Let Love Be Sincere

Romans 12:9-21

Introduction

As young people are returning to school, my mind is drawn to my experience of attending university for my undergraduate degree. I really had no idea what I wanted to study but I applied for history. At the very last minute, perhaps thirty-five years ago this week, I switched to a business degree. Was that the right decision? I never went into a business career but it was generally a good experience. To be honest, I do not remember much of the content of the lectures I attended. In fact, there is only one lesson that readily comes to mind, one that you have also likely encountered. It’s the KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid. You can see how this might fit with business. A company might have an excellent product but if they initiate an overly complex marketing campaign that the audience will have to work at to understand, then they are likely not to sell their product. One of the most successful marketing campaigns was Wendy’s. Do you remember back in the 1980s, the lady who would ask “Where’s the beef?” Not only were the commercials entertaining, but they had a simple message. The reason people eat hamburgers is because of the meat. Wendy’s with their square patties had more meat than their competitors and so hamburger lovers should eat at Wendy’s. Simple. And it worked.

Now you might be wondering what this has to do with the Bible or church. Let me ask you these two questions: What does it mean to be a Christian and what does it mean to be the church? If we listed everything that was relevant to those two things, we would come up with some very complex responses. When I was a seeker, the people who were witnessing to me gave me all sorts of lists of things that had to be done and things that could not be done. It was incredibly complex and looking back at those conversations, much of what they insisted was not biblical. I remember thinking that even if they were correct in their claims, Christianity was so complicated that I could never do it. It was only when I encountered Matthew 22:37-39 that I had any hope to become a Christian.

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

That was a simple message that I could understand, and while difficult to achieve fully, it was a goal I could aim at. This is true for individual Christians, it is equally true of the life of the church. Imagine we hired a consultant and they handed us a big binder of all the programs and ministries that a healthy and successful church should have. We would probably feel pretty overwhelmed and even discouraged about our ability to fulfil such a complicated vision. 

But what if it was simple? What if as a church, the point was not to count up our programs, but was something else?

Paul’s letter to the Romans is one of the most theologically rich texts in the Bible. It actually takes a lot of work to work through what Paul is saying. It can be overwhelming. But when we get to Romans 12, Paul simplifies things for us. He gives us the bottom line of what is expected of us as Christians and the church. And like Jesus, Paul boils it all down to love. The question is, who are we supposed to love? Most people agree that love is important, but disagree when it comes to who is included. That’s what we are going to look at.

Loving God

As Paul explores the way of love, he makes this statement: “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” What Paul is talking about is love for God. But that can be kind of challenging. I don’t mean that God is undeserving of our love but our relationship with God is not a traditional relationship. First of all, God is invisible and we have never met him face-to-face. We can say that we meet God in worship and in the Bible, and that is true, but that is very different from typical relationships. The other major difference is that God is a very different kind of being from us. We are not equals. I have an aquarium full of fish in our office. I have always enjoyed having fish, but I would not describe our relationship as love. So what does loving God look like?

If someone came up to us and asked how they were to become a Christian, we might say that they must love God. The problem is that you can’t just manufacture a feeling. However biblical love is not about feeling but love in action. The focus that Paul offers is to serve the Lord. There are many ways for us to serve the Lord, but one of the most important ways we do that is by loving people. That is the focus of the rest of what Paul has to say here. But the key point here is that you cannot separate love for God and love for people. According to the Bible, they are not really two different subjects. When we love people, we are actually loving God.

Loving the Church

So we are to love people. That’s not very controversial. But where do we start? Paul starts with this: “Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” The Lord’s people are the church. Not just our particular congregation but all those who follow Jesus. A number of years ago I noticed the emphasis in the New Testament on demonstrating love especially within the church. I had been taught that our emphasis should be on people outside of the church, because that can be used to grow the church and attract new members. And there is a role for that but it actually has to start within the family of faith. There is a problem if we are trying to show life to those outside the church if we cannot show love inside the church. Again this is meant to be love in action. It is about having a relationship in which we can know that there is a need and that we do what is needed to meet those needs. It is also about hospitality. Hospitality includes but is not limited to inviting a friend over for lunch. It is about opening your home to others. I truly believe that a church that emphasizes this within the congregation becomes very attractive to those outside the congregation because this is what people long for.

Loving Our Enemies

Again, loving one’s community is not an overly radical idea. It may be difficult to do consistently in practice but we can at least agree in principle. Where things do get radical is when we are taught to love our enemies. Paul does here what Jesus does in the Sermon on the Mount in terms of telling us to love our enemies. Loving our enemies is the last thing we want to do. We want to hate them and we want to punish them. I remember going to my junior high school reunion and the bully who picked on me was there. He was now about a foot shorter than me and I really wanted him to pick a fight. While nothing happened, I had a sense of satisfaction.

Asking us to love our enemies is a lot. But then we have to remember that we are not talking about feelings. If you have been abused by someone, I am not saying that you must feel a sense of affection toward them nor must you put yourself in danger by being around them. Basically what is being said is for us to ask what we would do if the fate of our enemy was placed in our hands. If you could either make their life better or make their life worse, what would you do? Paul spends more time on this kind of love because he knows this is much harder than the other kinds of love. It is not easy and it takes a lot of effort but it is worth doing.

Conclusion

What does it look like to be a Christian? What does it look like to be the Church? The answer is simple but simple does not mean easy. The answer to both questions is love. Love for God. Love for the Church. Love for enemies. Other things will scream loudly for attention but we should never lose sight of love as our guiding principle. Do not get distracted. Keep it simple saints. Dedicate your lives to love. Focus the work of the church on love. Our measure of success will not be our number of programs or how full our pews are. The measure will be how much we loved.