Fervour

Romans 12:11- Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord.

We are justified through faith in Christ alone. I hope we all understand that. But I also hope that we do not use this glorious truth of ‘justification through faith in Christ alone’ to justify disobedience of any sort.

So let’s be really clear on this. A person is saved by faith and trust in Christ alone, and not by works and good deeds. We are sinners by nature and by choice, so our righteous works and good deeds if not accompanied by faith and trust in Christ are unfruitful and insufficient for justification from sin and for salvation. The good news of the Gospel is that it is ‘the power of God for the salvation of all who believe, for in it a righteousness from God is revealed’; in other words, we are saved by the grace and the righteousness of God and our salvation is a gift from God, not a consequence of any righteousness of our own. A person is saved by faith and trust in Christ alone, and not by works and good deeds.

However, in saying that;

James 2:14-17- What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

So, while works and good deeds should not be the point, they should serve as evidences of the reality of the point and the authenticity of your fellowship with the point.

Jesus is the point.

The deeds themselves do not justify, but they are a fruit of, and an evidence of the authenticity and the life of the faith that does justify. And our faith is suffocated when it is not given the opportunity to express itself in good deeds.

So, Paul wrote to the Colossians, ‘whatever you do, in whatever context you do it in, (work, study, family, recreation…whatever) do it as service to the Lord’. (my paraphrase). Because Christ is Lord of all, we have opportunity to worship and serve Him in everything that we do and to do so is to ‘offer our bodies as a living sacrifice’.

Paul commands that we ‘never be lacking in zeal, but that we keep our spiritual fervour’. This is a hard teaching.

That word ‘fervour’ is a very good translation- it means ‘very hot; glowing’, ‘exhibiting or marked by great intensity of feeling’; that’s exactly what the original language of this text conveys and commands. So, Paul is commanding us that we keep our love for God glowing hot at all times; seeking and serving Him with great intensity of feeling. Do not resign yourself to passionless and half-hearted spirituality and empty, meaningless religion- be on fire for God, always.

‘Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour’- What Paul is saying here is that though there are times and seasons, trials and circumstances in life which can make being zealous and fervent in seeking and serving the Lord very difficult, there is not a time or a season, a trial or a circumstance, where being ‘lukewarm’ in your seeking and service to the Lord should be acceptable to you.

‘Keep your spiritual fervour’.

This is one of the reasons why the fellowship of the church is so vitally important for the believer- because there will be times in life where you feel like shrinking back and giving up and drifting into lukewarmness and you need people to ‘spur you on towards love and good deeds’.

Because He gave His all to secure freedom for us, let’s give our all for Him, serving Him in all of the strength that He provides.

Love without Hypocrisy

Romans 12:9- Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Let's look at the second part of this verse first

Romans 12:9- “…Hate what it evil; cling to what is good’’

There is an objective, universal and defined good and an objective, universal and defined evil.

What is actually and truly good and what is actually and truly evil does not differ from person to person, from culture to culture, from generation to generation- God defines.

Good and evil is not defined individually, and relatively, by us- it is defined by God.

What this means is that good is not necessarily what you like or what you want to be good. Evil is not necessarily what you don't like or want you want to be evil.

In fact, we are inclined in our sin to hate what is good and to cling to what is evil.

John 3:19-20- This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

That's our inclination; our nature; in sin we love the darkness; we cling to evil; we hate the light.

Romans 12:9- ‘’Hate what is evil…’’

Don’t make the mistake of making a distinction between evils in your mind that you use to rationalize and justify your own personal collection of evils. Don’t suppose that some kinds of sin are self-destructive, but do not affect others. That’s false. Evil of any kind dishonors God and hurts people. There is no victimless sin or sin where there is but one victim. So, let’s be convinced of this; that evil of any and every kind is bad for us, and we would benefit to flee from it.

Paul chose his words very carefully and deliberately in verse. 9.

He does not say in this verse merely 'choose good over evil'- so it's not about your willpower- your resolve to come into the light, overpowering your will. He says 'hate what is evil (other translations say 'abhor' or 'loathe' what is evil) and cling to (cleave to; embrace with the deepest intimacy) what is good'.

In other words, and I find this to be incredibly good news, it is not that you find the strength within yourself to overpower your will and to choose good over evil, it is that God acts and God helps and your heart changes in such a way that you desire the goodness of God and you run to it; you loathe the evil of sin and you flee from it.

