Romans 12 (Part 6)

We are going to continue, it has been several Sundays since we have put this passage aside due to different things that have intervened, absences, vacations, trips, etc., invited preachers, everything else, but we want to return to this wonderful passage and continue studying it until we we can get all his teaching. You may not remember it but I think I know where we dropped it last time here at the 9 o'clock service. I have had to keep a very good watch because since we have the 12 o'clock service too, sometimes I don't really know where I ended up. with one and where I started with the other. Let's go there for a little bit, to Romans Chapter 12, in verse 9. Last time with this service we talked about love that is without pretense, without hypocrisy, without hypocrisy we said that it is a better translation.

12:9 Romans. He says: “.... love be without pretense, hate what is bad, follow what is good; love one another with brotherly love; as regards honor, preferring one another." Let's leave it there and continue if necessary with another verse.

But you remember that I told you that I did a translation, consulting with resources in the original Greek in which it is written and this is my own translation that I would do of this, although I am not an expert in the Greek. But it says: love, without hypocrisy; hating the bad, clinging to the good, in brotherly love, being affectionate, loving; as regards honor, putting one another ahead. There are about 3, 4 principles here that we can take a moment to study what these things mean.

Let me go back a little bit so that you can see the flow of this text, from the beginning of Chapter 12. We have talked, remember that we started with this idea of the Apostle Paul that we should not have a higher opinion of ourselves than we should have. That is, it is the heart of the message and what he does in the following verses is to develop that central idea. That is, the attitude with which we see ourselves and that we see others. That determines the conduct of the believer, his ethical conduct, his way of relating to others, the way he behaves in the church, the way he develops his life of sacrifice to the Lord. There are so many conflicts and so many struggles in the family, in the workplace, in the churches, because the people who are part of these institutions are sometimes individuals who do not think of themselves in the humble, wise, prudent and exact way, true with what you should think. Either they think too high of themselves or they think too low. Either they have too big an ego and too big a sense of importance, or they have too low self-esteem and throw themselves down. Then the Apostle Paul says: Look, see yourselves as you are, measure yourselves, do not think that you are more important, wiser, more gifted than you are, see yourselves with simplicity, look at your brothers and see the things that they have and the things you don't have and try to complement each other. That's the first part, so there are two segments that follow where the Apostle Paul develops that idea with specific chaos.

In the next few verses beginning in verse 4 through verse 8, he gives different things. He says that we think of ourselves as a body, that we all do things with a sense of teamwork, of unity, and then he gives different examples in service, in prophesying, in teaching, in sharing with each other when we have a leadership position. Notice that all that part from 5 to 8 has to do with service, serving others in the church, or even out in the community, but it is a call to be practical, to be humble, to maintain a sense of team, not just thinking about what interests me, what I want to do or what God called me to do, but thinking about the body, thinking about the whole as what I want to do, or what I think God has called me to affect others, because many people want to do good but are like oxen in a fine china shop, wherever they move they knock things over and break left and right. And that happens in marriage, it happens in different places, a man or a woman not sufficiently aware of how their personality affects their wife or their children, or their husband and so they are so invested in themselves that they break and destroy and hurt because they are too self-absorbed. Do you know what self-absorbed means? It means being into yourself too much. I believe that one should always be aware of how my life affects others around me, how my behavior and my good intentions actually affect the body as a whole. If we are not aware of that, we are going to hurt, and we are going to hurt ourselves.

