Romans 12:9 - Genuine Goodness and Love

Romans 12:9 - Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

Message: We love based upon the Love given to us by God.

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

What the Lord is Saying: 

Leading up
In Romans 5, it spoke of God's love pouring out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit (5:5). And Christ dying for us was a demonstration of God's love (5:8) toward us. Nothing, in our lives, can separate us from the love of Christ (8:35). And we can conquer things because of His Love (8:37). Nothing in life can separate us from the Love of God (8:39). This is our example of love. It is poured out or freely given. It is sacrificing, so it is not self-seeking. It is unconditional. It is not based upon a condition or act or performance of another person. And love gives us the power to accomplish anything. No matter what we ever will do or have done or currently are doing, that love is always there for us. There could be no greater example of love. 

The message of this chapter has been on love. The previous three verses focused on gifts that we as believers in Christ, of the church, are to make sure we recognize that we have and we are serving these gifts to others in our lives. We are part of the body of Christ. We are unique and we are members of one another. We are to present ourselves to God and not be conformed to the ways of the world. The ways of the world are often self-seeking. They are selfish. They are about focusing on self. But, our mind is to be renewed each day to this act of looking outside of ourselves, to others. 

Love
Now, in verse 9, we are to understand that in this service, in this sacrifice, it it to be a genuine love. It is not to be two-faced or about multiple selfish motives. The goal is not to get something, but it is to give something. 

There was a break from verse 8 to verse 9. Verse 8 ended the description of the gifts. Verse 9 is not a gift, but it is a command to every believer. I am reminded of my children and when they have done something wrong, we tell them to shake hands or say you are sorry or hug your sister. In that moment, they are angry and upset and we are forcing their hand on being loving. They are in a state where they don't want to be loving and yet we are forcing them to love. This clearly is not what Paul is speaking about here. This love is not to be forced or based upon being coerced. 

This verse must be the hallmark idea or feeling of all that we do in Christ as we serve others. In everything that we do, we do it with genuine love toward others. We are not trying to get the award or get the recognition or get the payback or a return. I am always amazed by those preachers that stand up and say, "if you will do this for God, then you will get something incredible in return." That is not the sentiment here. Our focus is not on ourselves. Our love is to be genuine and again, in no way, to be self seeking. 

This is hard because so much in our life is focused on pleasing ourselves and getting things for ourselves. "Everybody is working for the weekend" was the popular song by Loverboy as I was in middle school. And it reminds me of what I see often at work. The work week begins with one goal in mind, the end of the week and the weekend so that we can have "me" time. And I often here at work about the great retirement that we have. So, beyond each day, every month and year is inching ourselves towards getting out and getting a retirement. But, I am to love my work and the fact that through it I get to help people and serve them. 

Abhor evil, cling to good
Then, I think, here is a sort of separate thought. We are to hate evil. This is becoming harder and harder because the line between good and evil is becoming much more blurry. And as we begin to hate things that we view as evil, society now sees those same things as being practically good and so the Christian is then viewed as intolerant. 

And yet we are called to not simply hate. The Greek word for hate is stugeo, but this word is apostugeo. It is used in the New Testament only in this verse. It is a continual vigilance to separate ourselves from that which is evil. Yes, it is to hate, but then it is to not want to be near it. We must daily surrender to the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. We don't possess the power on our own to stay away from evil. We will have victory's and we will be defeated at times. Thankfully, our standard is not perfection, though we strive for this. 

Because we are abhorring what is evil, we cling to what is good. Cling is the Greek word kollao. In the same way that evil is expressed by having a complete hatred toward evil, good here literally means to glue, cement, join or fasten together. Just like abhor, cling is in the present tense which means this is to mark the believer's daily lifestyle. And once again, we are unable to do this on our own, we must daily surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit, the one that speaks the truth of Jesus and His life in our lives.

The most familiar use of the word kollao (cling) in the New Testament is taught about the husband and wife relationship, that when one gets married, they leave their father and mother and cling together, the man clings to his wife, and the two become one flesh (Matthew 19:5).

We really must daily evaluate the connections we have made with the World and what it is offering to us. We must be very careful, even in our churches, whether we have brought into the church ideas and notions and beliefs from the outside world and are now calling them Christian. We must pray each day, "Lord, I want to be careful. I think of the great words of Psalm 139:23-24, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life." This should be our daily cry to God. And then as we surrender to Him, we pray for a willingness in ourselves to accept what God has provided. For the Christian, we surrender to the Lord, realizing that often we have trained ourselves over time to be close to the things of the world, so as God shows us the right way, we are to pray that He gives us strength to accept what He provides.

Promise: Because love is one of God's attributes, any understanding of what it means to be made in His image and to live in a way that pleases Him must take into love into account.