God works in us to draw us to Himself.

Earlier in chapter 12 of Romans;

Romans 12:2- Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world (loving what is evil, living in darkness), but be transformed (how?) by the renewing of your mind. (that is the work of the Holy Spirit on the believer). Then you will be able to test approve what God's will is- His good, pleasing and perfect will.

So, we ask, ‘Holy Spirit, work in us and help us to feel the same way as you do about that which is good and that which is evil. Renew our hearts and our minds in order that our lives might be transformed for your glory’.

That renewal doesn’t happen instantaneously. It’s not that God ‘snaps his fingers’ and all of a sudden we, as lovers of darkness and haters of light, become haters of darkness and lovers of light. Renewal is a life-long process that God initiates in us and completes in us. But hopefully, if you are born again, you can recognize evidences of this process taking place in your life- dissatisfaction with sin and darkness and a longing for Jesus and the light- a change of heart and a change of mind.

Now, to the first half of the verse- Romans 12:9- ‘'Love must be sincere…’’

(The New American Standard Bible says ‘Let love be without hypocrisy’- that’s a better translation, I think)

So, what is hypocrisy? And what would love look like without it?

Simply put, hypocrisy tries to make the outside look better than the inside. So, hypocrisy puts forward what looks like loving behaviors that do not really actually and accurately represent, and even hides, what we are feel inside.

Jesus said to the religious leaders; Matthew 15:7-8- ‘’You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘'These people honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.’’

The outside is not complimented by the inside. That’s hypocrisy.

Be warned- ‘man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart’.

It’s great that you’re singing; it’s great that you’re serving; it’s great that you’re giving- but where is your heart? Because singing, serving, giving etc is only worship when it comes out of the overflow of a Christ-exalting heart. Otherwise, it's just works.

So, we ask, ‘Holy Spirit, help us to love you and to love others without hypocrisy Renew our hearts and our minds in order that our lives might be transformed for your glory’.

Now, if you've read this far, let me point out that ‘let your love be genuine’ and ‘hate what is evil, cling to what is good’ are not two separate, detached thoughts. On the contrary, there is a clear, distinct relationship between our love for God proving to be sincere and without hypocrisy and our hatred towards that which is evil; our desire for that which is good.

Our hatred towards what is evil and our desire for God and that which is good is what proves our love for God to be sincere, genuine; authentic; without hypocrisy.

Jesus said;

John 14:15- If you love me, you will obey what I command

That isn’t a manipulative statement. I know that’s how you read it. But this isn’t Jesus manipulating you in order to get you to obey what he commands. It’s a statement of truth and consequence. The truth is that the consequence of a genuine love for God that comes from Him drawing us near to Him is obedience, in that we hate the evil that He hates and we cling to that which is good, because our desires have changed on account of Him. Then, our attitude becomes like David in Psalm 40:8- ‘’I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart."

A change of Heart

Proverbs 4:22- Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Your life is like a river and everything that flows down the river of your life comes down-stream from your heart. So, just as if there’s pollution flowing down a river, you need to go upstream to find its source in order to clean it up, so it is with sin in our lives; we need to go upstream to our hearts and deal with it there.

Jesus taught this explicitly.

Matthew 23:25-26- Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

Mark 7:20-23- "…What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean. For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'"

Jesus taught that we sin because our hearts are sinful and upstream from every area of our lives; sin comes out of the overflow of our heart and manifests itself in various ways. We sin because our hearts are sinful and because our hearts are sinful we love and desire sin.

John 3:19-20- This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

So, the verdict is in- and it's not the one that we wanted. Our inclination; our nature, the orientation of our heart in sin, is that we are darkness-loving and light hating. And if we are to come ‘out of the darkness and into the light’; if we are to ‘hate what is evil and cling to what is good’; we need a change of heart.

That’s why this work of regeneration is so wonderful and so important.Because aside from the work of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit in us to give us a new heart and a new mind with reformed desires, we will not come into the light- we love the darkness too much.

Jesus plainly teaches this in John 3, and then he goes on to say in verse. 21- ‘But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done (i.e. living by the truth, coming into the light) has been done through God.’

So we come out of the darkness and into the light because God begins and will complete a work in us to draw us to Himself.

