SERMON - The Impossible Commandments? Pt. 2 (totally rewritten) - 5th November 2023 - Glenboig Christian Fellowship
Click below to listen to the sermon being preached:
Reading - Romans 12. 9-21
Overview
The last time I was able to preach here, we explored vv9-14 of this amazing Scripture passage. We explored Paul’s instructions concerning our love (that it must be genuine), our relationships within the Church (that they should be familial), the state of our spirit (that it should be constantly on the boil, ready at once to boil over, and how it should be a spirit of blessing and not cursing), the source of our hope (only in the Lord Jesus), and our service to others (strengthened by our hope in the Lord, allowing us to minister even when we ourselves are struggling). There was a reason I named the sermon ‘The Impossible Commandments?’ - as they do sound rather difficult to achieve. However, I hope we came away with an understanding of how much work God puts in to helping us attain this, and how we should rest fully in Him and lean on His understanding (Prov. 3. 5-6).
Today we are going to continue our way through this passage, looking at the verses 15-21. However, before we do, I am going to invite us to take a step back and explore this passage in the context of the Letter, and the context of Christian life at the time.
It is believed that Paul wrote his letter to the Romans in around 56-57AD. While it was Paul who wrote the letter, he entrusted it into the hands of a lady called Phoebe for delivery. It was to be delivered by her because Paul was, at the time, undertaking his third missionary or pastoral visit to the Church in Corinth (Acts 20. 1-3). Phoebe was a lady Paul described as “a servant of the Church in Cenchreae”, nor far from Corinth (R. 16. 1). Paul was not able to deliver the letter, or the teaching, himself because he was preparing to return to Palestine to take the Churches’ donation to the Hebrew Church (see R. 15. 25). We know that Paul intended to visit Rome himself (and indeed eventually did), but felt he could only do so once he had fulfilled his ministry in Asia and Greece (R. 15. 19,23).
To quote Chuck Swindoll, “The apostle Paul wrote to the Romans… just three years after the 16-year-old Nero had ascended to the throne as Emperor of Rome. The political situation in the capital had not yet deteriorated for the Roman Christians, as Nero wouldn’t begin his persecution of them until he made them scapegoats after the great Roman fire in AD 64. Therefore, Paul wrote to a church that was experiencing a time of relative peace, but a church that he felt needed a strong dose of basic gospel doctrine.”
Paul achieved this in a number of ways. In chapters 1-3, he explained how mankind’s sin is what separates us from God, chapters 4-5 show how we are clothed in the righteousness of God when we are justified by faith, being transformed from rebels into followers (6-8). In chapters 9-11 Paul explores God’s righteousness through His approach to the Jews, and in chapters 12-16 we are shown how we can apply God’s righteousness in our lives. It is these final chapters that we are within as we read today from chapter 12 - we are focussed on the application of God’s righteousness in our lives.
Now these instructions would be very important for a Church in relative peace and safety, but let’s imagine what an impact these instructions would have for the Church some ten years later when Nero began his dreadful persecution. More than ever the Roman Christians would have had to hold on to the instructions they received from Paul, and hold on to their faith in the Lord Jesus, as everything else around them fell away.
And wherever we feel the Church is today, from being in relative peace and security to enduring a Nero-esque attack, these instructions from Paul are every bit as helpful for us.
But why is this set of instructions concerning the Church’s behaviour so important? Surely the most important thing for Paul to focus on is how the Church believed. Well, of course, our faith, our sincere beliefs, are crucial - but they are not everything. Particularly for those on the outside looking in, they will be less interested in our doctrinal purity and more interested in how this purity shapes our lives. Perhaps this is summed up in this wee poem:
You are writing a gospel,
A chapter each day,
By the deeds that you do,
And the words that you say.
And men read what you write,
Distorted or true;
So, what is the gospel
According to you?
