Romans 12:10-11 - Loving Affection and Honor

Romans 12:10-11 - ¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; ¹¹ not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

Message: I am to never be selfish in my love toward others, but always focused on serving the Lord with all of my heart.

Time: Written in AD 57 from Greece, to the Christians, both Gentile and Jewish in Rome.

What the Lord is Saying:

Here Paul gets a little more specific about the act of love. Verse 9 was more of a general statement about how are love should not be two-faced and we should abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. 

Intimate, brotherly love
The Be devoted in verse 10 was added by the translators. The original Greek manuscript stated, in the love of brethren to one another kindly affectioned. And so the phrase, "kindly affectioned" has been changed to read be devoted. It is the Greek word philostorgos where philo is friend and storgos is natural love or tender affection. Storge speaks of instinctive affection, like that which parents and children feel toward one another. Paul is making a case that the love that we have toward one another should be intimate and a sort of family love. Family love is not based upon attraction or the condition of a person or how desirable they are. It is a love in spite of how any one loves or thinks. Our love toward one another is because we are family. 

Verse 4 speaks of the fact that we are members of one Body. We have gifts that differ, but we are of the same body. Verse 3 states that we are not to think more highly of ourselves.  

Christianity brought about a radical change in relationships because now, people of all different types and backgrounds, were forged together as one in the Body of Christ. It didn't matter where the person was from, what part of the country, whether Jew or Gentile, whether circumcised or not, whether chosen by God or not, whether slave or freeman. We are not brought together because of our performance. We are brought together because of Christ grafting us in. 

This is the type of love that should make us distinctive to the world. We must be careful to always show our love to the sinner.   

Outdo one another in showing honor
Honor is from the Greek word time or tio. It means to pay honor or respect. It is to show genuine appreciation or admiration to another person. It is others focused. Each person, in Christ, is to take the lead in showing appreciation and value in putting others first. How different is this view of people. We have a tendency to be so me focused. 

Driving home last night, once again, I was thinking about the entertainment age in which we live in. Entertainment is selfish. It is self-seeking and wanting to bring excitement and retreat and rest to ourselves. It brings enjoyment. It is selfish. Sure, we can do this in a community setting where we all jointly our satisfying ourselves together. 

But, in showing honor or paying respect to others our focus is not at all on ourselves.   

Danger: We are lazy
Then in verse 11, Paul brings home the tendency of each of us. We each have a tendency to be lazy and to be self-seeking in our time. We are to practice being a servant. 

I think one reason we have such a difficult time with this is, in our lives, the marketing message, is to get us to buy something, to have something for ourselves. It is focused on us and what the message tells us we need. And this pervades our lives continually. This is a message that attacks us throughout the day. And its focus over and over is on us. I think as we read God's word, and think about how the Spirit dwells in us, and that we are so weak to doing the things of God, that we must think about how we are trained continually by the world. Jesus calls us to be in the world, but not of the world. And we need His help. We need His strength. We need His guidance. We need His constant intervention in our lives if we are going to have the power to withstand the schemes of the enemy. 

We are prone to be lazy and to be persistently lagging behind in this laziness. 

Fervent in Spirit
Fervent is the Greek word Zeo and it means to bubble or boil. It can be viewed positively and negatively. One to have passion, one to have rage. It is to be enthusiastic (Petra "On Fire") or excited. It is a person that is so passionate about their tasks that they can hardly contain their excitement. 

Rather than being lazy, I am to boil over in my zeal and desire in my spirit. 

Serving the Lord
This is the reason I do what I do. This is the reason that I am to be devoted to one another in brotherly loves and to outdo one another in showing honor and lifting other people up, other than myself. The reason I do all of these things is because I am serving the Lord. The reason I do all things is my focus on the Lord and giving the Lord glory. It is not for my own selfish ambition or personal gain. I don't do it to make myself look better in other people's eyes or even in God's eyes. My goal in doing this is serving the Lord. My good works are not a condition for my salvation, they are a response to the great thing God has done in saving me. This is why I give God all the glory for all the deeds of my life. 

A servant is a slave and a slave always does what the master wants him to do. Be a slave. 

Promise: God's Holy Spirit does not work apart from the Word He inspired, and zeal that transgresses His revelation is not godly zeal. -- September 15, 2014 Tabletalk