Romans 12:9 ESV
“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”
This kind of love is to prefer what God prefers. It is to
choose his choices. It is to prefer to live through Christ, embracing God’s
will and obeying what he commands in his power and strength. It means we are
actively doing what God wants for our lives by his power and direction. And
what he prefers is what is holy, morally pure, upright, honest, trustworthy,
and righteous.
This love must be genuine. We are not to attempt to fake it.
Many people will claim that they love God but then they refuse to obey him, and
they don’t choose his choices, but they go their own way, and they do their own
thing, and they forget God, and they forget (willfully) his commands, and they
continue in their sinful practices without conscience.
But to love God is to obey him. And to love others is to
obey God and to do his will, and it is to prefer what God prefers, because love
does no harm to another. So, genuine love will not deliberately and habitually
and premeditatedly sin against God and against other humans. So, don’t call it
love if you are habitually committing adultery via sexual idolatry and lust.
When we love with this kind of love, which comes from God,
we will not only love (prefer) what God loves (prefers), but we will also hate
what he hates. And he hates all sin, for sin is evil, and sin does not love, but
it does harm to others and to ourselves. So, we are to abhor all that is evil,
such as lying, cheating, stealing, slandering, gossiping, committing adultery
and idolatry.
And we are to hold fast (cling to, hold on to, embrace) what
is good, but good as defined by God and his word and not as defined by the
world. For the world sometimes calls what is evil good, and they call what is
good evil. So, good is whatever is right in the eyes of God. It is whatever is
for our benefit, for our well being spiritually. It is whatever God prefers.
Romans 12:10 ESV
“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”
This love is to be among people who love God and who are
following Jesus Christ with their lives, in practice, who are born into God’s
family by spiritual birth. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord. And we are
to love one another with that kind of family affection that we might have for a
brother or a sister in our blood family into which we were born by natural
birth.
So, we are to watch out for one another, care about one
another’s needs, pray for one another, and help one another when in need, etc.
We are to see ourselves as a family, and so we are to gather together regularly
and share meals with one another, and fellowship with one another in the Lord and
pray together and encourage one another in our walks of faith.
Romans 12:11 ESV
“Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.”
As followers of Jesus Christ we are to be fervent
(passionate) about serving our Lord, doing what he says, going where he sends
us, and using the spiritual gifts he has given to us for the building up of the
body of Christ and for ministering God’s love and grace to the people of this
world. We are not to get lazy and get caught up in the world and forget serving
the Lord.
For, the Lord Jesus called each one of us for a purpose. He
didn’t save us just so we could escape hell and go to heaven when we die. He
has something for each one of us to do. He has given us spiritual gifts and he
has assigned us our roles in the body of Christ. So, we need to seek his face
and find out what he wants for us to do and then do it in his power.
Romans 12:12 ESV
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
What hope do we have? If we have trusted Jesus Christ to be
Lord and Savior of our lives, and we have thus died with him to sin that we
might live to him and to his righteousness, and we are walking according to the
Spirit and no longer according to the flesh, then we have the hope of eternal
life with God, forgiveness of sins, and deliverance from slavery to sin.
We also have the hope of our God now living within us in the
person of the Holy Spirit, and we have his strength, his power, his wisdom, and
his guidance in serving him, and in loving him, and in loving other humans, and
in walking in obedience to his commands, and in maturing in our walks of faith.
He gives us all we need to live godly and holy lives pleasing to him.
He also gives us courage, strength, peace, and wisdom in
trials and in tribulations. He helps us to know how to respond, what to do, and
what to say. And he gives us the faith to endure. But we have to put all these
things into practice in our daily lives. We have to put them on like spiritual
armor. And we have to resist the devil whose aim it is to defeat us in battle.
Prayer is not just something we do before we eat a meal. It
is not something we just do during a time of devotions. Prayer is open
communication with God 24/7 to where we can talk with him and listen to him
speaking to our hearts all throughout the day and night. For our relationship
with him and our communications with him must always be two-way, not just
one-way.
Romans 12:13 ESV
“Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”
This goes back to loving one another with a brotherly or
sisterly affection, like we are all family. Now this is not talking about
meeting people’s wants, but their needs, and needs are necessities (essentials),
not luxuries. This is not saying that we can’t go above and beyond if God so
leads and if God provides. We can be generous. But needs are essentials.
Also, we should exercise wisdom in determining what are true
needs, also, for there are many people out there who are users who take
advantage of the generosity of others, and who abuse that generosity. Some of
them are professionals at manipulating and deceiving others. Thus, they prey on
the naïve and vulnerable who have compassionate hearts.
For example, some people may say they need money for
something that is a necessity, but then you might learn that they are wasting
money on things that are not necessities, but that are luxuries, which is why
they don’t have the money they need to pay their bills. So, the compassionate
thing to do would be to help them with money management if they are willing.
There is that saying about fish: “It is better to teach
people how to do something themselves than to just do it for them. This
expression is just part of the full proverb, ‘If you give a man a fish, he eats
for a day; If you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.’”
(writingsexplained.org)
So, be discerning. Be wise. Pray for wisdom and guidance in
what to give and how much and to whom, because you want to end up doing what is
for the good of others and it may not be for their good to just receive
handouts when they may be able to do something to earn that money or to learn
how better to manage their money. You might also end up feeding their sinful
habits and could actually cause them harm, too, if you are not wise.
Lastly, we are to show hospitality to one another, which has
been a little difficult these past two years with the pandemic and with the
measures being taken by people in authority in connection with that pandemic.
But as we are able, we should have people into our homes for meals, and if we
and they are believers in Jesus, then it should be for Christian fellowship, too.
by Andrew Lloyd
Webber
No more talk of
darkness,
Forget these
wide-eyed fears;
I'm here, nothing
can harm you,
My words will warm and
calm you.
Let me be your
freedom,
Let daylight dry
your tears;
I'm here, with you,
beside you,
To guard you and to
guide you.
Let me be your
shelter,
Let me be your
light…
Love me, that's all
I ask of you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uahlf4fo3iQ
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The above lyrics are
taken from a secular song, “All I Ask of You,” but these quoted lyrics express
God’s words to us, that we would let him be our freedom, that we would let him
shelter us and be our light, and that we would find our hope, and our peace and
safety in him and not in the things of this dark world. All he asks of us is
that we love him, which means we submit to him as Lord, and we obey his
commands.
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