Today, we return to our study of the practical portion of the book of Romans. Everything in the last section of Romans, Romans 12-16, is predicated upon the first command in Romans 12:1, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice."
In v.9 of today's passage we read, "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good."
The starting point of the Christian experience is love. The Lord Jesus, in John 13, said to His disciples, "You are to love one another and, by this, shall all men know that you are My disciples.” Love is the supreme reality, while sin is the supreme unreality. And, when we have come to the end of the self life, we come to the beginning of real love. God is love, and, one expression of God's love is His grace. Grace is love that seeks us out when we have nothing to give in return. Grace is being loved when we are unlovable.
The word "sincere" literally means "without hypocrisy" or "without wax." This concept came from a practice of the early Roman merchants who set their clay jars out for sale. If a crack appeared in one of the clay pots, the merchant would fill it with wax the same color as the jar, so a buyer would not be aware that it was cracked. Insightful buyers learned to hold these jars out in the sun, and if the jar was cracked, the wax would melt and the crack would be revealed. The honest merchants would test their wares this way and mark them "sincere" or "without wax."
Once experienced for ourselves, God's sincere and authentic love enables the believer in Christ to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. This is a restatement of what the Apostle wrote in Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the word." Only when the believer in Christ has experienced God's love for himself is he positioned to love like this. It was J.I. Packer who once said, "There is tremendous relief in knowing that God’s love for me is utterly realistic—based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst of me—so that no discovery now can disillusion God the way I am so often disillusioned about myself."
The evil the Apostle Paul writes about here is anything that is defined differently than the definition that God has given us. The "good" is the definition that God has given. We are to hate the sin but love the sinner. When the world sees a church made up of people who are not afraid of blemishes, they will be naturally drawn to it. Our blemishes only point to the unblemished character of the Lord Jesus.
When many look at the Church they see impostors. They see people who have not experienced the brokenness needed to come into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. As a result, they conclude that the Lord Jesus is an impostor. But when they see followers of Jesus who are real, they see a Jesus who is real. Christianity is not us becoming stronger, it is us becoming more aware of our weakness and incompetence. Of course, this positions us to really get to know the lover of our souls. And, as we get to know His love, it radically changes how we view ourselves and others. It changes how we operate within community.
In v.10 of today's passage we read, "Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves."
The word "devoted" is a contraction of two Greek words one which means brotherly love and the other, family love. This word literally means to display deep affection, and concern, particularly to a family member. Paul is telling us to love even if the only thing we have in common is the DNA of our Heavenly Father. He is saying, "Love like you're part of the same family."
Then he says, "Honor one another above yourselves." Honor is an important concept in the scriptures; We are told to honor our father and mother. Honor means to estimate with value, and show appreciation. The command, therefore, is that we would show genuine appreciation and admiration for others. And, again, we are told to put self in the rear view mirror as we honor others more than ourselves. The point is that we would regard one another as valuable, that we would see the worth of one another and never consider another as valueless. The way to get here is to find our own value in the cross of the Lord Jesus. There is no greater love than to lay down your life for your friends.
