Behave like a Christian (Romans 12:9–15) — A Sermon by R.C. Sproul

0:37 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another. not lagging in diligence, being fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, and given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.

1:38 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. And do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. And if it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

2:42 The Word of God for his people. Please be seated. Let us pray. Father, even now as we contemplate these exhortations and injunctions that come to us from the pen of your anointed apostle, we pray that we may feel the weight of these mandates, that they may grasp us in our hearts and in our souls. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

3:27 This portion of chapter 12 indicates another shift in the literary style of Paul's writing in the very middle of this passage, where he has been throughout the book giving us lengthy, weighty concepts of the doctrines of grace spelled out with long sentences and paragraphs, and last week we looked at the responsibility on how people are to use the gifts that God gives to them in the church. And now it's like we get some staccato shots from the apostle, almost like bullet points in a power presentation that we might be familiar with in our day as he sets in pithy style in a terse manner one after another of these ethical injunctions that we are to make manifest in the Christian life. And it's almost as if Paul had been a stenographer at the time Jesus preached his sermon on the mount, but we know that Paul wasn't even there. But so much of the information communicated by our Lord there in his sermonic material is recapitulated in brief form here in chapter 12. It also reminds me, as I read this, of the writings of the Apostle James, where he would give his ethical injunctions in a previous or in a similar manner to what Paul does here. But let's look then at these injunctions as the apostle sets forth. He begins with the first one, which I believe is not just one in a loose list of virtues that we are to manifest, but rather as the thematic statement for all of these responsibilities that follow it. He begins with love, and he says,

5:33 let love be without dissimilation. Let love be without hypocrisy. The love that we are to manifest is to be a love that is genuine, a love that is sincere, a love that is authentic. And we remember how when he wrote to the Corinthians, he devoted an entire chapter to the meaning of love in chapter 13. And we could also look at chapter 12 of Romans as a similar exposition of the concept of love that he is writing now to the Romans. He says what God expects from us is authentic love, not a phony love, not a platitudinous pretense of love, but a love that is not mixed with hypocrisy.

6:40 And then immediately, in applying that concept, he gives two very strong statements. He says, abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. Now, these stand in vivid contrast one to another, to hate one thing and to love something else. And the hatred that he enjoins us to have here is a hatred of the highest dimension. This is one of the strongest words for hatred that you can find anywhere in the Bible. He said, I'm not asking that you may be moved to mild displeasure. I'm not asking that you dislike these things. What I'm commanding in the name of the Lord is that you loathe them, that you despise them, that this of which he is speaking is abhorrent to you.

7:44 And what is it that he said we should regard with abhorrence? Evil. That we should abhor evil. we should hate it we should see evil as the unveiled assault on the character of God and on his sovereignty as we seek to grow in grace dear friends to gain the mind of Christ I've said to you many times that what it means to have the mind of Christ is to think like Jesus to love what Jesus loves and to hate what Jesus hates. We know that hatred is one of the strongest emotions that can inhabit the heart of a human being, and hatred in general can be something that is so destructive and so demeaning, but not when it's directed against evil.

8:53 Paul says we should abhor evil. I'm going to give just one application of this to our modern culture that I'm very much concerned with. I was just talking with some folks in Colorado this week, and somebody asked me what I thought was the greatest ethical issue of our day, And I said, I believe that the greatest ethical issue in the entire history of America is the issue of abortion. I've listened to talk shows recently where the commentators have told us about all of the machinations that are going on and the jockeying for position for those candidates that are running for the highest office in our land. And one of those candidates is a man who has publicly supported abortion on demand and yet is now wooing the Christian vote in America.

9:57 And what I heard the commentator say is this, that those people who are so opposed to abortion now see a greater issue in our day than abortion, and that is the issue of terrorism, and so they are transferring their allegiance and giving it to this particular candidate. Even though he supports abortion on demand, he's taking a strong stand against this deeper matter, this more serious threat of terrorism. I'm baffled by it. I am absolutely baffled by that. because more people were killed on 9-10 in the womb of women in the United States than were killed in New York City on 9-11, and more babies were slaughtered on 9-12 than adults were killed in 9-11.

10:59 And if we had a window on the womb, and we had CNN showing us graphically every day what actually happens in the slaughter of our unborn children, I think that abortion would be abolished in 15 minutes. But it's the best-kept secret that nobody wants to discuss. anytime I have an interview on television or the radio and that issue comes up I try to speak as strongly as I know how and I tell them I've been studying theology almost all of my life and there's so much I don't know it's embarrassing but I say if there's anything I know about God I know that God hates abortion The German ethicist Helmut Tillich, in the middle of the 20th century, in his massive work on Christian ethics, indicated something unusual.

12:11 This was before Roe v. Wade. This was before Western civilization has completely embraced abortion on demand. Tillichie wrote, he said, the one issue that historically there has been a monolithic position of in Christian thought, both among liberals and conservatives, is the evil of abortion from the very first century, from the didache, which called abortion murder. It's an unspeakable evil that God abhors and which the American church tolerates and winks at.

13:01 And that troubles me deeply. I don't understand it. I'm completely baffled. I mean, I would think that every human being in this world, Christian or not, intuitively would know how wicked this is. I have very little patience to even debate it. Of the 60-some books that I've published in my lifetime, the one that had the shortest shelf life was the book entitled Abortion, a Rational Look at an Emotional Issue. And Ligonier produced a video series on this issue to help pastors deal with the question with their congregation. Couldn't get it in the churches. Evangelical pastor after evangelical person said, I can't deal with that in my congregation. It'll split my church.

13:56 Just look at them and say, then split it. What's the matter with you? This is the holocaust of our time. And we are silent. And we support it. When we are called to hate it. Because it's evil.

14:28 Unspeakable evil. in the same token as we are to despise that which is evil, the apostle says we are to cling to that which is good. Again, the language here in the text is intense. This term that is translated by the word cling is the root word for the Greek term for glue. That we are to hang on tightly to that which is good. Let it be cemented to our souls. that we don't drop it or lose it with the next wind of cultural fantasy that comes our way. The Christian is to hate evil and to embrace and hang on to with all of your might that which is good.

15:37 Now again, Baal doesn't say you're to hate evildoers Although the Bible does say in the Old Testament That God abhors the wicked He hates not only their wickedness But he hates them Who are in constant rebellion against him That's the language of the Bible It's not the language of our culture cling to that which is good.

16:11 And now he addresses his comments principally to the church, to the fellowship of believers, to the household of faith when he says, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. Here's that idea of Philadelphia, of the love that is shared in a fraternity, in a fellowship of people who share a common family. What the Apostle is saying is that the love that we're to have with each other in the fellowship of the church is to be the same kind of love that you experience in that narrow, aspect of your life within your family, the love that brothers and sisters share, the love that parents have for their children in the good sense, not in those who are abusive.

17:20 But we're to imitate that kind of love, that kind of brotherly affection in a spirit of kindness with one another. Kindness is one of the most important virtues in the Bible. It's one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, isn't it? How would you like to have, as your epithet on your tombstone read, This was a kind person. not a powerful person, not necessarily a wealthy person, not a successful person, a kind person, because a kind person is a successful person in the eyes of God. in honor, giving preference to one another.

18:16 There's some ambiguity in this statement, and it's been translated in various ways. The general approach to this text is saying that we ought to prefer each other for honor rather than seeking honor for ourselves. We should seek to reflect or deflect honors from ourself and prefer to have the rest of the folks receive the honor and the glory. It's a call to humility. But the basic thrust of this, however, is that Paul is saying, I want you to be leaders, to be at the forefront of establishing the principle of honor in your midst. If nobody else is manifesting respect and honor in the congregation, Let you be one of those people who demonstrates a humble spirit that is hoping to seek and give honor to others.

19:32 That's the heart of the servant. That's to be the heart of the Christian. An honor giving preference to one another. Now, my translation for the next clause reads, not lagging in diligence. Other translations may sound completely different. An older translation read, not being slothful in business. Some of you may still have that translation with you. Not being lazy, indolent in your business. But in this case, it's not talking about commercial enterprise, but the word business comes from the term busyness. That is that we should be busy people, busy with the things of God, and that is our business.

20:38 I remember Jonathan Edwards from reading about it. where he gave a sermon on pressing into the kingdom of God based upon the biblical text that the kingdom is taken by force. What he meant by that is that those who have now come to Christ have been born again and given a spirit of zeal to pursue the things of God with a sense of urgency, with a real hunger, with a passion. And he said, it is the duty of the Christian to press into the kingdom of God. And he said, it is the duty of the Christian to make the seeking of the kingdom of God the main business of his life.

21:44 Now, with that, Edwards didn't mean to say that every Christian is called to have a church vocation. And as we saw last week, not everybody's called to be a preacher or a teacher or administrator or whatever. But what he says is that we're all to be busy and diligent with respect to concern for the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God cannot be a secondary interest for a true Christian. We are to be diligent, not lazy, not indolent, but active in the things of God and for His kingdom.

22:33 We're not to be lacking in diligence, but to be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. that is that our service to Christ is the chief business that we are to be involved with with this diligence and with this fervor of soul and of spirit Verse 12, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. I was standing at the door this morning after the second service, and this couple came to me, and they were carrying copies of the Reformation Study Bible, and they asked me if I would sign their Bible. And I said, would you sign my Bible? And so here I am, standing here in saking hands, and I'm writing my name in somebody's Bible. And this is something that happens all the time, and I honestly don't know where this came from. It's one thing when people ask me to sign books that I wrote. It's another thing they asked me to sign their Bible. I didn't write the Bible.

23:57 Although when my son was in Sunday school when he was six years old and the teacher said, who wrote the Bible? My son said, my daddy wrote the Bible. Sometimes I think he still thinks that. But we have this custom in the church to have ministers or teachers sign our Bibles. And usually what happens at conventions and so on when this is going on, people say, well, you sign my Bible and write in there your life verse. and I think, hmm. I used to ask people, what's that? What's a life verse? But I stopped asking that question because it makes people uncomfortable. But there's some evangelical wing in this church that has propagated this idea that everybody should have one verse of the Bible that is their life verse.

25:00 So now when people ask me that, I give them the verse from Genesis 15 where the burning fire passed between the pieces. And then the people will come back a half hour later and say, did you write down what you meant to write? The reason I mention that is the first time I came up with a life verse, tried to incorporate the whole of Christian experience into one short passage. My life verse was Romans 12, 12. This verse that I've just read to you, let me read it again. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, the older translation, remaining constant in prayer.

25:57 What I thought Christianity could be reduced to in my personal understanding were these three dimensions. First of all, joy. that that is something that we should all manifest, isn't it, at all times. And what is it in which we are to rejoice?

26:23 Paul says we are to rejoice in our hope. Now, he taught about that earlier. I mentioned earlier in our studies about how tribulation is inseparably related to hope. in our lives, because when we are forced to suffer, to undergo the tests of trials, of tribulations, that what God the Holy Spirit does with those tribulations is to work character within us and provoke in our souls this virtue of hope. And you also know that in that chapter 13, of which I've already alluded into Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. He talks about that triad of virtues that are to mark the life of the Christian, faith, hope, and love, these three.

27:23 And the greatest of these, of course, he says, is love. But to make it into the top three is pretty significant. And it's interesting that the apostle elevates the virtue of hope to that top drawer of virtue. And I mentioned to you that the biblical concept of hope differs from the common meaning of the term in our language today. We talk about hopes as items that we would write down on our wish lists, things that we would like to see come to pass, but aren't at all confident that they will come to pass, but they express our attitude of what we would enjoy seeing.

