Love Like a King

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Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.  Romans 12:21(NLT)

There is a hinge that holds Romans 11 and 12 together.  In Romans 1-11, you read all about God’s gracious sacrifice of grace for our sins.  The great divide between grace and duty begins with the hinge that connects chapter 12.  Paul tells us that, as a response to all that grace he described in chapters 1-11, we are to offer our lives to Him in service.

And when that is so in the life of a believer, what happens to us is similar to the life of a caterpillar as he changes to a butterfly in a cocoon.  God uses His grace to transform a believer into a different strain of the human species – a child of God, born from above, living a life of sacrifice – in His name. 

The practical conclusion about that change is that our theology – what we know about God – must determine and drive the actions of our everyday lives.  We follow Jesus, not the world’s fads, customs and behaviors; otherwise…. why bother?

The twelfth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Roman believers is all about relationships, not just how we treat one another, but how we act and work together, so we can serve as God’s ambassadors to the world. 

The “relationship” is described in one, Biblical word…agape’, the God-kind of love!  This morning we look at two very important truths about how to live in that love.

Genuine (in relationships)

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.    Romans 12:9 (NLT)

To be genuine in relationships is the foundation of Christian living.  If there was ever a character trait which does not conform to this world’s ways, it is truthfulness. 

A little girl had developed a bad habit; she was always lying.  She was given a St. Bernard dog for her birthday, she went out and told all the neighbors that she had been given a lion.  The mother took her aside and said, “I told you not to lie.  You go upstairs and tell God you are sorry; promise God you will not lie again.” 

The little girl went upstairs, said her prayers, and then came down again.  Her mother asked, “Did you tell God you are sorry?”  The little girl replied, “Yes, I did.  And God said sometimes He finds it hard to tell my dog from a lion, too.”^[2] 

A Christ-follower who has submitted his/her body as a living, holy sacrifice, and is transformed by God’s grace is genuine; being false in relationships in any form is a form of lying.  God hates it because it destroys relationships.

Gracious (to all people)

Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.   Romans 12:10 (NLT) 

There is a tendency to tear-down one another today, especially in American culture.  The old word “gossip” is generally thought of as being a “behind the scenes” or “behind the back activity”. 

It isn’t even that quiet these days!  Today even the ugly attitudes and rudeness of anger and careless words are flung around like cow dung in a pasture.  The Scottish preacher Alexander MacLaren once wrote:  Ugly Christianity is not Christ's Christianity.

Gossip is the opposite of gracious.  You cannot take delight in honoring anyone if you’re willing to gossip about him or her. 

A gossip separates the closest of friends.  Proverbs 16:28b(GWT)

There’s no room in any theology connected with Jesus Christ that includes in-your-face attitudes, or rudeness.  In our relationships we must be gracious towards one another.

There is an apocryphal story of Abraham that tells of a traveling stranger.  Abraham saw the old man coming along the way, very weary, and his feet bleeding.  With true hospitality he invited the old man to share his meal and to lodge with him for the night.  When Abraham noticed he asked no blessing on the meal, he enquired why, and the man said, "I am a fire worshipper and acknowledge no other god."  At this Abraham grew angry and sent him from his tent.  Soon after, God called to Abraham and asked, "Where is the old man I sent to you?"  Abraham told God he'd sent the infidel away.  The Lord answered in reply, "I have cared for him for over a hundred years, even though he has dishonored me.  Could you not endure him one night and so prove to him God's love?" 

Servanthood is not popular these days.  However, Jesus never claimed that following Him would make us popular on this earth. 

He DID say that our reward in HEAVEN would be great!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Let the church say “Amen”!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Illustrations Unlimited© 1988 by James S. Hewett. All Rights Reserved.

Living in Twilight

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

“I advise you, O daughter, not to fret about your parents in your homeland far away.  Your royal husband delights in your beauty. Reverence him, for he is your lord.  Psalms 45:10-11 (TLB)

Ancient kings had a son or daughter marry the offspring of other kings largely to cement treaties between two rulers; not much romance in that, eh?  In this Psalm the Israelite king is offering advice to a foreign girl brought in to marry the prince.  His advice runs simple – cut the ties, your umbilical cord to the family of your birth; you now have a life here.  Throw your whole life into loving your husband-Prince; you won’t regret it!

Some would call this “spiritualizing the text,” but I don’t believe it’s a far leap to compare the bride of Psalm 45 with the church, the Bride of Christ ^{(Revelation 21:9)}.  And, to draw-out the comparison, God, the king is telling me, part of the church, to love, serve and honor Jesus the Prince.  Jesus reinforced this when he declared that following him must be so passionate that, your love and devotion to Christ would be so strong that your relationships with all other people look like you hate them ^{(Luke 14:26)}.

There are a couple of questions I hear, read and see worked out in real time today:

Is the church on the way out?  And if so, why?

There are no short or easy answers to these questions; there are only opinions. 

A growing segment of our culture says “Yes, the church, particularly as an institution, is on the way out…because the church is irrelevant and won’t see things the way they are.”  I have a knee-jerk to that kind of thinking which snorts-back:  The church (bride of Christ) sees things the way they ARE, and prays for the way things SHOULD BE.

But reality speaks louder still; a spiritually-anemic church has still-weaker prayers!

Or worse; a spiritually-anemic church has no prayer-life at all.  And so, we live in twilight, the end of the day; the sun is setting and we bask in the fading light of what used to be, while the encroaching darkness begins to take hold.

Nineteenth century Baptist theologian, Alexander MacLaren wrote:

There are many Christian people that have only religion enough to make them uncomfortable, only enough to make religion to them a system of regulations, negative and positive, the reasonableness and sweetness of which they but partially apprehend.  They must not do this because it is forbidden; they ought to do that because it is commanded.  They would much rather do the forbidden thing, and they have no wish to do the commanded thing, and so they live in twilight, and when they come beside a man who really has been walking in the light of Christ’s face, the language of his experience, though it be but a transcript of facts, sounds to them all unreal and fanatical….A languid Church breeds unbelief as surely as a decaying oak does fungus.[1]

What a picture – a languid (anemic, sickly, worldly) church, living in its self-created twilight, the very image of death.  Where did today’s culture get the idea the church is dying?  

Hmmmmmmmmm.

So…is the church done?  Is there no hope?

My short answer – done?  Maybe. 

Second short answer – Hope?  If we’re living in twilight, created by our lack of passion for Christ, but rather loving the old life we should have left behind:  political influence, stature, respect…the appearance of being right, and not enough commitment to do right….

Well…this leads to two more conclusions:

          1.      There’s no hope if we won’t turn to Christ and leave the old world behind.

          2.      There’s always hope for those who turn to Christ in faith and total trust, with commitment to leave the old life behind.  Always!

Today…for you

It’s Lent – what did you expect?  

Time to put off the old garments; let Christ build that “new creation” in you.

Title Photo:  http://onebigphoto.com/sun-dusk-at-great-ice-fall/

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[1] MacLaren, Alexander, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Old Testament, © 2006, Parsons Technology, Inc.