That this work in us has begun is assumed in Romans 12, where Paul says;

Romans 12:2- Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world (loving what is evil, living in darkness), but be transformed (how?) by the renewing of your mind. (that is the work of the Holy Spirit on the believer). Then you will be able to test approve what God's will is- His good, pleasing and perfect will.

That renewal doesn’t happen instantaneously. It’s not that God wriggles his nose and all of a sudden we, as lovers of darkness and haters of light, become haters of darkness and lovers of light. Renewal is a life-long process.

But hopefully, if you are born again, you can recognize evidences of this process taking place in your life- dissatisfaction with sin and darkness and a longing for Jesus and the light- a change of heart and a change of mind.

Paul calls for our heart and it’s feelings and our mind and it’s attitudes to come into conformity with God’s word and will in such a way that can only be achieved by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 12 calls us to live and think and act and feel in a way that goes far beyond superficial deeds and towards the radical outworking of a transformed heart- and only God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, can truly and totally change our hearts in this way.

A quick lesson from my first leader, Phil Hutchinson

Romans 12:10- Be devoted to one another in brotherly love….’’

He does not say ‘in view of God’s mercy, tolerate each other…put up with each other’- he commands us to do much more than that.

1 Peter 1:22-23- Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

So, the will of God for his children is not just to do good things for each other, and not just to pray for each other or speak decently of each other or to tolerate each other- but to love each other from the heart.

Some of you will be thinking; ‘’I see that God wants to me love my brothers and sisters in Christ, but there are some that I honestly don’t love. I want to be obedient to God in loving them but I know that God sees my heart and I don’t want to be a hypocrite. What do I do?’’

First and foremost, pray.

Pray that God, the Holy Spirit would move in power on your heart and work the miracle that neither you nor I can work on our own. Pray that God would change your heart. Pray that you would see your brother or your sister through your Father’s eyes.

I still remember this lesson that I learnt from my first leader; Phil Hutchinson. I had just become a Christian and He discipled me early on. He had his work cut out for him.

I remember I had a major problem with a girl in the church. I hated her. To me, she was the problem with the church- the reason that it wasn’t growing. I told Phil about my feelings and I was sure that he was going to agree and expel her from the church. To my surprise and to my disappointment, he instructed me to ‘pray for her’.

Pray for her??

Not pray about her??

Not pray against her??

Not to pray that she would change, but to pray for her good??

So I did and the most miraculous thing happened; she didn’t change at all, but my heart towards her did.

Prayer works- if there is somebody who you are struggling to love, particularly if they are your brother or your sister in Christ, pray for them and pray for the Holy Spirit to help you to love them in the way God calls you to.

Parameters for gifts

Romans 12:3-8- For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Here’s the big picture- in view of God’s mercy, serve one another with your gifts with humility. That is what Paul is trying to achieve in this passage; that, having tasted grace and mercy from God, we would all extend grace and mercy from God to each other in various ways.

In this passage, Paul identifies the parameters for the operation of gifts of all kinds in the church- humility. Verse. 3 sets up and carries through the entire passage.

Romans 12:3- For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment…’’

In another conversation about the operation of gifts within the church in 1st Corinthians, he identifies these parameters more broadly as being ‘love’.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3- If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

As soon as we step outside of the parameters of selfless humility and love in the operation of any gift, pride threatens to spoil the act of using our gifts and the outcome of our using our gift. Gifts operating outside of the parameters of selfless humility and love often lead to spiritual abuse. So, Paul says, ‘to every one of you: begin to operate in gifts; but before you do, and as you do, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment’.

A person with sober judgment acknowledges that they are fallen, but doesn’t stop there; they ultimately rejoice in Christ and exalts Christ and lives by faith in Christ. Sober judgment consents to do great things for the Kingdom of God, yet in the knowledge that the strength to do these great things comes from God and we are utterly dependent on Him to do them. So, Paul says ‘keep in the front of your minds always and in all that you do who you live by faith in, who you depend on and where your gifts come from’

James 1:16-17- ‘’Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father…’’

Paul continues in verse 6; ‘’…We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.’’

God, in His grace, gives gifts to you, not for you, but for others.

1 Peter 4:10- Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

So, amazingly, we have the opportunity to be used by God to ‘administer His grace in various ways and forms’ in, though not limited to, the church.

Paul continues;

Romans 12:4-5- Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Paul also uses this analogy of the church being a body whose members belong to each other and depend on each other in 1 Corinthians 12, which, remember, is also a conversation about the exercising of gifts within the church.

