Living in Love

Could we turn to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Let's read verse 1. I beseech you therefore brethren by or through the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.

Verse 9. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil. Cleave to that which is good.

Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another. Not slothful in business or in diligence not slothful. Fervent in spirit serving the Lord.

Rejoicing in hope patient and tribulation continuing instant in prayer. Now the chapter ends by saying be not overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. Now what I have in mind seems to follow very closely with what both of our brethren have looked at already this morning.

When you think of the Lord Jesus and the beauty of his life he fully and accurately displayed the character of God. He has accomplished his work of glorifying God in the earth but as we come to this point in the epistle to the Romans we discover that God is now calling upon us to relinquish the rights to our own life relinquish the control to our own lives and to present ourselves as vessels to be used for his glory and so I would have to confess that for a long time whenever I preached on Romans 12 it was always either the first two verses or the first eight verses and I never got past that part of the book of Romans chapter 12 but in the last few years as I have been meditating through these passages again it has struck me just how completely relevant these following verses are to this idea that if I am going to devote myself to God as the reasonable response to the mercy that he has poured out upon me delivering me from judgment bringing me to himself so that I am his and for his glory forever. The end of chapter 11 talks about that all things are of him and through him and to him.

I really wonder if we could soberly assess our present lives and say how much of my present Christian life is actually of God lived out through his power and unto him bringing recompense of glory, honor, praise, acknowledgement of God. Well chapter 12 really tells us how to do it. The first part of the chapter emphasizes our spiritual gifts ways in which God has entrusted abilities through which we would serve one another and through serving one another fulfilling the will of God but when we come to verse 9 in distinction from the differing gifts of the of the verses before verse 9 down to the end of the chapter comes to each one of us equally.

This is upon every one of us and so it starts out then let love be without dissimulation or without hypocrisy. Now if you've ever gone through the lists of virtues in the New Testament you will find out that love is either at the foundation of the list or it is the capstone of the list and this really is derived from the fundamental reality that God himself is love. As the Apostle John says, love is of God because God is love.

So when you get an expression like that you are really looking at the essence of what God is. God is love. So if then if we are to express the character and nature of God, excuse me I'm getting froggy, this nature of God that is to be reflected in our lives it has to start with love.

If we fail in love we are failing in the very essence of spiritual life, the very core of what we are intended to represent to others, what we are to reflect. And so it should follow then that the protection of this love that he has placed within us should be the priority in our lives. Above all things, Peter says, have fervent love among yourselves.

Above all things. So this isn't peripheral. It isn't just that it's nice to love each other.

If you fail to love one another you have failed and you have failed absolutely no matter what else you may cling to as representing the nature and character of God. Similarly, Peter says in 1st Peter chapter 1 that we through the Spirit we have obeyed the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren. So the very new birth when we accepted the gospel we were born into this kind of life, an unhypocritical love of the brethren.

So then he says see that you love one another out of a pure heart fervently. And so we see here in this passage very parallel ideas. Now I'm going to point out that there's a whole series of exhortations that follow this first clause.

Some of them are indicated in the English translation as they would be from the original and some are not. But nearly all of these following exhortations are what are called participial clauses. They are verbs that end in ING.

And so if I were to give verse 9 literally it would be let love be without dissimulation or hypocrisy abhorring that which is evil, cleaving to that which is good. So that brings a tighter connection of that first thought with the following thoughts. So if I am going to protect, preserve the love that God has given to me in bringing me into salvation, the very first line of defense is do not become a pretender.

Now much of what you've already heard this morning from the from Proverbs is really hammering on the same truth, the same reality. We could not begin to practice sin without crossing a line from sincerity to insincerity, from truth into falsehood. Every sin has a lie in it, has a falsehood in it.

It is not true to moral reality. And so whenever we go into that pathway of evil, we cross over this boundary from genuineness, truth, sincerity into deception. Now I remember a dear older preacher from our part of the world, Mr. Arnold Adams, who had a lot of quaint sayings, and there's one, a number of them that I have quoted over and over again, and one relates to this passage where he said that hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.

Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue. Now in our world today, there is a tremendous effort to deny the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil. And so they will let you be married if you want, if that's your choice of life, but there's a whole lot of other choices of lifestyle that are to be equally honored, sought out, pursued, and no one's to say a whimper against it.

God places a distinct difference. And now while there are, there is an increasing tendency in the world to be bold in their sin, it is still instinctive for a person who begins to practice some kind of wickedness to try to keep it covered. And the very fact that you keep it hidden, or you have to do it secretly, betrays itself, that it belongs to evil.

Virtue attracts honor to itself. Virtue is anything that is noble, anything that is honorable, anything that is honest, anything that is genuine and sincere, that is loving, kind, and faithful, and righteous. You don't have to be embarrassed if somebody sees you doing something good, doing something righteous.

