Romans 12:14-21 Bless, Rejoice, Do Good!

Romans 12:14-21  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  Live in harmony with one another.  Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.  Do not be conceited.  Do not repay anyone evil for evil.  Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.  In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Once again we see Paul expressing the concept of God’s love to humans.  As humans we are basically at odds with the kind of love that Paul asks from us in the above focus.  Of course, we Christians believe we are made in the image of the eternal God.  We believe we will someday be with him in an eternal state.  Since we believe these things to be a reality, we must consider how we are to express God in this world of doubt and unbelief.  The New Testament clearly states that as new creatures, we are to be energized and motivated by love.  Not human love, but God’s divine unconditional love.  We should not function under our understanding of love, but under God’s eternal loving kindness and faithfulness towards others.  Human love exhibits limitations, tending to expect reciprocation, recognition, even praise for its display.  Often we expect love to bring cohesiveness, peace, and happiness.  But God’s enduring love demands none of those results.  His love is ever flowing.  His love refreshes, brings life to any environment, often to some very difficult situations, but his love does not demand anything in return.  Why?  Because God’s very nature is love.  As new creatures, we are to possess his nature.  We willingly express his love to the whole world, not just some people, but to the whole world.  Of course, when we talk like this, we are talking about perfection.  “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?  Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?  Do not even pagans do that?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  (Matthew 5:43-47)  The question that stands out in Jesus’ teaching so dramatically is, Do not even pagans do that?  Is our love easily identifiable as extreme, even nonsensical?  Does the world see us as God desires us to be seen?  Or is our love unidentifiable from everyone else’s love?  Jesus has strong words for the latter kind of love.  Man’s love is pagan, common, predictable, humanistic, having little to do with God’s everlasting love to a rebellious people.

Feigned love is not God’s love.  If we are loving only to heap coals of fire on our adversaries, we are not loving.  We are loving by law; we are loving because God requires it of us.  We are loving reluctantly, with devious intentions of getting our way eventually, knowing God will repay our adversaries for doing evil to us.  But this is not God’s love.  Jesus loved us while we were his enemies.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were sinners, Christ died for us.  (Romans 5:8)  Christ bore the cross for a rebellious people, not merely for those who willingly accept God’s authority in all things.  God is righteous.  He will eventually judge all people according to what they have done in their time of existence, but He is not a God who desires to mete out judgement.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.  Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  (2 Peter 3:9)  Judgment will occur only because people choose to reject God’s call and eternity demands perfection.  People will not be allowed to bring in the deadly cancer of sin and death into eternity.  Sin must be dealt with eventually, not because God does not love people, but because his exact rule, his perfection, demands justice.  Consequently, justice will be meted out in the future.  Every sin not covered by the blood of Jesus will have to be paid for by the penalty of death.  This final judgment does not negate God’s enduring, unquenchable love for his creation; it just reveals clearly why Jesus died for all.  He died so that we might not have to die, so that we might not have to face death because of our own sins.  A perfect God, the God of forever, demands that all imperfection and inexactness must be eliminated from our eternal dwelling place.  Therefore, we see a God of love who loved humanity so much that He was willing to send his only begotten Son to the cross for a rebellious people.  God in giving his Son did not feign love.  He gave heaven’s very best to be humiliated, brutalized, and then killed.  His love darkened the sky that day of the crucifixion, but God gave Jesus to us on the cross for our eternal destiny, to be with him forever in perfection by his mercy and grace.

How do we do the impossible: to love our enemies, to bless those who persecute us; to Iive in harmony with one another; not to repay anyone evil for evil; to be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone; to live at peace with everyone, not to take revenge against evil people?  Paul helps us find the answer to that question in Philippians 3:8-14:  But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.  I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  Paul’s desire was to know Christ in all of his power.  To know Christ, he knew he had to give up his life.  He had to surrender even the good things in his life, such as being recognized as a righteous, disciplined person, a scholar of the highest order, a person honored as a competent, zealous leader in the Jewish culture and religion.  He considered all of the accolades and praises that he had received from his fellow Jewish leaders as rubbish.  His purpose in life was not to receive the compliments of the world but to know Christ.  Paul longed to know Christ’s love, to be able to express God’s love to others.  He was pressing on to be more like Christ.  As a daily struggle, he battled his flesh for the purpose of fulfilling God’s plans in his life.  Of course, all of us have this goal in our lives.  What is the purpose of living?  For the secular world, most have a “bucket list,” what they want to do in their lives, what they want to accomplish or experience.  When they are old, they assess how meaningful their lives have been by whether they achieved the activities they desired for their personal fulfillment.  They will determine whether they had a good life or a meaningful life based on those temporal things.  However, a Christians does not assess life by the activities or experiences that they have participated in during their lives.  No, a Christian’s purpose for living is to honor God in all things.  He or she is to love in all situations so that God will be glorified.  Jesus came to honor his Father, to do his will.  We are IN JESUS so our lives should reflect Jesus who honored his Father in all circumstances.  Of course, we often fail in our flesh to honor God’s will in everything we do, but we know by faith that we are hidden IN CHRIST, so in reality, we are always honoring God one hundred percent because God loves his SON. Consequently, He loves us in the same way.  AS WITH PAUL, WE WILL PRESS ON TO WIN THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING OF BEING KNOWN AS HIS ADOPTED SONS AND DAUGHTERS IN THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD.