Romans 12:9-16
Safer Together
What makes a healthy neighborhood? Make a quick list.
Was a church on your list? Why or why not?
The PROBLEM in the TEXT and our WORLD: Everyone is freaking out about the division, chaos, and dysfunction in today’s world, especially the Church.
Have you read the NT? The Church always needs reorientation.
Imagine, you have a job offer to be the leader of a fledgling movement.
Your very first members are from different racial groups that hate each other. They are from social classes that don’t affiliate (wealthy & poor) but you have to meet in one of the large homes of one of your wealthy members.
Your first members are also from warring political groups: some loyal to the Emperor, others who are quasi-terrorists who would assassinate the Emperor if possible.
Your job, should you choose to accept, is to regularly gather this band of dysfunctional ragamuffins so that they become a unified body that attracts more and more diverse members.
Where would you start? You would write the letter to the Romans with a lot of instructions on how to handle each other with care.
TEXT BACKGROUND:
We belong to God (Rom 12:1-2 offer your bodies as a living sacrifice)
We are one body where “we belong to each other” (Rom 12:5)
Paul offers a strategy for we handle one another with care
READ Romans 12:9-16
Greek (Allelon): ‘one another’ used explicitly
Romans 12:5 “in Christ…each member belongs to all the others.”
Romans 12:10 “Be devoted to one another in love.
Romans 12:10 “Honor one another above yourselves.”
Romans 12:16 “Live in harmony with one another.”
Allelon: use is implied
Rom 12:13 “Share with one another. Show hospitality to one another.”
Romans 12:14 “Bless one another. Don’t curse one another.”
Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with one another. Mourn with one another.”
Romans 12:16 “Don’t be proud toward one another. Be willing to associate with one another (even those in a low position). Don’t be conceited toward one another.”
Example: York City Police Department’s ‘Handle With Care’ registry offers families an opportunity to register their family members who have difficult mental health challenges. This provides police with timely information in the event they are called to that person. The information, coupled with crisis intervention training strategies, gives the responding officers empathy to handle the incident with extra care. Such a strategy dramatically reduces the need for use of force.
What would it look like for us to handle each other with care?
A THREEFOLD SAFER TOGETHER STRATEGY
1. SAFER TOGETHER STRATEGY #1: ENLARGE YOUR HEART
Romans 12:9-10: “Love must be sincere (not hypocritical)…be devoted to one another in love.”
Romans 13:8-10: “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
Galatians 5:6 “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” -CS Lewis
2.SAFER TOGETHER STRATEGY #2: EXPAND YOUR MIND
How many wrong attitudes in the Church are fueling ugly actions? Attitudes about racial groups, political groups, social classes, addicts, the poor?
Paul says, “Honor one another above yourselves (outdo)” (Romans 12:10)
“Don’t be proud…or conceited. Be willing to associate with people of low position.” (Romans 12:16)
Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
What do our attitudes about people reflect about what we believe of them?
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which,if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.
All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
-CS Lewis, Weight of Glory
3.SAFER TOGETHER STRATEGY #3: DEVELOP GENTLE HANDS
How would you want your confused loved one to be handled by police?
Let’s consider how we handle one another.
Paul talks about honor (10). Is your tongue full of words that dishonor your fellow image-bearers? When is the last time you honored a friend?
Paul tells us to share with those in need; to practice hospitality (13)
To bless and not curse our persecutors (14)
To rejoice and mourn (15)
To live in harmony with one another (16)
To associate with people in low position (16)
CONCLUSION: If God was willing to send Jesus to the cross for your neighbor, what does that say about God’s opinion of your neighbor’s value?
Are we handling each other with the same care that took Jesus to the cross?
Have you considered the value and dignity Jesus places on your neighbor?
May God enlarge our hearts, expand our minds, and give us gentle hands to handle one another with care.