Romans 12

Marks of the True Christian

"9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.[h] Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

Paul puts legs to "love thy neighbor as thyself," the second half of the Great Commandment.

My dad, on occasion, would give the definitive to what he meant when he said.... You name the topic. When it came to car care, my dad showed me a step-by-step process that included changing oil, filters (oil, air, and fuel); monitoring the carburetor; greasing the points that needed that; checking fluid levels; changing out a thermostat that went bad; maintaining tire pressure; and a host of other items. He taught me that.

He taught me how to balance a checkbook, calculate giving to church as an auto-deduction in a period when you wrote checks only, put aside savings, consider space in my funds for enjoyment, needs, and commitments (dates, food/clothing, and giving).

Today, Paul gives us the full definition of what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. Christ started the lesson when challenged by a legal type in the faith community with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. He also demonstrated it with the Samaritan woman at the well. He healed a Canaanite woman's daughter (gospel lesson a couple of weeks ago) after speaking to her with what seemed like a lack of concern for her since she wasn't Jewish. If we couldn't understand Christ's examples though, Paul will spell it out for us.

To create comfort, our neighbor is the man who looks like us, thinks like us, dwells among us openly. To create discomfort, our neighbor may not look like us, speak like us, believe what we believe, and in simple fact, be our enemy.

Celebrate openly among one another what needs to be celebrated (the good); bless those who persecute us (the bad); and let God do the work of vengeance (the ugly). In fact, love my enemy (the really ugly).

It sounds so simple, yet the good is easy. It is so easy to do good in my community among those who are part of the same community. It becomes more difficult to do those things I know Christ did (forgave his enemy at the foot of his cross and asked his Father to do the same and healed a man's wound who had come to arrest him).

The truth is my categories of good, bad and the ugly are not God's. The only truth is no matter what I think, say or do, God overrides my feeble attempts by clearing my muddied slate of what I think or did that I think is good. He's also cleared my record (known and not realized) of what I avoid when avoiding opportunities to serve those who are in need and failing to broaden the definition of neighbor to include those whom I know are enemies, spiritually or earthly or both. I don't walk the walk, but Christ did. Only through Christ can my actions be good and only in Him am I forgiven when I fail to live the Great Commandment.

Pray for wisdom and guidance from God's Word and his Spirit in each circumstance when given an opportunity to show God's love, especially the bad and ugly. Pray for a heart that can forgive quickly, bless all including those we may not want to at the time, and show God's love to all. Pray that God give us the ability to be more Christ-like in our daily walk. Amen

Hope Men's Ministry is a ministry in service to Hope Lutheran Church and School. Our purpose is to grow, unite, and share God's Word to all men through meaningful activities. These activities center on fellowship, service, conversation, prayer, study and devotion as we seek to become men of God as He created us to be.