Paul's writing in this section reminds us of Christ's sermon on the mount. Dr. Sproul continues his discussion on the use of gifts in the ministry and that we should avoid elevating gifts and that our love should be sincere. A discussion of evil is begun and the specific evil of abortion is shown.

Today, we will continue with our study of Paul’s letter to the Romans. We are in the twelfth chapter, and we are going to start at verse 9 and read through, God willing, the rest of the chapter—although I have no grandiose expectations of finishing the chapter this time. So, we will look at Romans 12:9–21. I will ask the congregation to stand for the reading of the Word of God:

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The Word of God for His people. Please be seated. Let us pray.

Father, even now, as we contemplate these exhortations and injunctions that come to us from the pen of Your anointed Apostle, we pray that we may feel the weight of these mandates, that they may grasp us in our hearts and in our souls. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Love Without Hypocrisy

This portion of Romans 12 indicates another shift in the literary style of Paul’s writing, as seen in the very middle of this passage. Throughout the book, he has been giving us lengthy, weighty concepts of the doctrines of grace, spelled out with long sentences and paragraphs. Last time, we looked at the responsibility of how people are to use the gifts that God gives them in the church.

Now, we get some staccato shots from the Apostle, almost like the bullet points in a PowerPoint presentation that we are familiar with today. He sets forth, in pithy style, these ethical injunctions that we are to make manifest in the Christian life. It is almost as if Paul had been a stenographer when Jesus preached His Sermon on the Mount. We know that Paul was not even there, but so much of the information communicated by our Lord in His sermon is recapitulated briefly here in chapter 12.

As I read, this reminds me of the writings of the Apostle James, where he gave his ethical injunctions in a similar manner to what Paul does here. Let us look at these injunctions as the Apostle sets forth.

Paul begins with the first point, which I believe is not just one of a loose list of virtues that we are to manifest, but rather the thematic statement for all the responsibilities that follow. He begins with love, and he says: “Let love be without dissimulation. Let love be without hypocrisy.”

The love that we are to manifest is to be a love that is genuine, sincere, and authentic. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he devoted an entire chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, to the meaning of love. We could also look at Romans 12 as a similar exposition of the concept of love that Paul is writing to the Romans. He says that what God expects from us is authentic love—not a phony love, not a platitudinous pretense of love, but a love that is not mixed with hypocrisy.

Abhor Evil

Immediately, in his application of that concept, Paul gives two very strong statements. He says, “Abhor what is evil,” and “Cling to what is good.” These stand in vivid contrast one to another: to hate one thing and to love something else. The hatred that he enjoins us to have is a hatred of the highest dimension. He uses one of the strongest words for hatred that we find anywhere in the Bible.

Paul says, in effect: “I’m not asking that you may be moved to mild displeasure. I’m not asking that you dislike these things. What I’m commanding in the name of the Lord is that you loathe them, that you despise them.” What he is speaking of should be abhorrent to you. What is it that he said we should regard with abhorrence? Evil. We should abhor evil. We should hate it. We should see evil as an unveiled assault on the character of God and His sovereignty.

As we seek to grow in grace and to gain the mind of Christ, we need to learn to think like Jesus, to love what Jesus loves, and to hate what Jesus hates. We know that hatred is one of the strongest emotions that can inhabit the heart of a human being. Hatred in general can be destructive and demeaning, but not when directed against evil. Paul says that we should abhor evil.

I am going to give one application of this to our modern culture that I am very concerned about. I was just talking with some folks in Colorado, and someone asked me what I thought was the greatest ethical issue of our day. I said that I believe that the greatest ethical issue in the entire history of America is the issue of abortion.

I have recently listened to talk shows where the commentators have told us about the machinations and the jockeying for position going on among those candidates running for the highest office in our land. One of those candidates is a man who has publicly supported abortion on demand yet is now wooing the Christian vote in America.

The commentator said that those people who are opposed to abortion now see a greater issue than abortion in our day, and that is the issue of terrorism. So, they are transferring their allegiance to this particular candidate because even though he supports abortion on demand, he is taking a stand against the deeper matter, the more serious threat of terrorism.

I am baffled. I am absolutely baffled by that, because more people were killed on 9/10 in the wombs of women in the United States than were killed in New York City on 9/11. More babies were slaughtered on 9/12 than adults killed on 9/11. If we had a window into the womb and had CNN on every day, graphically showing us what actually happens in the slaughter of our unborn children, I think that abortion would be abolished in fifteen minutes. But it is the best-kept secret that nobody wants to discuss.

Anytime I have an interview on television or the radio and that issue comes up, I try to speak as strongly as I know how. I tell them that I have been studying theology almost all my life, and there is so much I do not know, it is embarrassing. But if there is anything I know about God, I know that God hates abortion.