So that section from 5 to 8 has to do with serving and acting in the context of a community, whatever it may be. Now in verse 9 onwards, I think it refers more than anything to the aspect of feelings. It has a lot to do with love, in all those verses that follow, and with the interior attitudes, the feelings with which we move. So that's why he talks about love being unpretentious, love must be without hypocrisy. And I pointed out weeks ago, love must be pure, without ulterior motives, without hidden agendas. The word here in the original Greek is agape, it is the love with which God loves, it is that sincere love, that pure love, that love that does not expect anything, that love that is given to those who do not deserve to be loved. It is the love that forgives, as that wonderful passage says in Chapter 13 of First Corinthians, love believes everything, hopes everything, supports everything, it is a pure love. It's related, in fact, to that verse about the dealer do it with simplicity, in verse 8. So there are no layers there and no hidden agendas. Love must be pure, innocent in the sense that love is in the palm of the hand and whoever sees it knows what they are seeing. When we love we always have a hidden agenda, we are always looking for something to take advantage of, that is not love. That is rather, interest, which is very different. So he says, love be unpretentious. Love is like that, he said here, generally stained by selfishness in many of us, but God wants love like a pure diamond that shines through its purity. God wants to purify our love until it is completely disinterested, like his. Christ came, I say, when we were mired in sin, when He least had to come, He came. When we least deserved to be loved, the Lord gave himself up for us.

Another thing, love involves something very important which is honesty. Honesty should be a hallmark of the Christian. In church we should not talk about each other behind each other's backs. There must be transparency, that's why he says love be without hypocrisy. Many times when the brother arrives, Oh God bless you, and we talk to him and then,... he's a scoundrel, you don't know what he did, this and that. You have to pray for the little brother because he is doing this, and we sawed his stick, we killed his reputation, we took all his clothes out to the sun and that is hypocrisy. We must treat each other with respect, brothers. We must always speak the truth, one before the other. We should not gossip or criticize in a destructive way, one another. If I have something to tell someone I will try to do it directly as much as possible.

The Bible says: if you have something with a brother, call him aside first so you don't do too much damage to his reputation. The idea is I think, protect that person as much as possible, protect his public image, protect his name. Don't hurt him first, announcing his flaws to everyone and then if there's anything left after you... don't call him first and try to contain as much as possible the damage on a personal level. Now, if that person persists in continuing his harmful behavior, he says: then call two or three more, witnesses, and I think they must be mature people and wise people, or one or two, it doesn't have to be many people, people that they have the spiritual capacity to be discreet and to be mature, and then they say again: look brother, I want to resolve this. He is hurting me, he is hurting you, and I brought this brother here so that he can be a witness and that he can testify between us which of the two is wrong. The idea is to give this a little more seriousness. Now, if that person persists in hurting you, or behaving in an inappropriate way, then you have the right to make it public. The Bible says that if a person persists like this, then you have to give it up and there are times when you have to be clear. The Apostle says: let us live in peace with everyone as much as possible. If possible. There may be times when there will have to be a break, but we have to do everything possible to resolve things with love.

The Bible also says: if someone is caught in a fault, you who are spiritual, treat him with meekness, correct him with meekness, looking at yourself, lest you also be tempted in the same way. We always have to do things with love, with discretion, with grace, with mercy. That is the hallmark, that is why love says be without hypocrisy, without pretense, without things. I believe that the church, I say here, should be a refuge different from how the world out there handles relationships. Christians have a duty, brothers, to do things as Christ commands us, to resolve conflicts as Christ commands us. Treat us in the love and sincerity of Jesus. The church should not be a place for lobbying and royal court games where everyone is watching each other's backs because they don't know who is going to stab them. It should be a place where we all treat each other simply and honestly and with love and tenderness.

Finally if you have a conflict with someone, be quick to resolve it so there is no occasion for hypocrisy or gossip. The church should not be a place where conflicts last too long. That is something that if someone offended you, do everything possible to soon solve the problem so that love does not suffer from that. Why what happened? If you have something against your brother, and they're fighting and they're not talking to each other, and they're not looking at each other, what happens? That hurts the body first, because that struggle, that enmity is like a wound that the body has, it's like a little thing and an irritation that hurts the whole body. Maybe you think not because it's just him and me, but no, that's affecting us because we are a whole. So it also affects you and it's important that Christians... sometimes you won't want to resolve a dispute with someone, but you have to because you're a Christian and your Christian position obliges you to seek reconciliation. It does not mean that you have to return to having the same friendship that you had before with a person, but it does at least clarify that there is a ceasefire. You take your pistols, take out all the bullets and hide them back in the drawer. We say that we are going to treat each other civilly, we are going to treat each other as brothers, we are brothers. And that is important that.... that is why love is something very, very complex, but it is something very, very beautiful, when it is the love of God. So that's why the Apostle Paul says: love be without hypocrisy, without pretensions, without pretense. What a beautiful teaching!

