When Jesus was asked what is the greatest command he summarized everything up into two main areas of thought. Love God. Love your neighbor. Specifically, His words were: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).
When reading the book of Romans, one can easily divide the book up into two sections. Chapters 1-11 are highly theological, while chapters 12-16 are highly relational. One might even describe it as the first half is all about how we love God, and the second half is how we love our neighbor. The first half is vertical, while the second is horizontal. But before we divide too deep, we need to understand the relationship these two thoughts play together. Since we love God and want to understand the Christian doctrine to demonstrate our love for Him, we should also love our neighbors and understand the personal relationship needed to demonstrate our love for them.
Chapter 12 opens with the theme of not being conformed to the world around us but instead having a transformed renewed mind (12:2). The Christian should not be like the world. Instead, the Christian has the Holy Spirit and should act accordingly by transforming ourselves so that as we are in the world, we are responding to people based upon how God responded to us in Christ Jesus.
God’s response was love, and with His help, our response to others should be love as well. Paul admonishes us to demonstrate true love in our relationships. Genuine, sincere love from the heart wisely chooses to trust and be devoted wholeheartedly to giving and serving the will of God for the benefit of others. Specifically, here are Paul’s words: “Love must be free of hypocrisy. Detest 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” (Romans 12: 9-14).
This leads us right up to the passage that Matthew and I will preach on Sunday. Specifically: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 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” (Romans 12:15-16).
To hear what we say about that, you’ll have to pay attention during the sermon. But the idea is simple… it’s about how you emotionally love your neighbor.
~ Alex