But sin, we instinctively try to cover for it so that we don't experience what vice draws to itself. And so that is why he says, let love be without any pretense, without this distortion that begins to happen. And there are many, many evils that would never be able to gain traction in our lives if we didn't begin this process of pretending, of covering up to do it.

And so he is saying here, live totally transparent. There's an expression from the Old Testament that I think we need to revive, we need to recover it. It's called the fear of the Lord.

And that idea of the fear of the Lord is to live in the awareness of God. Live in the awareness of God present. Because I think we could follow this logically through.

If I was genuinely aware of the presence of God with me, I should not be able to sin. I should not be able to fantasize wickedness. I should not be able to let my mind dwell on something immoral, something unrighteous, something that is dishonorable, let alone practice it in my life.

The fear of the Lord. So this is the first line of defense. Live in the light of God's presence.

And then live with this refusal to let yourself step into those shadows where you begin to live a cover-up, a double life of pretense. And then linking with that are these two following statements. Abhor, or literally abhorring that which is evil, cleaving to that which is good.

Now the word abhor has the word hate in it, and it has the word from in it, and it suggests this idea of shrinking back from something. And so this is calling us not just to abstain from whatever is evil, but to have an abhorrence for it. To shrink back from it because we detest it.

And I believe very, very strongly that our world has been extremely successful in desensitizing us to evil. And you have heard mention of the influence of technology in our world today. That has accelerated in the last few years, where people can live in a virtual world.

And it's just so easy to just go into that virtual world, and you're in another world. The world of imagination, the world of play-acting, the world of fantasy. And tragically, Satan has made use of all that is so able to allow us to drift into this realm, to promote, to permeate our culture with what is defiling, destructive, damaging, to make us so corrupted that God cannot use us.

So we need to learn again to abhor what is evil. I remember a time when if someone left their partner in life and started running around with somebody else, it was just totally scandalous. People couldn't stop talking about it in such shock.

Today, it doesn't raise an eyebrow. And it doesn't matter what kind of relationship they've gone into. We're supposed to suppress any, any expression of discomfort with it or of contempt for it.

Not too long ago, I was helping another sister in the assembly who was looking for a property. So she wanted me to come along and look at this house that she was thinking of. And the real estate agent was chatting away and talking about different things and so on.

And he happened to live just next door to this house, so he knew quite a bit about the area. And then he just casually mentioned something about his husband. And I consciously caught myself trying to restrain my reaction.

And from that moment on, to try to speak to him in a normal, respectful way. The sister had already basically made the deal or she probably would have chosen another agent. But it is just this reality that we are confronted with today.

It's in our face. It is so blatantly there in front of us. But we are to abhor, abhor what is corrupted, what is defiling.

Now, the word evil that is used here emphasizes the harm it brings. Not just that it's wicked, but the damage that it causes. And this is what has been denied so strenuously in our culture of the breakdown of marriage relationships.

Going into serial relationships, revolving door relationships. And the children who are left to adjust and to adjust and to cope. There is a denial.

A denial of the damage, of the consequences. And yet the consequences are becoming so self-evident today. Ultimately, people are incapable of having a pure and faithful relationship because they have become so distorted in their desires, in their relationships.

That is what Satan wants to do to us. And so he says, abhorring that which is damaging, destructive, defiling, destroying. And then he says, cleave or cleaving to that which is good.

Now, it's very interesting that both of these terms, abhorring and cleaving, are very, very strong relationship terms. And this word cleave or cleaving is the word that is used of marriage. What God has joined together.

What God has united together. It literally means to glue. And you know when you glue something together, it's not something that you are putting together and taking apart over and over again.

You glue it because it's to be permanent. And we are to be united, glued to what is good. We're to cling to it.

We're not to allow ourselves to be dragged away, broken away, from what is good. And we have been hearing, by way of contrast with Proverbs chapter 6, we have been hearing of the purity, the absolute genuineness of the goodness of our Lord Jesus. And he has blessed your life.

He has blessed my life with an influence that is always healthy, wholesome, health-giving. It brings us peace, brings us joy. It is the outflow of what love really is.

And so that is what we are to keep, maintain, guard. Let your love. What is love being talked about here? It's not just the emotion, the idea of the feeling, the emotion of love is brought out in the next expressions, but this is really the attitude we take of seeking the well-being, the blessing of another person.

So in other words, my interest in you should never bring harm, damage, destructiveness into your life. So let us guard our love. Then you notice verse 10 says, be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honor, preferring one another.

Now there's another translation. This is the Darby translation, which I haven't really looked at for a long time, but I jotted in my notes from some years ago. And I'm just going to give you the Darby translation as to brotherly love, kindly affectioned towards one another as to honor each taking the lead in paying it to the other.