28:22 But the biblical concept of hope has nothing to do with such uncertainty. The New Testament concept of hope has to do with the absolute certainty of the promises of God for the future that they will come to pass. faith looks backward, trusting and relying upon what God has done in the past. We trust its truthfulness. We rely upon it. But then faith looks forward into the future. and finds its anchor for the soul in the future promises of God. That's the foundation for our joy, so that no matter how painful the present moment may be, we can still have joy, because we know that the presence of pain and suffering and tribulation that we endure now is but for a moment.

29:27 but God has laid up such treasures for us in heaven that aren't even worthy to be compared to the brief moments of pain and suffering that we have to endure this year or in this world so that no matter how bad things are here we can still be happy we can still have joy because we have this hope which will not embarrass us, with which we will never have to be ashamed.

30:05 Rejoicing in hope, being patient in tribulation. I think one of the reasons I chose this for my life verse and later abandoned it for something else Thank you. was the struggle I had through my life with patience. I'm the kind of person that prays, Oh Lord, give me patience right now. I find it hard to wait for things. Do any of you have that? I'm impatient. I want to get to the goal line. I want to get over the goal line. I want to get the task finished so we can get on to something else. And I've just never had that quiet spirit of patience that we're supposed to have, and particularly in the midst of tribulation.

31:04 what he's talking about to us here is that virtue of forbearance of hanging in there when things are tough remembering the patience of Job who cried out in the midst of his agony though he slay me yet will I trust him that's the kind of patience that gives perseverance and the ability to endure in the midst of difficulty. Rejoicing in hope, being patient in tribulation, and the glue here that brings these together is continuing steadfastly in prayer or remaining constant in prayer. The Christian life is a life of prayer, not prayer that is given merely at certain appointed hours or at appointed times.

32:14 But there is a dialogue going on, maybe silently, all the time, being conscious of the presence of God, relying on that presence of God communicating with the Father in our thoughts you know I once had a friend in seminary who died in seminary who was enduring great, great tribulation and suffering and he was seeking a deeper level of spiritual growth and he said to me he said, R.C. Thank you. I won't know that I'm really progressing in my sanctification until my dreams change. I said, what are you talking about?

33:14 He says, I want to dream about loving God. I want to see myself in my dreams praying, not winning a baseball game. or something like that. And I thought, you know, I've never heard anybody in my life before or since talk about sanctification in those terms because this guy, his life was a living, walking prayer.

33:46 He wanted his communication with the Lord to be so much a part of his life that he would even dream about it. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly, steadfastly in prayer.

34:16 Distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Again, Paul is still explaining what it means to love without hypocrisy, that you're in touch with the needs of your brothers and sisters, and you are helping to distribute to their needs, and you are known for your hospitality. Notice what an important virtue, even today in the Middle East, hospitality is. Sometimes it's soaked with hypocrisy and flattery, but there's still the customs among the Arabs, you know, of being hospitable. That goes back to the Old Testament, to the time when the Jews were slaves in the land of Egypt. They had no place to call their home.

35:14 and when God liberated them they wandered for decades in the wilderness and they longed for a place to call their home they longed for a land that was flowing with milk and honey and when God gave it to them he said to them don't forget where you came from don't forget your roots AYiedy show hospitality to the stranger in your gates. Open your home, open your heart to those around you. Then in verse 14, again reminiscent of the Sermon on the Mount, Bless those who persecute you.

36:14 Bless and do not curse. I can handle half of that. This is tough stuff. Not just bless somebody that insults you occasionally, but there are people, like Paul had to suffer this thorn in the side, and we don't know, he was constantly being attacked by people. Paul's whole ministry was a ministry that was lived out under persecution, even as his Lord's was. And he said, what is my response to be to this persecution? I am to bless my enemies, not curse them. Like I said, I can handle half of that. I can handle not cursing them.