So as we explore these verses, yet let us consider how our faith and belief is shaped, moulded and challenged by the instructions, but also consider what effect this will, this must, have on our lives, our behaviour, our approach to life.
The Sympathetic Christian - Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. (v15)
The Dictionary defines ‘sympathetic’ as “feeling or showing kindness and understanding”, and perhaps this is as good a place as any to start. And, indeed, when compared to some of the instructions that Paul gave us last time, perhaps this is an easier one to get our heads around. After all, we know that our emotions are in no small part fed into by the company we keep. If we associate with grumps, we likely feel grumpy; if we associate with rays of sunshine, we likely feel happier. I know this first hand, and perhaps you do too - when friends of mine have experienced depressive episodes, it has made me feel gloomy too. Try as I might to be a ray of sunshine, it has normally ended with me being brought low as well. Similarly, which of us, on seeing a friend rejoicing, can help ourselves but smile. Which of us, on knowing that a family member or friend has safely given birth, can help but breathe a sigh of relief and rejoice at a new life coming in to the world. Maybe it is as easy as saying that happy company makes one happy, and sad company makes one sad.
However, if Paul was simply expounding a default human emotion, he would not have needed to explain this with such starkness. So if this isn’t about other people’s emotions rubbing off on us, what is it about? Well, perhaps this can be seen most clearly when we have to empathise with folk we don’t really like. Or have to try and experience feelings that we’ve never had to feel before. Perhaps this verse shows us that, as much as it may feel to the contrary, our emotions are a wee bit more under our control than society would have us believe.
And what better an example can we think of than the current war in the Holy Land. Like me, I am sure you will have been shocked, saddened, upset, by the tragic scenes we have heard and seen unfolding in the news. Like me, you will have held in prayer the innocent civilians. Perhaps you will have joined our Governments in condemning the Hamas militants as terrorists. But these feelings become a little harder when we consider those innocent folk on the Palestinian side. A more dated example could be drawn with the city of Dresden during the Second World War - the German city that was flattened and burned alive by Allied bombing raids. Were the Brits of the time able to ‘weep with them that wept’? This is where it becomes more difficult.
But what may this look like? Well, let us consider what empathy or sympathy actually is. It is not the well timed, “Oh you poor thing”. It is not the tenner in the collection plate for the victims of yet another natural disaster. It is not the perfunctory prayer offered for people in a far off land, of whom we know little. Rather, as we can see of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel, it is an unconscious effort spurred and prompted not by knowing ‘how we ought to behave’ but by an instinctive movement of the heart. As Matthew writes, “But when He saw the crowds, [Jesus] had compassion on them” (Matt. 9. 36). This phrase ‘had compassion’, in the original languages, means that feeling we get at the pit of our stomachs - as though we’d been punched in the gut and winded. Or that phrase we get when we are ‘cut to the heart’. It is all we can do not to burst into tears.
But, lest we think this is something we have to train ourselves for, as a Police Dog is trained to sniff out cocaine, let us remember that we can achieve this state of mind only by the grace of God. We must pray that God would give us a true sense of compassion, a truly empathetic and sympathetic spirit, that we may worthily come alongside people to share in their greatest highs and lows - for then and only then can we hope to tenderly show love one to another.
The United Christian - Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. (v16)
Neatly following on from the previous verse is this instruction to live in harmony one with another, and of course this is easiest to do when we can sympathise and empathise with each other’s highs and lows. However, when I consider that my previous denomination had the word ‘United’ in the title, I can say with certainty that harmony was not one of the values I experienced. The Church, like any organisation, risks fracturing into small groups if it fails to keep that which unites it at the front and centre of its mind. For us in the Church, the two unifying factors are 1) our sinfulness, and 2) God’s grace. Once we lose sight of these two, or once we introduce other sources of attention in, we risk becoming a separate body. In my previous denomination there were neighbouring Churches within the denomination who refused to have anything to do with each other because they were doctrinally so different! How can this be??
