Let love be without hypocrisy

Romans 12 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

³ For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. ⁴ For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ⁶ Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; ⁷ if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

⁹ Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. 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; ¹² rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, ¹³ contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. ¹⁶ Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. ¹⁷ Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. ¹⁸ If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. ¹⁹ Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. ²⁰ “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

In Psalm 23, The psalmist says:  The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.  He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…     What are we to do when the Lord prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies? According to today’s text:  “if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”     Heaping burning coals on the head of an enemy doesn’t sound like an act of compassion, but it is. The text says:  Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,”    God is the one who will take vengeance if vengeance is necessary. What then are the burning coals we heap on the head of our enemy by sharing our food and drink with them?

In Isaiah 6:1-7 it says:  In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”   The burning coal which cleansed Isaiah’s lips was a coal from the altar of sacrifice. So too are the coals we heap on our enemies coals of sacrifice meant to cleanse. Vengeance and judgment are God’s alone. Romans 2:1-7 says:  Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds.     God’s kindness leads to repentance. We are to be agents of that kindness, not of vengeance. Not that we love the things our enemies do, but rather that through kindness, through the cleansing fire of our sacrifice, they would be led to repentance. Today’s text says: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Christians, as a whole, are often accused of being hypocrites because they/we are intolerant and unloving. Today’s text says:  Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.    This is in agreement with what Jesus Himself says in Luke 6:27-33:   “I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.”    As believers, we are held to a higher standard than the world. We are to treat others the way we would want to be treated, not the way we are treated.  Today’s text says:  Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.    As believers we need to remember that these words, this instruction is for us. We should not expect that the world will adhere to the same standard to which we are called.

There is an aspect of our love though that the world will not be satisfied or content with. Paul says: Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.   In truth we are hypocrites if we condone and tolerate evil, if we compromise rather than clinging to what is good. 1 John 4:19 says: We love, because He first loved us.     Our love, our love for God and our love for others, is only because He first loved us. The love of God is unconditional and without hypocrisy. God did not show His love by tolerating our sin. Instead,   God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)   If we love because God first loved us, if we love without hypocrisy we will abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. It indeed is hypocritical for us as Christians not to love. It is also hypocritical for us to tolerate and not abhor what is evil. In Isaiah 5:20, God speaking through the prophet says:  Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!    In Matthew 5:13-19 Jesus says:   “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that  they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Today’s text began saying:  Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.    Both our lives and our love should be a sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable. If we will live and love as those who are not conformed to the world yet love it, if we will love without hypocrisy, abhorring what is evil, God will trust us enough to prepare a table before us in the presence of our enemies. We will give food and drink to them, that by the kindness of our sacrifice they would repent and be cleansed; that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.  He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…  May I live and love without hypocrisy as a demonstration of Your love.  In Jesus name, Amen.