So the second thing it says here: hate the bad and follow the good. Hating the bad, following the good. The word that is translated follow is coltomenoi and in reality the translation into Spanish does not say everything that it really should say. Coltomenoi is a word that means clinging. In English, in fact, the translation says cleave to what is good. "Cleave" means to cling. It's stick with tooth and nail, that's the idea. It is not the same as saying follow the good. In the original Greek when Paul wrote it is rather hold on, hold on as if you were with those dolls, he is holding on to the wing of an airplane and the plane is bending to be able to hold on to everything it gives. That's the idea. Hold on to the good, hate the bad, and hold on to the good.

The idea is two strong, intense emotions and two attitudes. Hate evil and sin and hold on to good for dear life. Strap yourself in as much as possible. You see the idea here is better, and this has very profound implications. Strong emotions are needed, brothers, to please God. The lukewarm person does not please the Lord. Do you remember what one of the letters to the Odyssey says in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 3 in the Letter to the Churches, it says "because if it were cold or hot, says the angel to the church of the Odyssey, I would tolerate you , but when you are neither cold nor hot, but you are lukewarm, I will vomit you out of my mouth. It is like warm water. Have you tried drinking lukewarm water, what's wrong? They don't have to answer me. Warm water nauseates, and that happens to lukewarm Christians who are indifferent to sin or virtue, the Lord looks at them with a distance. We have to be fervent in what is good. We have to love the good and we have to hate the bad.

The church has become accustomed to sin and we are so familiar with sin that we have become numb. We live in a culture where there is so much evil and corruption, even within God's people that we kind of say: Hey, if I don't fall into those worst and most reprehensible sins, well, that's fine. And we already live in a world that has become used to it. And there are so many things that Christian culture used to consider totally intolerable, that today, well, we've gotten used to it and practice it.

I myself had a fight this week because I was invited to be part of a panel at Boston Children's Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, I was invited to that panel a while ago, it was for this Hispanic Heritage month. It was a panel on alternative medicine, how the Latino community uses different alternative means of healing, apart from traditional medicine. They invited me as an evangelical pastor to speak about how we Hispanics in the evangelical world see healing. We believe in supernatural healing, God's healing, emotional healing, spiritual liberation, all of it. I believe brothers that we have to take advantage of all possible opportunities to testify. In that place there were doctors, there were social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists from the Children's Hospital and I always see that as a great opportunity to talk about the Gospel, present things, the only thing was that the others on the panel, one was a santero who went to talk about how the Latino community uses Santeria for healing. That was my colleague at the presentation. He was the one who followed me and he had on the table all his things that he does, herbs and all these things, he even had a pot of “bronchiplos” and a whole host of other things.

The fact is that I thought afterwards, I told myself: Lord, I really have done well. Then I examined myself before the Lord. I think I feel calm because God knows I'm there to testify, whatever another person wants to do, that's their business, but anyway I think this; I use it as an illustration. Today people of science and all these things, and that a person who represents the church of Jesus Christ and a person who practices witchcraft and spiritism, as he spoke about his saints and their spirits, likewise he was all dressed in white as the santeros wear, and all this kind of thing. What's happening? In the minds of the people who are sitting there, I was concerned because I say: people might think like, if there is an evangelical pastor there and he is speaking next to him, well that is alternative medicine too. It is legitimate to go to the santero, and they do not know that what they are doing is demonizing themselves. When you seek the devils, the spirits to heal, you are giving a license to enter your life. You are acknowledging that they can do something for you and the devil never does anything, not even your mother herself, for good, he always takes advantage of it. And he can, because he has power, perhaps neutralize his illness but then something ten times worse will happen to him. Never let the enemy ever lead you into that trap of using or consulting anything that is prohibited by God.