Unspeakable Evil

The German ethicist Helmut Thielicke, in his massive twentieth-century work on Christian ethics, indicated something unusual. This was before Roe v. Wade, before Western civilization had completely embraced abortion on demand. Thielicke wrote that the one issue that historically has been a monolithic position in Christian thought, both among liberals and conservatives, is the evil of abortion. This was true from the very first century, as seen in the Didache, which called abortion murder.

Abortion is an unspeakable evil that God abhors and the American church tolerates and winks at. That troubles me deeply. I do not understand it. I am completely baffled. I would think that every human being in this world, Christian or not, intuitively would know how wicked it is. I have very little patience to even debate it.

Of all the books I have published in my lifetime, the one that had the shortest shelf life was the book titled Abortion: A Rational Look at an Emotional Issue. Ligonier produced a video series on this issue to help pastors deal with the question in their congregations. We could not get it into churches.

Pastor after pastor said: “I can’t deal with that in my congregation. It will split my church.” I just look at them and say: “Then split it. What’s the matter with you?” This is the holocaust of our time, and we are silent and support it when we are called to hate it, because it is evil—it is unspeakable evil.

By the same token as we are to despise that which is evil, the Apostle says we are to cling to that which is good. The language used in the text is intense. The term translated as the word cling is the root word of the Greek term for glue. We are to hang on tightly to that which is good, to let it be cemented to our souls so that we do not drop it or lose it with the next wind of cultural fantasy that comes our way. The Christian is to hate evil and to embrace and hang onto with all his might that which is good.

Paul does not say that we are to hate evildoers, although the Bible does say, in the Old Testament, that God abhors the wicked. He hates not only their wickedness, but He hates those who are in constant rebellion against Him. That is the language of the Bible. It is not the language of our culture. We are to “cling to that which is good.”

Kindness and Honor

Now, Paul addresses his comments principally to the church— the fellowship of believers and the household of faith—when he says, “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love.” Here is the idea of philadelphia, the love that is shared in a fraternity, in a fellowship of people who share a common family.

The Apostle is saying that the love we are to have for each other in the fellowship of the church is to be the same kind of love that you experience within your family. It is the love that brothers and sisters share, the love that parents have for their children—in the good sense, not like what is seen in those who are abusive. We are to imitate that kind of love, that kind of brotherly affection, in a spirit of kindness toward one another.

Kindness is one of the most important virtues in the Bible. It is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. How would you like to have as your epitaph on your tombstone, “This was a kind person”? Not a powerful person. Not necessarily a wealthy person. Not a successful person. A kind person is a successful person in the eyes of God.

Paul continues, “In honor giving preference to one another.” There is some ambiguity in this statement. It has been translated in various ways. The general approach to this text interprets it to mean that we ought to prefer each other for honor. Rather than seeking honor for ourselves, we should seek to reflect, or deflect, honor from ourselves and prefer that others receive the honor and glory. It is a call to humility.

The basic thrust of this text, however, is that Paul is saying: “I want you to be leaders, to be at the forefront of establishing the principle of honor in your midst.” If no one else is manifesting respect and honor in the congregation, be the person who demonstrates a humble spirit, hoping to seek and give honor to others. That is the heart of the servant. That is to be the heart of the Christian. “In honor giving preference to one another.”

The Business of the Kingdom

In my translation, the next clause reads, “Not lagging in diligence.” Other translations may sound completely different. One older translation read, “Not being slothful in business.” Some of you may have that translation with you. It is about not being lazy, or indolent, in your business. In this case, it is not talking about commercial enterprise, but the word “business” comes from the term busy-ness—that is, we should be busy people, busy with the things of God. That is our business.

Jonathan Edwards gave a sermon on pressing into the kingdom of God based on the biblical text that says the kingdom is taken by force. What he meant is that those who have now come to Christ have been born again and given a spirit of zeal to pursue the things of God with a sense of urgency, a real hunger, and a passion. Edwards said that it is the duty of a Christian to press into the kingdom of God. It is the duty of the Christian to make the seeking of the kingdom of God the main business of his life.

Edwards did not mean that every Christian is called to have a church vocation. As we saw last time, not everyone is called to be a preacher, teacher, or an administrator. But Edwards says that we are all to be busy and diligent in our concern for the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God cannot be a secondary interest for a true Christian. We are to be diligent, not lazy or indolent, but active in the things of God and for His kingdom. We are not to be lacking in diligence but “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” Our service to Christ is the chief business in which we are to be involved, with diligence and with fervor of soul and spirit.

Rejoice in Hope

Verse 12 continues, “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.” I was standing at the door of the church one morning after the service, and a couple came to me carrying copies of the Reformation Study Bible. They asked me if I would sign their Bibles. They said, “Would you sign my Bible?” So here I am, shaking hands and writing my name in somebody’s Bible.