Now, of course, this verse does not mean that we need to agree in every way with our fellow Christian. Within a Church, let alone within a denomination, there will be people of different political persuasions, different upbringings, different approaches to various issues. Jesus surely doesn’t want us to become a bunch of robots, whose feelings have been artificially extracted like some creature from Doctor Who.
However, these differences aside, we must be sure that within our Christian family (that is, the Church) there is a one-ness of mind that stems from a common purpose, a common aim, a common desire. As we considered, that desire should be nothing other than to follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to declare the unsearchable truths and riches of His grace, to follow more fully in His paths, and, to quote the Shorter Catechism, ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him for ever’ (WSC. A1). After all, our common denominator is the Lord Jesus Christ, is the fact that we are sinners saved by God’s grace, is the fact that we have been called from the dominion of darkness into the Kingdom of light (para. Col. 1. 13). And, of course, when we have these values, these essentials in common, and are working towards the shared values of the Kingdom, our favourite kind of cheese, our favourite city, or love or hatred of Marmite pales into absolute insignificance. What matters is not our funny opinions, but rather our shared need of and delight in God.
Therefore our different talents, gifts, positions, bank balances or statuses are no excuse for differentiation among Christians. It is important to remember that satan will use and exploit any crack in our armour to try and divide us, and if he can get inbetween us by capitalising on our differences, he will. Furthermore, 1 Corinthians reminds us that our love should be love that “does not insist on its own way” (1 Cor. 13. 5), and instead seeks the good of others.
But harmony is not just the overcoming of different opinions and worldviews. It is also overcoming the statuses that we humans love to apply to ourselves. We can remember the Two Ronnies’ sketch, “I look down on him, for he is working class… I know my place”. While, to our modern egalitarian world, phrases like ‘the lowly’ may not sit well, it is undeniable that our society is still made up of the have’s and the have-not’s - those who know from where their next meal will come, and those who fear it will never arrive. We may be from different backgrounds in this congregation this morning, yet we are still better off than the vast majority of mankind who live in abject poverty. The dreadful statistics show that the richest 0.8% of the world’s population owns over 51% of its resources, with the richest 20% owning over 80% of its resources. This verse is therefore telling us, in the words of JB Philips, “Don’t become snobbish but take a real interest in ordinary people” (JBP - Letters to Young Churches), or, as Keble wrote,
"The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask;
Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer God" (John Keble).
The Peaceful Christian - Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honourable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. (vv17-18)
We will come back to not repaying evil for evil in a few minutes, but let us consider “what is honourable in the sight of all”. What IS honourable in the sight of all?
Have you ever come across those rather rare people in life who you never once needed to doubt? That person who you knew, when he said yes, meant it, and when he said no, meant it just as much? That person who, when she said she would be there, was, and when she said she understood, did? That person was honourable in the sight of all, for that person was known to be trustworthy and honest. Indeed, the King James Version gives this instruction as “Provide things honest in the sight of all men”. Paul is telling his hearers and readers that, in our day to day lives, we must act in a way that means those around us have no reason to doubt our intentions and thoughts. That’s to say, we must never give people cause to think we are of dubious character. We are not the kind of person who goes into a revolving door after someone but comes out before them; we aren’t the person who, when folks shake our hands, have to count their fingers to make sure we haven’t pinched one - we should be people to be relied upon.
But how can we hope to achieve this? Well, a big start would be to practice what we preach - and for this we need look no further than the Lord Jesus Christ for an example. It was He who told His followers to turn the other cheek, and this is exactly what He did when enduring the Roman beatings and hanging from the Roman cross.
To again return to the poem:
You are writing a gospel,
A chapter each day,
By the deeds that you do,
And the words that you say.
And men read what you write,
Distorted or true;
So, what is the gospel
According to you?
The Gospel according to Jesus was clear, and was seen most clearly in the deeds that He did and the words that He said. Can we say the same thing?
