell the con artist to move on.  At the same time, they are able to help those in genuine need without either humiliating them or enabling them to become comfortable in a lifestyle which makes them dependent on others.

The Spirit gives the gift of teaching.  If prophecy is marked by spontaneity, teaching seems to be a gift given to those who have prepared.  The gift of teaching enables those prepared to communicate and explain the Scripture. 

The Spirit gives the gift of exhortation.  Someone once said the goal of preaching should be to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.  The word “exhort” has that twofold thrust.  It can mean admonition, which includes the notion of warning or censure;  and it can mean encouragement, which  includes the notion of comfort or giving solace.  The gift can be exercised both publicly and privately.  In fact, the very word means “a calling near” as if you were calling someone over to speak to them  privately.  At the same time, it was used to describe a powerful address to a group.

The Spirit gives the gift of giving.   When we were in Tumut, NSW, Australia, on a Partnership Mission we met a man known in his church as “Old Peter.”  Peter was a retired opal miner.  He was extremely shy, barely speaking a word when we greeted him. As we were saying our good-byes the last night there he handed Pat a wadded up tissue.  Inside were several small stones, uncut opals.  The pastor, who told us what they were, explained that they probably had little commercial value but they did represent Peter’s affection for us.  Then he went on to tell us that Peter lived in a simple one-room apartment, that he had no car, that he never traveled.  All the money he had beyond what he needed for his simple lifestyle was given to missions.

Old Peter seems to have possessed the gift of giving.  The fact that the church has such gifted members doesn’t relieve anyone from their stewardship responsibilities but it does challenge us to appreciate how some choose to live simply in order to give more to God’s work.  Not everyone can do  without a car or put a family into a one-room apartment but some can.  The word “generously” should probably be translated as “in simplicity.”  Perhaps this  gift exists to remind us that the ongoing work of the church has probably benefited more from the gifts of the widows with two mites and the “Old Peters” than it has from the millionaire wanting to have the family name engraved on a plaque in the church.

The Spirit gives the gift of leadership.  Every congregation has leaders, some of those leaders have titles, others have no titles but people still look to them when the time comes to make decisions or to determine a course of action.  Sometimes those leaders are leaders because they’ve been around for a while, or because their check makes the loudest noise when dropped into the offering plate, or because they possess personalities which dominate others.  None of these should be confused with those leaders who possess this spiritual gift.

The one who possesses the gift of leadership is enabled by the Spirit to lead without trampling people underfoot.  This leader does not lord it over others;  instead this leader leads by example.  The words translated “govern diligently” in the NIV carry the notion of “singleness of mind” or “zeal.”  Such a leader possesses a God-given vision for the church, a vision consistent with the Biblical purpose of the church.  Such a leader enthusiastically promotes—not their own agenda—but God’s agenda.

The Spirit gives the gift of mercy.  Most commentators imagine those exercising this gift as ministering to those who are sick, aged, or disables.  While the gift of service seems to be directed to practical needs, this gift seems to be directed to emotional or spiritual needs.  Paul says this gift is to be exercised with “cheerfulness.”  To put it simply, a sick person feels better after the visit of one possessing this gift of mercy.  I can’t imagine one possessing this gift telling a sick person about all the people with this same problem who died despite the doctors’ best efforts. 

This mercy extends to those who are emotionally and spiritually beaten down.  There are many such people in every congregation.  We need those gifted in getting them back on their feet.

This is not an exhaustive list of the spiritual gifts.  Paul mentions others elsewhere and even those lists may not include all the ways the Spirit gifts people.  Paul’s discussion of gifts shows us we need a new way of thinking about ministry.

A New Way of Thinking About Ministry

The couple H. W.  talked to understood that you should get something out of being part of a church, but they still had it all wrong.  The proper understanding of the church and ministry expects us to be concerned not so much about how we might be ministered to as we are concerned about how we might minister.

Spiritual gifts are other directed.  That was what Paul took such pains to communicate to the Corinthians.  They were selfishly devoted to what made them feel good about themselves, instead of thinking about others.  To this self-centered church Paul wrote one of his most forceful letters.  He tell them there are “different kinds of service,” reminding them that the exercise of spiritual gifts should demands we be concerned about others.

At the same time, Paul reminded the Corinthians that all the gifts have value.  In fact, Christians should neither be  proud because they possess a particular gift which places them in the spotlight or be disappointed because they possess a gift which does not command as much attention.

When a church has a proper way of thinking about ministry it will encourage ministry in all its forms.

We should encourage those who minister to practical needs.  Two of the  gifts Paul allow this type of ministry:  the gift of service and the gift of giving.  Elton Trueblood once wrote that Christianity was the most materialistic  religion in the world.  By that he meant that the Christian world view recognizes the goodness of the body and the propriety of meeting our physical needs.  Unlike some practitioners of other less-worldly religions, we look at a needy person and say, “It’s just their karma.”  As a church we need to encourage those who are gifted in practical ministry.

We should encourage those whose ministry  helps keep others on the pilgrim path.  When someone strays off the path, they need a strong voice to show them their error and call them back.  When someone faces a difficult challenge on that path, they need someone with strong arms to keep them from falling.

We should encourage those whose ministry leads us to be more and do more than we imagined.  Paul’s word to those with the gift of leadership can be translated this way, “if your gift is leading, lead enthusiastically.”  That’s so needed today.  I admit it’s tempting to join those who continually tell us that the world is going to perdition in a hand basket while a compromised church is tying a ribbon on the handle. We all need those leaders who remind us of God’s faithfulness and the power of the gospel, leaders who inspire.

Such leaders not only inspire us, they keep us focused.  They help us keep our eyes on the prize.  They don’t endorse every idea that comes along but only those that are part of God’s agenda.  Yet when they’re convinced a plan is on God’s agenda, they become its cheerleaders.

We should encourage those whose ministry helps us apply God’s truth to the realities of our age.  A few years I heard a father say he was concerned about sending his son to college because of all the “hippies” there.  This was well after the sixties and seventies, during a time when many campuses were populated with those whose goal in life was not peace and love but a corner office and a fat portfolio.  We need those who can help us see how God’s word applies to our particular needs in our particular time.  We need those who are open to God-given insight into the Word and into the world.

We should  encourage those whose ministry opens God’s Word to the church.  George Barna, an insightful student of today’s church, has concluded that one of the gravest problems facing the American church is an ignorance of the very rudiments of the Christian world-view.  He believes we need to make sure our churches are teaching believers how to think Christianly.  I agree with him.

Whether the teaching comes from the pulpit or in the Sunday school class, we need to encourage teachers.  We need to stand by those gifted teachers who are struggling resist the all-too-common call to dumb-down the message to make it more acceptable.  History shows it’s the only way for the church to remain healthy.

Conclusion

The thoughtfully committed Christian will engage in a new way of thinking about himself or herself.  Such Christians will see that they are part of a community in which they have a role, a community which is a key component in their spiritual support system.

Such Christians will understand that mutual ministry is the key to that community doing the work of the Kingdom.  And such mutual ministry is possible only because each member is gifted by God’s Spirit to do God’s work in God’s way.  While the Biblical view of this mutual ministry does assure me that God has not forgotten my needs—whether spiritual, emotional, or physical—it also challenges me to look beyond God meeting my needs to the vision of God meeting needs through me.