Let love be without hypocrisy.
Overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:9-21 open and close with these two statements. That sums it up and this blog entry is done right there.
But between verses 9 and 21 Paul packs in every bit of practical and sensible advice about how exactly to do just that. And if we did everything listed in those 12 verses we the people of Jesus Christ would never ever face legitimate criticism for hypocrisy on social media again.
We’d transform our culture. We’d transform our world.
This requires that we ourselves not only submit to being transformed ourselves, but also that we choose to live out the transformation in every action, every word, every attitude, every thought, every motive.
There’s the trick. There’s the challenge. There’s the standard.
“This is how we live!” and “We walk and live differently than others.” Meghan drove home over and over again in this Sunday morning chat that we have a higher standard. We have a higher calling.
It requires that we choose. And it requires that we allow ourselves to be sifted, that we sit in squirmy discomfort and examine ourselves honestly, without looking away from all the ugly. We remember what we see, and we choose something different.
And it requires that other people experience the goodness of God because we have chosen this very uncomfortable goodness.
Choosing to let go of every selfish and self-oriented thing is the Way of the Cross. Goodness honours others. It doesn’t consider vengeance or justifications or personal ambitions or pride. It considers what is best for others.
Jesus, when asked, “What is the most important thing a person can do to show allegiance for God,” answered, “Love Him more than you love yourself; and love others as much as you love yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39, Evonne’s personal paraphrase)
This is a triangulated thing: God and me and everyone else, all tied together with cords of self-sacrificing love. That is how the world is going to change: with me choosing the good of others over what’s comfortable for me.
No amount of political support, financial backing, social service, public service programing, or social media influence is going to make the difference that this alone will make.
I cannot think of a problem on this earth it wouldn’t solve, honestly. War, racism, any-ism, hunger, sickness, poverty, abuse….. all gone in the face of self-sacrificial love for others. The kind of love described in Romans 12: patience, hard truths, affection, humble listening, meeting needs, blessing those who fail to live up to this standard. Weeping with hurting people, giving up revenge, living for peace, forgiving those who offend you instead of trying to fix them, laying down what’s most important to you in order to hold up what’s best for someone else, submitting to truth, praying for mercy on those who have broken your heart.
Here’s the problem: just typing that I can hear the problem…. who gets to decide what is true, what is needful, what peace means, what’s best for others, how to let others have their way without allowing myself to be abused in the midst of it?
Fixing a broken world isn’t simple. No one human being has ready and universally applicable answers.
But if every one of us embraced Romans 12 we could save the world.
A bit optimistic. Out of reality. Not actually humanly possible. Agreed.
Okay, never mind every single one of the 8.3 billion of us.
What if one of us, what if I … what if you … embraced Romans 12 in the examining and enabling power of the Holy Spirit …. what could be saved?
In my bible, just at the top of Romans 12:1, I have a sticky note on which I’ve written this: “Every verse of this chapter could save a marriage.”
Every verse of this chapter could save a child.
Every verse of this chapter could save a family.
Can we just start there? With that? With me, and with you? One person and one verse at a time.
Choose goodness: microactions that actually make you look wildly, lovingly, genuinely different than you did before. We aren’t changing anyone…. but ourselves. This is how we’ll change the world.
Let your love be without any hypocritical motives, and you yourself be so thoroughly and genuinely good that you purge evil from the world of people in your own home.