But of course, our honour is but one part of this instruction, for we are also told to “Repay no one evil for evil… If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all”
Now, repaying no one evil for evil should be obvious, but even that can be taxing at times. How many of us have been badly overtaken on a motorway and wanted nothing more than to zoom up the outside lane and dart back in front of the offending car? How many of us have been mistreated in some way and wanted nothing more than to ‘give as good as we got’?
I think we have to be realistic here. This is an entire chapter dedicated to the way we should endeavour to live our lives; yet even Paul himself admitteed that the things he wanted to do, he didn’t do, and the things he didn’t want to do, he did (R. 7. 15ff). And perhaps this is why he included the caveat, “so far as it depends on you”. We are fallen people. We are sinners. We live in a world which seems totally unsuited to following Jesus. We are selfish, we are petty, and we know full well that “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” There are times, thankfully infrequent, where the way of non-resistance and peace would actually do more damage to God’s creation than a measured response. It could be argued, after all, that if we had followed Jesus’ instruction to the letter in 1939, we should have not just allowed Hitler to invade Czechoslovakia, but additionally offered him France, Belgium and southern England! For, as we know, Christ told us to walk two miles with the person who forced us to walk one, and to be ready to give not just the shirt off our back, but anything else the person demanded. However, we also know that it we would not have been fulfilling the requirements of the Christian steward of God’s creation to sit by and let evil take place in front of us. Sometimes, as contradictory as it may seem, we do actually need to stand up and fight for the pursuit of peace and harmony. It is for this reason that Paul includes, “so far as it depends on you”.
The Trusting Christian - 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”. (v19)
Now I believe this verse is one of the more dangerous verses that we have covered so far - for it is one open to the greatest risk of misunderstanding and abuse. So first let us consider what it is NOT saying:
1) It is not saying to never act in the face of evil - as we considered a moment ago, there are times where we need to act for the good of others, for the good of God’s creation.
2) It is not saying we should be totally uninterested in the present because God will ‘deal with it’ in the future.
3) It is not saying that we should delight in the wicked of this world experiencing God’s wrath in the time to come.
So what is it saying? Here we are being reminded that God is in charge. That God created the world, that He governs it according to His laws, and that He will repay us according to our actions once we meet Him face to face. It is not for us to fight His battles for Him, nor is it for us to exact vengeance or restitution from our enemies.
Think back to your schooldays. When someone offended or slighted you in the classroom or the playground, we were told not to go over and deck the person, but instead to tell the teacher. This is because we were not the ones in charge - the teachers were. Similarly, if someone commits a crime against us, we are not within our rights to find the person and exact revenge upon them - the correct course of action is to report it to the police and allow that person to receive the King’s justice.
Furthermore, let’s return to the playground. Sometimes another child may have upset or offended us, and we thought they were deserving of punishment. If we’d had our way, we’d have pinned them against a wall and exacted revenge for ourselves. But we didn’t know what was going on in that other child’s life. For all we knew, there may have been 101 reasons the child acted the way he did, and that may be a reason not to punish him, or at the very least to show him some compassion. Similarly the only person who knows the full in-s and out-s of the situation on earth is God - for He is over all and in all.
As His creatures, we have to trust that God is just. God is good. We believe that, as the Creator and Ruler of the earth, He has all things within His power. Furthermore we believe that, as a Good God, He will not leave the righteous to suffer, nor will He leave unrepented sin unpunished. It is essential that we believe this and trust in it.
And because of this, it is important that we allow God to have His place, and remember our position in life. We would not take someone to court and then play judge, jury and executioner ourselves. No, rather we would allow Court to take place, the people to play their part, and trust that just judgement be meted out. Similarly here - if people sin against, or mistreat, us, it is not for us to punish. Rather, that is a matter between them and God. We should encourage, yes; we should rebuke if appropriate, to encourage our Christian brother or sister along the right path; but to punish is the prerogative of the Lord and Creator of the world, to whom every knee bows. After all, our Lord God says ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay’ (Deut. 32. 35) - the unrepentant may escape earthly judgement, but will never escape heavenly justice. I say this not to give us a thrill of knowing that some people are being punished, but this does remind us that we mustn’t usurp God’s authority.