37:09 that's not too difficult but to bless them pray that God would bestow his favor and grace upon these people I'm more comfortable with the prayers of imprecation that you were reading from Psalm 70 this morning, Burke but Paul said this is tough but this is what love means to bless those who persecute you. Bless, do not curse.

37:45 And again, a tremendous text that follows, rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Your brother or sister gets an award that you were hoping you might get. Their team beats your team in the Super Bowl. can you rejoice with them? Can you participate in their joy and forget about your own sense of loss? This is the way the body of Christ is knit together. If one rejoices, everybody rejoices. There are no politics of envy in the kingdom of God.

38:45 None. If my brother prospers beyond that which I prosper, instead of saying, oh, he doesn't deserve that, why should he get this wonderful advantage, I should delight in the prosperity and in the blessing that He has received. and I am never to miss the tears of our people.

39:20 When one of us weeps, dear friend, we all weep. That's what the body of Christ is about. Paul said when he came to his people, he said, I was with you in your sorrow. I stood beside you in your tribulation. I wept with you when you wept. People ask me, wait a minute, what about the shortest verse in the New Testament, Jesus wept, when he comes to the home of Lazarus and Mary and Martha, and it says that he wept. And people say, what's with that? Why would Jesus weep?

40:12 He knew what he was going to do. He knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. And everybody else is there bawling their eyes out. And here comes the Lord of glory. There's no reason for him to cry except what? Why did he weep? Because they were weeping. because Jesus wept with those who weep. And we're supposed to do that too. You know, I'll never forget, one of the most difficult things that I had to endure in my life was the protracted illness of my father when it took him three years to die from his illness. and that whole time he was incapacitated and he'd like to sit out in the front yard in the summertime and I would have to help him out into the lawn chair and he would sit out there all day long until it was time to come back in and I'd have to sort of fire him and carry him back into the house.

41:18 I was a teenager and one time I gave vent to my anger to my mother and I said, Mom, I said, where are Dad's friends? when he was healthy and wealthy for that era. We had no end of visitors and guests in the house. I don't understand it. Where are they now? I was really angry, and I was angry with God. How could God put up with this? Never heard my dad complain about it. And my mother was very patient. She said, Son, you have to understand something. Your dad's friends can't stand to see him the way he is. and they feel inadequate.

42:15 They don't know what to say. Young ministers come to me and they say, I have to learn how to do hospital calling or I have to go to a funeral. What do I say? They say, what, do you want a speech? There is no speech. It doesn't matter what you say.

42:38 Just be there. And if they cry, you cry. You don't have to have a magic word to dissolve their tears. And my mother said, they just know what to do. And I thought, okay. Didn't give me much comfort. But I understood it later on. That that's the way we are.

43:11 We like to distance ourselves from pain. and said, we have enough of it of our own to deal with without having to weep with everybody else who is weeping. But this is love that is without hypocrisy. It's sharing in your joy.

43:34 When your daughter's getting married, and that's all you can think about, you're preoccupied with it, I'm not going to say, nah. I said, that's terrific. Isn't that great? I mean, what an exciting thing that one of the daughters of our church is going to get married soon. That's something that we should all join in the joy and share in that, just as we join in the sorrow of the bereaved when we go to the house of mourning. That's what love looks like.

44:17 Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Now, here we're only partway through this list of virtues, and I have kept my word to you. I told you that I didn't think that I would be able to get through this entire text tonight. And so, God willing, we'll look at the rest of the chapter in our next session. Let's pray. Father, give us this kind of love that was modeled by Jesus, modeled also by the Apostle, modeled by the great saints of the ages.

45:06 We don't have that kind of love that blesses those who persecute us yet. But we thank You for softening the hardness of our hearts and giving us a greater capacity to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. Thank You for that hope that is the foundation for our joy. Give us patience in the middle of tribulation, and help us by Thy Spirit to remain constant in prayer. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.