But my point is this: today it is not unusual to see a santero and an evangelical pastor talking in the same forum and people before, perhaps, would see; No, like witchcraft, Santeria, no. But today we live together and many people see us as being of the same ilk, of the same profession, only one heals with spirits and herbs, and another heals with religion. So what happens, that people harden and people go to sleep, they get used to evil. They see the idea. Because they already see it as something respectable, evil already moves in respectable circles, and people are losing that healthy fear of evil and of the dark, of the demonic, of the dark. And it kind of turns into something. And we live in a world like this, where as many sins as we see with homosexual marriage and all these things are already being practiced, and we see so many other things as well, promiscuity, adultery, injustice, so many things that are harmful and we practice them as if we weren't. would have no consequence. And our conscience does not prick us, we do not see anything wrong with these things and then, the people are in the church and little by little the evil... we are being anesthetized and we are losing that fear and that hatred of evil and sin . And then, the word says: hate what is bad. It's not that we just look at him like that with a little bit of suspicion, no, he says: hate him.

Let us ask the Lord, brothers, to make us very sensitive to sin. That if we sin right away we feel the sinking of a tender conscience before the Lord, and that we quickly seek God's forgiveness and fix things before the Lord, but not practice it. The law says that the one who practices sin is not of God. Let's be careful, brothers, because we are Christians, we are children of God, we are children of light. So we have to hate. Sometimes I read a commentator on this passage, he says that sometimes we don't hate evil as much as the consequences of evil. Differently, we hate what can cause us when we do evil, but there is a much higher level still, which is when the evil itself, independent of its consequences, causes us a negative reaction because the love of God and the presence of God dwell in us. . As God hates sin, so we too must hate sin. Let us ask the Lord to make our conscience tender. Amen. And that makes us people who hate evil, who cannot have communion or coexistence with evil because it is simply not for us. Now, let's not be negative, you just have to hold on to the good too. Because in our human nature it is not given to the good. That's the truth. We have a fallen nature, only by the mercy of the Lord can we love what is good. And sometimes, brothers, for you to do good, you will have to stick with tooth and nail, because your nature will not want to do it, your character, your personality, your defects, our defects will not move us towards good. No one, none of us, I believe that by personal nature gravitates towards the good. If we want to do good, we have to take 17 ropes and throw them at good and tie ourselves to it with everything possible to stay within good, because it is easy to get out of the framework of good and that is why one has to make a vow to death with good.

There are many passages in scripture that speak of such determined people. One of them is Daniel. You remember the passage in Daniel, Chapter 1, I think it's verse 8 where it says that Daniel, when he was in the Babylonian court as a young Jew who had been taken to Babylon, that court where all kinds of things were practiced, and the food was offered to the gods, before being eaten by the nobility, Daniel did not want to be corrupted. Daniel hated evil, he hated the idea of contaminating his body with food sacrificed to unclean gods. And you know what Daniel did, he says he purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king's food. He proposed in his heart, that has always impacted me. The idea is that he made a firm decision. He made a sharp determination. He made a pact to death with God, I will not be contaminated spiritually. Other Jewish youth had no problem and ate the food, but he wanted to be on a much higher level, and he purposed in his heart. And it's difficult because the pressure was great for him to eat the food. There was social pressure, there was professional pressure, his future as a court leader was involved because he was being trained to enter the king's court, all these things, but Daniel measured the cost, and he measured one thing and the other and then he said no. : no, in the name of the Lord, even if they tell me what they tell me, even if they propose what they propose to me, I am going to be contaminated. He clung to good. You see the idea.

Sometimes, brothers, the only way we are going to be able to survive in this world is by making a firm and clear decision in favor of what is good, what is good and clinging to it tooth and nail. This is a time, in which we are living, that is so. The only way that you and I are going to survive in this corrupt culture that we live in is by holding on to what is good and saying it doesn't matter that I am going to keep my values firm and clear, and if I get fired from the job, so be it. If I have to open a ventorrillo to sell bananas and cassava, and I lose my profession, amen. I am going to do it, because I prefer to stick to the values of the Kingdom of God. There are many people who are sliding down the slope and only by clinging to the good, we can maintain our position.