So if you see that, that construction of these clauses as well, it's linking it again, right back to this love. Let your love be genuine as to brotherly love, kindly affectioned one to another. I have been impressed by this more and more as I live among the Lord's people and move among different assemblies.

This is often one of the, of the ways in which we fail and it, and it can happen in a crisis when we have conflict with somebody. I'm sure we've all had this happen where some conflict has, has sparked. And we say things that we may, maybe wouldn't have said under other circumstances.

And we get over what we said to them, but we don't get over what they said to us. Isn't that the way it is? Very often the relationship is never the same again. Once we have uttered words of harshness, of resentment, of anger, bitterness, and so on, how essential it is for us to honor one another, acknowledge the relationship that we are in.

Acknowledge one another as brothers and sisters in the Lord. And to have that loyalty, the family loyalty, that's being emphasized here. Acknowledge you belong in the same family.

Do not be harsh. Do not be cruel. Be compassionate.

Be kind. Be kindly affectioned. Have a loving loyalty to one another.

And if you have to speak to one another and reprove something, remember what is said in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Even after two or three reproofs through the first and second epistle, he says, if someone doesn't respond to this, have no company with them. Yet, do not treat him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. So there's still to be that recognition of what belongs to that family relationship.

And then it says, in honor, preferring one another. And this is a very severe test of love, actually. What it really is emphasizing is that if I love you in genuineness, I will be more eager to see you honored than me honored.

I will put you ahead of myself in desiring to honor you. Now, it should be obvious, and if you have trouble thinking about this, just think about somebody you really love. Somebody you really strongly love.

And what do you feel like when you hear something good about them? You hear something honorable about them. It delights you. You're happy.

You're happy that they're making progress. You're happy that they've succeeded in something. And you would delight to say something good about them that would honor them.

And so love promotes honor in the one that he or she loves. And love also seeks to protect the honor of the person that he or she loves. Now, I want to just take the time to look at the next verse, which seems like an odd verse.

And you might wonder, what does this have to do with love? Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Well, I'm going to try as quickly as I can to cover a few verses from the Proverbs that talk about slothfulness. Now, some of you probably could just take a nap right now because you don't have a lazy bone in your body.

And you might be more distracted in your spiritual life by being too, you know, too involved in everything else, burning the candle at both ends and all those kinds of things. But there are some of us who have a problem with motivation. Some of us who have a problem, to put it bluntly, with laziness.

And it's very easy to settle back and not get things done. And what this verse in its context relating to love is that through slothfulness, I can cause as much harm as deliberate evil. Now, let me shock you.

But I'm going to give you a few verses from the Proverbs. It says in Proverbs 12 and 24, the hand of the diligent shall bear rule, but the slothful shall be under tribute. And I want to just suggest to you the impact of this verse by way of its contrast, to be fervent, to be serving the Lord is simply this.

A diligent person, a person who is disciplined, consistent, faithful in day-to-day pattern of life, will gradually develop in their character, in their abilities, and they will be fitted to manage greater things. Someone who is diligent, someone who keeps studying, someone who keeps doing the homework, someone who keeps working on it, they'll pass the exam. They will make progress in life.

Whereas someone who just takes it easy, that gradual accumulating effect, whether for good through diligence or through harm through slothfulness, will create a tremendous contrast in a few months, in a few years, in a lifetime. Verse 27 of Proverbs 12 says, the slothful man roasts not that which he took in hunting, but the substance of a diligent man is precious. So the emphasis I want you to think about here is this.

God has blessed you. He has blessed you with salvation. He has blessed you with his word.

He has blessed you with fellowship among believers. He has blessed you with opportunities. It's entrusted into your hands to what you do with them day by day by day.

And so there will be an accumulating effect of either the diligent response to what God has blessed us with, or the slothful who just wastes and wastes and wastes the time and opportunity that is given to us. Proverbs 15 and 19 says, the way of the slothful man is as an hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain. Not only is it a contrast to a diligent person, he puts it in contrast to a righteous person, not because he ever intended to harm somebody, but by simple neglect of not doing what is good, what is caring, what is a blessing.

And so whether it is the farm, and I'm going to you a picture of the farm of the slothful here. I'll just read it to you right now. Proverbs 24 verses 30 to 34.

I went by the field of the slothful, by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and lo it was all grown over with thorns. Nettles had covered the face thereof, the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw and considered it well.

I looked upon it and received instruction, yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth and I want as an armed man. Now I've known a few farms, I grew up on a farming environment and I've watched a few neighbor farms who fit this description and the tragedy is that while they would never go out and destroy their own property deliberately, they have let it be destroyed by neglect. So I just have to leave you with this challenge.

Does this describe your life? Not that you have desired or intended to deliberately disobey God, to rebel against his principles, but you've just neglected to fulfill what you ought to do. The outcome can be just as damaging and just as against the love that he has put within us.