The Challenging Christian - 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 upon his head”. (v20)
In another difficult commandment, and quotation from the Old Testament, here Paul is explaining how we should respond to our enemies. If he is hungry, we are told to “feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink”. Now, on its own, that may sound a very Jesus-y instruction, but when coupled with the second half of the sentence, it become a bit more alarming; for, we are told, “by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head”.
Many interpreters of this passage would say that Paul is teaching Christians to do good to people so that the ‘enemy’ will feel ashamed and repent. This is possible, after all, “In Egypt, there had been a custom to carry a pan of burning coals on one’s head as a sign of repentance. Kindness and forgiveness to those who abuse us, ideally, will make them ashamed of themselves, and hopefully bring them to repent. The strongest, most powerful response to persecution and hatred is to love your enemies.” And, to be fair, there have perhaps been times in our lives where a person’s loving response to our thoughtless or unkind action may have been the thing that led us to repent.
However, I don’t think we should underestimate what Paul is writing here. While it is true that our kind response may lead others to repentance, we should also remember that each time we are kind to our abuser, we are giving them another chance to repent, and every opportunity they fail to take is another mark against them in the Book of Life. After all, “in the OT the concept of “burning coals” always represents punishment (see Psalm 11.6). Thus another interpretation is that Paul is repeating the thought of verse 19: Christians are to do good to wrongdoers, whom God will punish on the last day if they refuse to repent. Overcoming evil with good includes acts of kindness toward evildoers. Sometimes it is about responding kindly and gently, while also recognising that our acts of kindness may also be the rope with which the offender is hanging himself. Therefore it is imperative that, alongside our kindness, we also warn the person - we do not want to offer the person the rope without first warning him of the outcome his actions will have.
The Overcoming Christian - Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (v21)
If one verse were to sum up the whole text, it would surely be this closing verse. Ellicott describes this as a “fine sentiment”, it is a good way to be, and reminds us that exacting vengeance is not a sign of strength but rather a sign of weakness. It is not a marker of a good disciple, but rather of one who has erred and strayed from Christ’s way.
If we are able to overcome our base, fleshy urge for revenge, it will mean we have tamed the body. James speaks of taming the tongue (Jas. 3. 8), of stopping our tongue leading us into sin. So too, if we can hold off revenge, if we can overcome our urge to delight at other people’s misfortune, if we can condescend to people of low estate, if we can stop ourselves ‘giving as good as we get’, or avenging ourselves, then we will not be “overcome by evil”.
Not only is this way of life the more noble way to live, not only is this way of life more likely to encourage people to follow Jesus, but this way will help us to overcome our fleshy desires and live for Christ, and Him alone.
Conclusion
Today’s verses have followed on from my last sermon, and overall contain a picture of how Paul expected the Roman church to live. While there are great differences between us now and the Church in Rome in the first century AD, and whilst we must remember that these instructions were primarily written for them and not for us, from these verses we can learn some very important lessons about the Christian life. We can learn the importance of being united in Christ, with a shared passion for the Gospel and means of grace; we can learn the overcoming power of peacefulness, and the effect it can have on those who seek us harm; we can learn the importance of trusting in God and relying on His good judgement in all things; and we can learn why overcoming evil through good is the only way to be worthy of Christ.
And lastly we can learn, through Paul’s challenging words to us, that it is not just our doctrinal purity that matters to God, for what good to Him is a Church that believes the right things but does not do them. So we can challenge ourselves in the words of the poem:
You are writing a gospel,
A chapter each day,
By the deeds that you do,
And the words that you say.
And men read what you write,
Distorted or true;
So, what is the gospel
According to you?