Monday, March 13, 2023

Romans 12:11-13

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11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. ~ Romans 12:11-13

Today, we return to our study of Romans 12 which is a part of the broader subject matter that the Apostle Paul is presenting in this section which is what a servant looks like in Romans 12-16. Today's passage accentuates certain qualities that must be present in our lives in order for us to be effective servants for God

In v.11 of today's passage we read, "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." 

Spiritual fervor is evidence of faith that is alive and it is discovered along the pathway of the servant. This kind of passion is the product of our daily encounter with the God of grace for it is grace that arrests us to the point of our greatest desire. The commitment of an arrested servant of the Lord is contagious, lifting the faith of other believers by simply being defined by what the Lord says. Like a match stick ignites a fuse of dynamite, so someone’s spiritual spark can enflame an entire community for Christ. Spiritual fervor burns brightly in our service to God! 

When we were first entered into a personal relationship with God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we began to learn about  this newfound faith at a rapid pace. But, there came the time when our excitement in the Lord waned. This waning of our passion for God is a dangerous pathway to consider. We must do all we can to avoid it. One of the most noticeable marks of a Christian walking in the Spirit is that he retains joy, no matter what is happening in his life. We are the best servants when we remember that the foundation of Christianity is God’s faithfulness, not ours.

The Apostles point in this verse is: "Do not be lazy in zeal." The point is: "Don't lose your zeal while hurrying." The issue here is losing sight of the grace of God. Two times in the New Testament, in Galatians 6:9, and in 2 Thessalonians 3:13 we are commanded to, "Be not weary in well-doing." Same idea as is here in this verse. There has to be intensity in our Christian lives  because the opportunities are alluding us. In Ephesians 5, the Apostle puts it this way, "We are to redeem the time, to buy it up because the days are evil." And, as the Apostle Paul demonstrated way back in Romans 3:21-8:39, it is the grace of God that which produces the greatest desire within us to be God's servants. We must keep His grace in view.

In v.12 of today's passage we read, "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." 

The way to rejoice in hope is explained by the two others things mentioned here. We can rejoice in hope because we are patient in affliction, and we are patient in affliction because we have been faithful in prayer. This process is what makes us patient. So, whether we are encountering trials or things seem to be going peacefully, we must make it our practice to run to God daily.  

In order for a fire to remain lit, we must have oxygen and fuel. In the same way, in order for our spiritual lives to remain lit, we need the breath of the Spirit upon our lives and the honed practice of being faithful in prayer. When we are faithful in prayer, we will be able to be patient in affliction. We won't quit in the middle of the battle because we have learned to quietly wait for God to accomplish what He has promised. This, of course, makes us rejoice in hope because we discover that God has a thousand and one different ways of working things out, ways that we could never even imagine. 

In v.13 of today's passage we read, "Share with the Lord's people who are in need. Practice hospitality." 

When the love of God has come to define us, we will have a heart that is large and we will have hands that are open. The word "share," is the verb form of the noun "fellowship." Share is the verb form of koinonia, and it means "sharing with in order to meet the needs of the family." 

To "practice hospitality" is to have our homes open in order to manifest the impact that God's love has made upon us. Hospitality literally means "brotherly love guest" or "loving the strangers." When our hope is fixed on the Lord and we are enduring affliction in prayer, we will have a heart for the stranger. As Mike Yaconelli once said, "Christianity is home for people who are out of step, unfashionable, unconventional and counter-cultural." This is the way of the Lord Jesus.