Theme: Returning to Our First Love
Topic: Loving Our Neighbour as Christ Loves Us
Main Text: Romans 12:9-21, 1 John 4:19-21
Key verse: 1 John 4:21: “And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” (NKJV).
Introduction:
Having set out God’s abundant love, mercy, and provision for man’s salvation in chapters 1 to 11 of Romans, the Apostle then urges believers in chapter 12 to respond to God’s amazing, selfless, and sacrificial love (agape) in kind. He implores us to offer our bodies, representing the totality of our lives and activities, as a living sacrifice, to refuse to be conformed to the pattern of this world, and to keep on being transformed by the continual renewal of our minds. The goal of this change is that we might love God and others —saved or unsaved, friend or foe —as Christ loved us. Our main text from Romans is very similar to 1 Corinthians 13, which describes a Christlike love that manifests itself in selfless service. The key to this “love without hypocrisy” is the mind, the control centre of one’s attitudes, thoughts, feelings, and actions. As one’s mind is continually renewed by the spiritual input of God’s Word, prayer, and Christian fellowship and service, one’s lifestyle is continually transformed. Through such transformation, we are made more like Christ, and we come to approve and desire God’s will, not our own, for our life, and are thus enabled to live out the traits listed in Romans 12:9-21, knowing that “we love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Q1. (1a) Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Discuss the similarities between that passage and Romans 12:9-21. (1b) What are the different manifestations of love evident in Romans 12:9-21? Why is it important that believers love one another (John 13:35)? (1c) Read 1 John 4:7-8, Galatians 5:22-23. What does it mean to know God, and what practical steps can we take to flow more strongly in the fruit of the Spirit?
Paragraph 2:
When we are born again, God changes our nature from the inside. However, despite our newness in Christ, being dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:11), manifesting holiness is not automatic. Our character and behaviour remain unchanged until we renew our minds with God’s Word and align our thinking with God’s Spirit in us. The sincere love and discernment commanded in verse 9, the brotherly love that is to govern our relationships within the body of Christ, and the self-sacrifice that would lead us to celebrate the joys of others regardless of our own circumstances, or to seek the very best for our enemies are not possible without the enablement of the Holy Spirit. That enablement comes as we present our bodies as living sacrifices to God, which is our “reasonable service” and obey the command not to love the world or conform to its ways but to actively renew our minds according to the will of God.
Q2. (2a) Read Romans 12:1-2,9-14. How can we genuinely love and serve people we don’t know without hypocrisy? (2b) How can we bless those who persecute us, or resist the desire to see our enemies fall (Rom 12:17-21)? (2c) Read Matthew 12:46-50, Luke 10:25-37. Who is our brother and who is our neighbour?
Paragraph 3:
The Bible can be uncomfortably blunt: “If someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar” (1 John 4:20). It is easy to say we love God when that love does not require anything more than weekly attendance at religious services. The real test of our love for God is how we treat the people right in front of us – our family and fellow believers. We may talk a lot about loving God, we may sing about it with great emotion, “but what does all that mean when we are so critical of other Christians, so ready to jump to negative conclusions about people, so slow to bear their burdens, so unwilling to step into their shoes?” The agape which God call us to express is a choice, a decision to act and to stay committed. God’s love for us in Christ is a steadfast, unconditional, and giving love that makes the first move, even before a relationship is established; it is a choice to love and a commitment to consistent acts of love. Romans 12:9-21 gives specific guidance on how we should express God’s agape love. It is only in learning to love as Christ loves us that we can truly enjoy deep and lasting relationships with others.
Q3. (3a) Read 1 John 4:19, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 1:4. Why does God always make the first move? (3b) Discuss the traits of love you find easiest to demonstrate and those you find hardest (Romans 12:9-21). Why do we find it difficult to identify with the lowly?
Prayer: Lord, thank you that we love because you first loved. Help us to love in deed, and not in word only, so that all may know that we are your disciples. In Jesus’ mighty name, we pray with thanksgiving, Amen.