This is something that happens all the time, and I honestly do not know where this comes from. It is one thing when people ask me to sign books that I wrote, it is another to ask me to sign their Bible. I did not write the Bible. Although, when my son was six years old, and the Sunday school teacher asked, “Who wrote the Bible?” my son said, “My daddy wrote the Bible.” Sometimes, I think he still thinks that. But we have this custom in the church to have ministers or teachers sign our Bibles.

Usually what happens at conventions is that people ask me, “Will you sign my Bible and write in your life verse?” I used to ask people: “What’s that? What’s a life verse?” But I stopped asking that question because it makes people uncomfortable. There is some evangelical wing of the church that has propagated the idea that everybody should have one verse of the Bible as a life verse. So now, when people ask me that question, I give them the verse from Genesis 15 where the burning fire passes between the pieces. Then the people come back a half hour later and say, “Did you write down what you meant to write?”

I mention that because the first time I came up with a life verse, I tried to incorporate the whole of Christian experience into one short passage. My life verse is Romans 12:12, this verse that I have just read to you. I will read it again: “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation”—the older translation—“remaining constant in prayer.” In my personal understanding, I thought Christianity could be reduced to these three dimensions.

First of all, joy. Joy is something that we should manifest at all times. What is it in which we are to rejoice? Paul says that we are to rejoice in our hope. He taught about that earlier. I mentioned earlier in our studies how tribulation is inseparably related to hope in our lives. This is because when we are forced to suffer and to undergo trials and tribulations, what God the Holy Spirit does with those tribulations is to work character within us and provoke this virtue of hope in our souls.

In chapter 13 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, to which I have already alluded, he talks about the triad of virtues that are to mark the life of the Christian: “Faith, hope, and love, these three” (1 Cor. 13:13). The greatest of these, he says, is love. To make it into the top three is significant. It is interesting that the Apostle elevates the virtue of hope to that top drawer of virtues.

I have mentioned elsewhere that the biblical concept of hope differs from the common meaning of the term in our language today. We talk about hopes as items that we write down on our wish lists, things that we would like to see come to pass but are not confident that will come to pass. They express our attitude of what we would enjoy seeing come to pass. But the biblical concept of hope has nothing to do with uncertainty.

The New Testament concept of hope is the absolute certainty that the promises of God for the future will come to pass. Faith looks backward, trusting and relying upon what God has done in the past. We trust His truthfulness. We rely upon it. But then, faith looks forward into the future and finds an anchor for the soul in the future promises of God.

That is the foundation for our joy. No matter how painful the present moment may be, we can still have joy because we know that the presence of pain, the suffering and tribulation that we endure now, is but for a moment.

God has laid up treasures for us in heaven that are not even worthy to be compared to the brief moments of pain and suffering we have to endure in this world. No matter how bad things are, we can still be happy. We can still have joy because we have this hope, which will not embarrass us and of which we will never be ashamed.

Patience in Tribulation

“Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation.” I think that one of the reasons I chose this for my life verse—and later abandoned it for something else—was my lifelong struggle with patience. I am the kind of person who prays, “O Lord, give me patience right now.” I find it hard to wait for things.

Do any of you have that problem? I am that way. I am impatient. I want to get to the goal line. I want to get over the goal line. I want to get the task finished so that we can get on to something else. I have never had the quiet spirit of patience that Christians are supposed to have, particularly in the midst of tribulation.

Paul is talking about the virtue of forbearance, of hanging in there when things are tough, remembering the patience of Job, who cried out in the midst of his agony, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). That is the kind of patience that gives perseverance and the ability to endure in the midst of difficulty.

A Life of Prayer

Paul continues, “Rejoicing in hope, being patient in tribulation,” and the glue that brings these together is “continuing steadfastly in prayer,” or remaining constant in prayer. The Christian life is a life of prayer, but not prayer given only at certain hours or at appointed times. There is a dialogue going on, maybe silently, all the time, as we are conscious of the presence of God, relying on His presence and communicating with the Father in our thoughts.

I had a friend from seminary who died after enduring great tribulation and suffering. He was seeking a deeper level of spiritual growth. He said to me, “R.C., I won’t know that I’m really progressing in my sanctification until my dreams change.” I said, “What are you talking about?” He said: “I want to dream about loving God. I want to see myself in my dreams praying, not winning a baseball game or something like that.”

I’ve never heard anybody in my life, before or since, talk about sanctification in those terms. This friend’s life was a living, walking prayer. He wanted communication with the Lord to be so much a part of his life that he would even dream about it.

