Monday
Romans 12.9 “Love must be sincere.”
I learned chunks of Romans by heart as a young Christian, in the King James Version! “Let love be without dissimulation.” Reading the older translation increased my word power as a teenager new to reading the Bible. Dissimulation is deliberate play-acting, pretending something is true when it is not. Paul is saying that in a Christian community there’s no place for pretence. God’s love poured into our hearts is the real thing. Its authenticating hallmarks are faithfulness that creates trust, costly service to others, and compassion and practical help. Love without dissimulation.
Tuesday
Romans 12.9b “Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.”
Hate is a strong word, but if love is to be genuine, then its flip side is to hate what is evil, to abhor and resist what harms, hurts and diminishes others. Paul is well aware of the many ways sin gets in the way of love, and Christian community can be so easily undermined when love falters. The positive is to cling to what is good. In our thinking, lifestyle and actions to support what is life-giving, to encourage kindness and generosity, to be a persistent voice for good and a vocal opponent of the common undercurrents of jealousy, dislike, gossip and resentment that drain the joy and affection out of Christian fellowship. Cling to what is good, hold on to love.
Wednesday
Romans 12.10 “Be devoted to one another in love as brothers and sisters. Honour one another above yourselves.
These two imperatives say much the same thing. Mutual affection and honour is love that is emotionally grounded in friendship and respect. What proves love in the Christian community is sincere is the quality of relationships being built. Being devoted to one another means we notice who is not there, we care what happens in each of our lives, we appreciate each other’s gifts, we bear one another’s burdens, we look not only to our own interests, we want to see each other flourish in our relationship with God. We will be there for each other, as God is ever there for us.
Thursday
Romans 12.11 “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord.”
Paul learned the hard way that unrestrained and unexamined zeal can do serious damage to those who get in our way! Our first zeal is to love the God who in Christ revealed what love is – reconciling grace and costly forgiveness. We love because God first loved us. Our spiritual fervour is nothing less than the fire of God’s love igniting everything in us that will burn, the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and overflowing in Spirit-enabled and loving service to others for Jesus’ sake. “Still let me guard, the holy fire / and still stir up Thy gift in me.”
Friday
Romans 12.12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer”.
There’s a three point sermon if ever there was one! Joyful hope, patience in the tough times, and faithfulness in prayer; three ways in which we can know our love for God is real and without dissimulation, and be confident that our faith is rooted and grounded in the faithfulness of God. This demands an inner discipline of faith, a heart receptive to God’s Spirit-given grace, grace that is always sufficient and a mind guarded by God’s peace which is beyond our understanding, but no less real for that!
Saturday
Romans 12.13 “Share with God’s people who are in need.”
Sharing is by definition a habit of generosity, a willingness to give what is ours for the benefit of others. ‘Share’ is the English translation of ‘koinoneo’, Paul’s word for fellowship as partnership. In Christian community we are committed to the care of each other, we are all in this following Christ thing together! Make fellowship real by looking after each other, making sure each has daily necessities. Let no one be overlooked, or left to struggle on their own when life is hard. Whatever else pastoral care is, it is a community commitment to each other’s welfare, physical, emotional and spiritual. In that sense too, “Let love be without dissimulation.” Martin Luther once said that property, including money, is fellowship in created things.
Sunday
Romans 12.13b “Practice hospitality.”
Hospitality is both a practice, and a disposition. Hospitality is something we do as an expression of welcome and goodwill to others. In Paul’s world hospitality was an obligation for Jewish people rooted in their own experience of being strangers in Egypt, wanderers in the wilderness, and exiles from their homeland. The community of Christ is to be a place of welcome, inclusion and refuge. It is more than a shake of the hand and an invitation to coffee afterwards. “Welcome and accept one another as Christ has welcomed and accepted you”, is Paul’s spelling out of hospitality as doing to others as God in Christ has done to us. This is no optional afterthought. Paul is telling all Christians to treat others as God has treated them in Christ. To practice hospitality is to be a community of consistent love, open welcome, and generous sharing.
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