It also says here: “love one another with brotherly love”, and again the original idea is that love… love each other dearly, show affection, show family affection as if you were families. In brotherly love, be affectionate. The word is philostorgos. Philos is the word love, and storge is the word that refers to the affection of the family, friendship, affection, the external expression of love. He already spoke of love without pretense. Agape, the word used there is agape. But here the idea is that we also have to be affectionate, and this is something that several times in scripture this distinction between sublime love, love like that of God, a pure and perfect love and affection and brotherly affection arises. In Spanish they translate it brotherly affection.

Some time ago we studied a passage in Second Peter, where there was a series to love, add, faith, and knowledge, to knowledge, add this and that... well, and there he also talks about that. It begins with love and in one part it also says brotherly affection. After self-control and other things... brotherly affection. Because it is not the same, and you will remember that I said that a person can sometimes say: Oh, I am ready to give my body for humanity. There are so many people out there who love in theory. Lots of people, very loving to the human race, but they should step on the keys so you can see how they take a bat at once and blow anyone's head off. That they propose to build a church next to your property and that they cut off a little light, so that you can see that they don't care if half the world goes to hell because they are taking away your window. You know what I mean. There are many people who are tremendously liberal and you see them talk about social justice and injustice and all this, but they put a rehabilitation center for drug addicts or women with pregnancy crises next door, and they don't want it because it suits them to lower the price of your property and that is higher than the salvation of humanity. It's like all his theoretical love dissipates and becomes nothing at the moment. Because they don't have a love at ground level, practical love. And there are many Christians who are like that, we love and we are willing... that's why Paul says "if I gave my body to be burned and this and that" We love in theory, we love everyone, we love the humanity, but when it is time to share with a brother in need or simply greet someone who is alone at the end of the service, no, because I have to go cook or because I have other brothers that I want to greet, instead of going to that person, because the love of Christ, brotherly affection compels him. You see there is a difference between sublime love and practical affection. And we have to ask the Lord, Lord, make me a person who has that affection.

You know that here we are all brothers, we use that word brothers, brother here, brother there, which no longer means anything. It is like a coin that has worn out from so much handling, but we have to return to that idea that in this church we are part of a family. Yes Sir, the Colombian, look at the Dominican with affection, even if he doesn't speak to all the I's and the I's where they have to go. The Guatemalan loves the Panamanian, even though there was a war a hundred years ago between the two countries. I don't know if there was, but now in Christ we are brothers, we are family. Do you understand what I mean? We are members of one body and we must love the rich, the person who has his money and his bank account, the little brother who has nothing. We must express love, affection, affection to each other, and bear with each other, and support each other and greet each other and show affection, because we are a family. And if there is any difference we have to solve it as a family. How many times did you fight with your brother, yes, and yet you didn't change your name, perhaps some have, but not all. Most of them don't, they fight, they pull their bows, but after three days they are eating again at home together, because they are brothers and have the same blood running through their veins and they know they are indebted to each other. , because of that pact of familiarity and we are like that. We are a family, we must show affection, we must show love to each other. We must actively cultivate fellowship and Christian friendship. We can't just come on Sundays and then disappear. One of the good and bad things about the Evangelical church is that it's not like..... I love.... I'm not criticizing Catholics, but you go to mass and what happens? People go there, cross themselves and everyone goes to their homes, there is no fellowship, perhaps that is changing a little, but sometimes we come to the Gospel and we believe that it is the same thing. Everyone comes, we sit here, everyone does their thing, we plug in to worship or whatever, and then when the service is over we unplug, wrap up our rope and everyone goes home. Until we come next Sunday. I think that the worship relationship is more like ropes that cross, we make a network of worship and praise and we are interspersed with each other and we have to... I don't believe in simply coming to church and then you leave and have no community, for better or for worse, even if they wear deodorant or not, you have to love them. You have to greet them, you have to invite them to your house, you have to eat with them, brothers, that's how it is. That is part of Christian love, and that is one of the great privileges, in churches sometimes, yes there are fights and there are gossips and things but I prefer that, to a church where nobody talks to each other and nobody knows each other, and then they don't there is no opportunity even to fight us. Glory to God, today we fight so it means that we are having a relationship at least. But the ideal is that we have a relationship and it is sincere, affectionate, affectionate, that we cultivate affection, one with the other.

