Rom. 12:9-21 Devoting Yourself To The Success Of Someone Else

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So we are continuing this passage in Romans chapter 12, verses 9 to 21, where Paul is describing how a Christian lives his life before the world in the presence of the mercy of God, as a result of the mercy of God. We present ourselves before him for service, either in the church or the community or in our family. And in that presenting of ourselves, we evaluate our gifts, and perhaps the church helps us to evaluate our gifts, so we determine how we can best serve. And I want you to notice now something that is enormously significant. This passage says, does not present an image of militant Christians, not even of political Christians who try to change the state of the world by politics. I’m not saying that politics may not be appropriate at certain times for Christians who take that vocation. But the salvation of the world, the spread of the gospel, does not come about politically, nor does it come about militantly. It comes about by serving the world. These passages are phenomenal in that way. Think of it, if Christianity had started off as a militant organization trying to overcome Rome, trying to break through the barriers of resistance by force, what would have happened? Well, I can tell you, the Christian faith would have perished very quickly in a matter of a decade or so. We would have heard nothing. But what surprised and shocked the world in those Roman days, that Christians were those weird people who went around doing good. They did good to their communities. They did good to one another. They were not only good, but they didn’t defend themselves when attacked, when charged. You remember the phrase, I’ve forgotten where it comes from, or rather the sentence, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. What happened in those early days was that the various Caesars began to persecute the Christians, and the Christians did not fight back the majority. They surrendered their lives. They submitted to evil. They prayed while they were persecuted. They prayed. They learned to sing even while they were in the Colosseum and the lions were devouring them. They were trained to do this. They were trained to not retaliate with evil for evil. The result is that the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. The church spread because people could not understand how these Christians would live such lives where they did not count their lives something to be held on to, but to let go of those lives. And as a result of that, the church spread throughout the world. This is what we are seeing here, and we need to recognize it again as our mission and our calling. We serve the world. We go out there and serve the world because God has had mercy upon us. And Jesus has taught us that we are to surrender ourselves to the powers of evil when those evils come upon us. I know it’s something that is just very despicable for many Christians, this idea. It is something so objectionable. It offends our sense of rights. But we, as Christians, let go of our rights. We give a place to others, as it says here. In the verse 20, it says, What does that mean? It means when you give an enemy, when you do kindness to someone who hates you, when you do kindness and express generosity to someone who despises you, That creates a conscience in him that confuses him. He thinks, how can they do such a thing? How can they be kind to me when I am cruel to them? And their conscience is stirred, and they begin to feel ashamed. And that’s the fire heaping, the coals of fire being heaped on their head. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. Now what does this mean? It means that we leave out the injustices we experience to God. We commit ourselves to serving others. We bless those who curse us, and we do not curse back. And we know sometimes injustice is perpetrated upon us, but instead of standing up for our rights and being proud of what we are and all that, we actually surrender our rights. Now, I know this sounds very objectionable to many Christians, but that is the way of the gospel. We believe that vengeance belongs to God. Now, why should God express vengeance and not us? Because God’s vengeance is tempered with love and perfect control, and he knows how much justice and punishment to give, and he does not overdo it. But we, we’re out of control. We don’t know what to do. We are so filled with vengeance, it eats us up. And if something terrible happens to us as a result of injustice, we long for the… The punishment upon the perpetrator and the longing is so strong in us that unless we find grace and mercy for our enemy, that revenge, that desire for vengeance will eat us up. So just imagine, the Christian church today needs what the Christian church in the beginning experienced, and that is a love that is so profound that it serves the world, that is willing to put our enemies before ourselves, that it is willing to express mercy because we received mercy. That’s the point, you see. The motivation that we have in caring for the world is not so that we might win them, but rather because we have received mercy and we love them as God has loved us in his kindness towards us. Just think of some of the things here, some of the counsel that Paul gives us. Be kindly affectionate to one another, with brotherly love in honor giving preference to one another, serving others, giving preference to them, looking out for their interests more than our own. I mean, this is unhuman, isn’t it? It’s not unhuman, it is above humanity. It is a grace that has to come to us from Christ, because we do not have this kind of grace in ourselves. In fact, we look at this list, as I said the other day, and we simply cannot attain it. It’s beyond us. We have to ask Christ to live his life through us, to love through us, to account our humanity as dead, and Christ’s humanity as resurrected in us so that we serve even though we may not feel like serving and we love even though we do not have the love to love. Bless those who persecute you. Where do we see this in Christianity today? Where do we see people, Christians, blessing neighbors who are harming them? We do see it somewhere, I grant you, and it’s good we do. But oh, we could hear more about it so that the word could spread. These Christians need to perplex people. We Christians need to make those who don’t like us think and say, what makes that guy tick? What makes that woman tick? Why are they being kind to me when I’m being dismissive to them or even cruel to them? Why are they being submissive when I’m taking them to court? What is this? And they begin to question their own motives. They begin to look into what makes themselves, them, tick. I mentioned the other day, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. It’s easier to rejoice with those who rejoice when somebody gets a blessing, somebody gets a new car or a new house. Hopefully, we as Christians are not jealous. We rejoice with them in their newfound wealth or their new acquirement. But it is more difficult to weep with those who weep. And one of the reasons for that is that those who weep with those who weep listen to the pain of others. They are concerned that their neighbor is going through trouble, through trials. He looks depressed. He looks overwhelmed and stressed. We ask him how it’s going, what’s going on. And if we’re listeners, then that neighbor may well open up to us. And we take that opportunity to pray with him, to assure him that God is with him. Not to say, well, this comes on you because you’re not a Christian, but rather to pile on the grace, pile on the mercy, because that’s what God did to us way before we were Christians, right? Be of the same mind, verse 16, toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. That’s difficult. That’s difficult in the Western world because we’re very competitive. We want to make progress by climbing on the backs of others. There is a tendency to competitiveness that is really sick in this world of ours. But here we are told to humble ourselves, to look upon the poorer person, to look upon the person who’s the doorman and say good morning to him and greet him and thank him for his service instead of ignoring him because we are of the upper echelon. What a silly thing that is, the silly attitude. We are associating with the humble because Jesus associated with us. He was God, the creator of the world, and yet he lived among the humble. And he was humble. He didn’t boast. He could have spoken scientific things, philosophical things, theological realities, and absolutely floored his opponents. But he did so by simple truth. Simple truth about the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, walking humbly with Him and not being proud. That’s how we need to be. Stop trying to win arguments. It’s not necessary to win an argument as a Christian. Rather simply state a truth and leave it there. Let it float in the air. Let it have its own effect as it slowly floats down into the hearts and minds of your opponents as they go home and think about what you said. and it stirs them, and they wonder why you said it, and they begin to ponder the truth. They can only ponder the truth when you’ve finished what you’ve said, and they go home and think about it, or they ride on the subway and ponder what you said. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves. be of the same mind, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. It’s difficult, not always, it is difficult always to be fervent in spirit, but the Lord revives us. Let him do it. Let us serve the world, let us put the world before ourselves, just like the early Christians did, and the revolution will take place. Thank you for listening today. You can hear this broadcast on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. And would you consider supporting the program? I’m looking for five new partners who might consider donating $50 a month for a year. If you would like to be one of them, if this program is moving your heart, and training your faith, and helping you to see the truth of the extensiveness of the gospel, then you might want to become a partner. You can do so by sending your first donation market partner to P.O. Box 366 Littleton, Colorado, 80160. Thanks, see you next time. Cheerio, and God bless.