Given to Hospitality

“Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.” Paul is still explaining what it means to love without hypocrisy. You are in touch with the needs of your brothers and sisters, you are helping distribute to their needs, and you are known for your hospitality.

Notice what an important virtue hospitality is in the Middle East, even today. Sometimes it is soaked with hypocrisy and flattery, but there are still customs of hospitality among the Arabs. These customs go back to the Old Testament, to the time when the Jews were slaves in the land of Egypt. They had no place to call their home. When God liberated them, they wandered for decades in the wilderness and longed for a place to call their home. They longed for a land that was flowing with milk and honey.

When God gave the land to the Jews, He said to them: “Don’t forget where you came from. Don’t forget your roots. Show hospitality to the stranger in your gates. Open your home and your heart to those around you.”

Bless Your Enemies

Verse 14 is reminiscent of the Sermon on the Mount: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” I can handle half of that. This is tough stuff. It does not say just to bless someone who insults you occasionally.

There are people like Paul who suffered a thorn in the side. He was constantly being attacked. Paul’s whole ministry was lived out under persecution, even as his Lord’s was. He said: “What is to be my response to this persecution? I am to bless my enemies, not curse them.”

Like I said, I can handle half of that. I can handle not cursing them. That is not too difficult. But to bless them, to pray that God would bestow His favor and grace upon these people? I am more comfortable with the prayers of imprecation, such as Psalm 70. Paul said that this is tough, but this is what love means: “Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse.”

Share in Joy and Sorrow

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” Let’s say your brother or sister gets an award that you were hoping you might get, or their team beats your team in the Super Bowl. Can you rejoice with them? Can you participate in their joy and forget about your own sense of loss?

This is the way the body of Christ is knit together. If one rejoices, everybody rejoices. There are no politics of envy in the kingdom of God—none. If my brother prospers more than I do, instead of saying, “He doesn’t deserve that; why should he get this wonderful advantage?” I should delight in the prosperity and blessing that he has received.

We are never to miss the tears of our people. When one of us weeps, dear friends, we all weep. That is what the body of Christ is about. Paul said, when he came to his people: “I was with you in your sorrow. I stood beside you in your tribulation. I wept with you when you wept.”

People ask me, “What about the shortest verse in the New Testament, ‘Jesus wept’?” When He came to the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, it says that He wept. People say: “What’s with that? Why would Jesus weep? He knew what He was going to do. He knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Everyone else was bawling their eyes out, and here came the Lord of glory. There was no reason for Him to cry.” Why did He weep? Because they were weeping. Because Jesus wept with those who wept. We are supposed to do that, too.

One of the most difficult things I had to endure in my life, something I will never forget, was the protracted illness of my father. It took him three years to die from his illness. That whole time, he was incapacitated. He liked to sit out in the front yard in the summertime, and I would have to help him into the lawn chair. He would sit out there all day long until it was time to come back in. I would have to fireman’s carry him back into the house. I was a teenager.

One time I vented my anger to my mother. I said: “Mom, where are Dad’s friends? When he was healthy and wealthy, we had no end of visitors and guests in the house. I don’t understand it. Where are they now?” I was angry, and I was angry with God. How could God put up with this? I never heard my dad complain about it.

My mother was very patient. She said: “Son, you have to understand something. Your dad’s friends can’t stand to see him the way he is. They feel inadequate. They don’t know what to say.”

Young ministers come to me, and they say, “I have to learn how to do hospital calling,” or “I have to go to a funeral, what do I say?” I say: “Do you want a speech? There is no speech. It doesn’t matter what you say. Just be there. If they cry, you cry. You don’t have to have a magic word to dissolve their tears.” My mother said to me, “They just do not know what to do.” It did not give me much comfort, but I understood it later on.

That is the way we are. We like to distance ourselves from pain. We say that we have enough pain of our own to deal with, without having to weep with everyone who is weeping. But this is love without hypocrisy. It is sharing in your joy.

If your daughter is getting married and that is all you can think about, I am not going to scoff at it. I will say: “That is terrific. Is that not great? What an exciting thing that one of the daughters of our church is going to get married soon.” That is something we should all join in, sharing the joy, just as we join in the sorrow of the bereaved when we go to the house of mourning. That is what love looks like. “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”

We are only partway through this list of virtues, and I have kept my word to you. I told you that I did not think that I would be able to get through this entire text. So, God willing, we will look at the rest of the chapter next time. Let us pray.

Father, give us this kind of love that was modeled by Jesus, modeled by the Apostle, and modeled by the great saints of the ages. We do not have the kind of love that blesses those who persecute us yet. But we thank You for softening the hardness of our hearts and giving us a greater capacity to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Thank You for the hope that is the foundation for our joy. Give us patience in the middle of tribulation and help us, by Thy Spirit, to remain constant in prayer. For we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.