Finally, I end with this: “putting one another ahead”. Here it says: “preferring one another”. That word preferring you is very thin but in reality the idea is putting ourselves before each other. Fighting so that the other is ahead. It's not like when they have meals here in church, they're fighting to get to the place where the food is being served first. Have you seen that? At the moment love, affection, loving each other... one goes like a bullet straight to where the food is to be the first to eat. And forget about the others, and if there are 7 shrimp, 6 are for me, let the others bandage it however they can. That's not it, the idea is.... I'm going to pray to the Lord that like an immense miracle, that one day the brothers are fighting: no, you go first brother, help yourself first. No, no, no, please, you, you. No, I beg you, you first. How nice it would be if I saw that! If I saw that, brothers, I would say, Christ is coming tomorrow.

The Lord says: putting one another before each other. Many times in the church this is the opposite, we rather seek preference, what they owe me, what they have to do to me, I am first because I did more, etc. I have been here since the church was founded and I have given more tithes, therefore I have more rights to do this or do that. It says put one another ahead. Do you remember the case of the two disciples who approached Jesus, with their mother in fact, so that when the Lord was in his Kingdom, what would happen? That he put one on his left and the other on his right, two vice presidents. They didn't even ask him to “make me a representative, a senator”. No, put me on your right and on your left, and then when the other disciples realized what they were doing, they got upset, not because they were doing something wrong but because they also wanted the same thing. Then the Lord Jesus, seeing their hearts, said: look, it is worth reading that passage that is in Matthew Chapter 20. He told them, you know that the rulers of the nations, 20, 25 lord it over them and those who are great rule over them. they power, but among you it should not be like this, but whoever wants to be great among you will have to serve others first and whoever wants to be first among you will have to be your servant. Just as I did not come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. Brothers, this is the spirit that should govern our lives, it is a spirit of putting others in front. Don't think about yourself as much as you think about others.

Brothers, the best way for you to be happy in life is by thinking of others. Think of others and you will see that you will be blessed. When you only think about your rights and what you are owed and what you have the right to do, you know what? you end up unhappy. Let me tell you immediately, you may win something in the short term, but in the long run you are going to lose because you obtained it according to illegitimate practices before God and what you are doing is deceiving yourself. What you obtain by violating the principles of Christ is going to be like sand and water on your fingers. Better suffer loss and do things in the love and integrity of Jesus than doing things contrary to the spirit of Jesus, because that is a false, illusory gain, it will not pay off in the end. But when you put others in front and you think about the good of others, even if you suffer loss, the Lord will tell you: don't worry, I'm going to replace it, don't worry. There's more where that came from. That good is! We are going to be happy, we are going to be healthy.

Brothers, the Lord wants us to be able to live in that way. Loving without hypocrisy, being affectionate and loving towards each other, putting each other first and forgiving each other if we have anything against each other.

Let's put our heads down for a moment. As we prepare to celebrate the sacrament, may the Lord wish that we can do it with that attitude, with that transparency, with that humility. If you have something against your brother, right now I ask you to forgive him, right now, there in your spirit. Don't harbor resentment. If your love has not been as pure as it should be, ask the Lord to purify your love. If your affection for others has not been as practical as it could be, ask the Lord to make you a person of brotherly affection right now.

Lord, all of us here need your treatment this morning, we need you to purify our life, to help us to love good with passion and to hate evil with equal intensity, to purify our love and make it clean and simple, that you take away that excessive awareness of our self and make us so aware of the value that there is in others so that we see them perhaps even better than us in a sense. Forgive us Father, we want to be better, we know where you have called us, to what goal and we embrace it this morning. And we tell you holy spirit make us more like our Lord. Cleanse us, purify us, and make us more like Christ. Forgive us for imposing our agendas on others. Cleanse us. Thank you, Jesus, in your name. Amen. Amen.