1 Corinthians 12:14-21- Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!"

The simple point of this is that as members of His body we belong to Him and we belong to each other; and that we need each other, in order for the body to function, as it should.

We are all different. Paul call’s for diversity in this passage in verse 17 ‘If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?’

So, we all, who belong to the one body, have different functions and different gifts according to and governed by God’s grace and arrangement And the idea of God’s arrangement is for our various functions and gifts to operate in such a way that the body is served, cared for and built up.

Old Jewish men don't run

Luke 15:1-2- Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

Catch the tone of their ‘muttering’- it is not as observation, it is an accusation. It is one of outrage, condemnation and contempt. They are speaking out of the overflow of a hard heart towards the lost- one that finds it completely unacceptable that Jesus would socialize with lost sinners and receive them as friends.

Jesus responds by telling 3 parables to teach them and us about the Kingdom of God; the third of which being the famous ‘Parable of the Lost Son’. In this parable, the elder son represents these religious leaders.

Luke 15:11-16- Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. (that’s sin and rebellion- where we turn our back and God and separate ourselves from him). After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. (What a fall from grace for a Jewish boy to covet pig's food- sin leads to slavery and bondage) When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.'

Luke 11:20- ‘’So he got up and went to his father …’’

That repentance- that we turn away from sin and our slavery to sin and go to the Father.

But how will the Father, whom we have sinned against, receive us?

Luke 11:20- ‘’…But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.’’

Now, a little cultural nuance here- it is considered outrageous and shameful in Jewish culture for an older Jewish man to run.

This from the commentary on this parable from Kenneth Bailey, a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem-

‘’The prodigal son is on his way back home! What can he expect from the people of the village? They will mock him, laugh at him, scorn him. The children will throw stones at him or spit at him. Some will turn their backs. This young man who brought so much shame on his family will never again find his place in the village. But suddenly the people of the village see something totally unexpected. The father who was so scorned by his younger son, does something himself that will make him a laughingstock. He picks up his garment and runs! He is making a fool of himself. That is unheard of for a man his age in that culture. Now the children will mock him, too! And so these two, father and son, come together, both objects of scorn, back into the village. The father was willing to sacrifice his own honor, so that his son would not have to come home alone in disgrace.’’

So when the father runs, this is outrageous, humble, impressions-be-damned grace extended towards undeserving sinners like us.

Luke 15:21-24 "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ "But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

Now, here the older son enters the parable;

Luke 15:25-30- "Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.' "The older brother became angry and refused to go in. (that is precisely the attitude demonstrated by the muttering religious leaders) So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders (that’s what a religious attitude will do- it will turn this loving father into a slave-driver and his loving guidance into grievous orders in your eyes) Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends (as if the father owed him something). But when this son of yours (notice that he does not say ‘this brother of mine’) who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

The tragedy is when a lost son turns from sin and slavery and comes to the church or to the Christian, where they should be greeted by outrageous, humble, impressions-be-damned grace extended towards undeserving sinners by undeserving sinners and instead they meet the condemning, contemptuous, hard-hearted religious elder sons.

This elder son lived in the Father’s house, by the Father’s rules, but never knew the Father’s heart- which rejoices for His son that ‘was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'

And he is deceived, and deceiving, if he is professing to not be lost, but be found, and to know the Father- He is a liar.

1 John 4:19-21- We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

How does God feel about this attitude? God is angry and deeply grieved by the hard-hearted, merciless attitude of the religious who look at the lost with contempt. Let me show you this in Scripture- remembering that Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being.

Mark 3:1-5- Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone." Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.

If we love God, we must love others- we must share His heart for the lost and reach out to them on His behalf. And when one lost sinner repents, and turns their back on sin and comes home, heaven shakes with delight.

Luke 15:3-7- Then Jesus told them this parable: "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

So, this says something of the ‘attribution of value in heaven’- and therefore what we should value on earth, in the church.Jesus loves the 99. He cares for the 99. He rejoices in the 99. He does not neglect the 99. But He will not rest while one of His lost sheep, called by His name, is lost.

I love serving a God that refuses to cut His losses.

And when He finds that 1 wayward, rebellious, lost person, and puts them on His shoulders, the shoulders that bore their sin, to carry them home- the Bible says ‘that heaven rejoices’.And hopefully, we as the 99 will not only rejoice with Him, but we will involve ourselves in His search and rescue effort as we have been commanded.