ADVENT Illumination and Discovery!
Advent Insight ! Romans 13
Let me open this new Church Year with a story. I was out walking the dogs the day after Thanksgiving am Friday, and this account popped into my mind regarding the Romans text we heard read . In the early 60's when my Dad was stationed in Viet Nam, my mother, sister and I lived with my grandfather in Philadelphia for a year. It was an old interesting triple decker house in the suburbs of Philly. I had the roam of it, and it was exciting. One day though I got myself into trouble.....I was almost 8 and broke a window in the third floor bathroom trying to open it. I thought my grandfather would be very mad, but he wasn't. He said, " That is an old window anyway and it needed replacing." I felt very guilty about breaking it , and thought I deserved a good punishment. Instead he was kind, loving and grandfatherly in the best sense. This widened my thinking at that very young age! Imagine someone treating you nicely even when you did not deserve it!
We already probably know this but for me it was an eye opener. The Romans text tells us that, " ....he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Again in vs. 10, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." I had never heard it this way till I read it last week thinking about this Advent message. DID WE HEAR THAT?
The Apostle is saying that if we love others we have fulfilled the law. I know a lot of Christians and I may have been in that camp for a bit that thought that law keeping was so important. Well it is , and it is not. First of all, Jesus did say , " I have not come to destroy the law...but to fulfill it...He that breaks one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven...." Matthew 5 The Apostle Paul repeats the commandments here lest we get the wrong idea.
Look again in Romans 13. Listen to it......vs 9 repeats some of the commandments lest we think they are just optional. The Ten Suggestions? No, of course not. But the emphasis of this passage again is dramatic...."
IF THERE BE ANY OTHER COMMANDMENT, IT is briefly comprehended in this namely, THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF." VS. 9b
The word for love here used throughout this passage is not friendship love, phileo. It is the word agape, the sacrificial word for love in the greek language. " love in the moral sense" as Thayer's Greek says. There is no reason to do it on earth, but we as Christians are commanded to even love our enemies , Matthew 5:44.
I seem to remember that the Sermon on the Mount has a lot of references to this ...." Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." " Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." 5:44
2. What are some of the other actions of love?
Listen, understand, be patient, be kind, be forbearing, love never fails or as R . Brault, " Love becomes easier when you learn to accept the apology you never got."
The word for love means sacrificial love. Loving the unloveable. It is the love that only Christ can give us at the Cross.
Love does not keep a record of wrongs. Or one time, and you are out! We all need the forgiving love from others in our lives for we are fallible, human and short tempered if the truth be told.
Love as FF Bruce said in his little book on Romans ," Love never harms another." " Love fulfills the law."
" Love is the sum of all virtue, and loves disposes us to good." Jonathan Edwards the famous New England preacher in early America
One poster I saw said it this way, " Leave footprints of love and kindness wherever you go."
3. LOVE NEVER FAILS. We remember this from I Corinthians 13 from the Apostle Paul. Unfortunately being human we fail, and we fail to love sacrificially. We are too busy finding other things to argue about? Keeping the law is so important, but if we fail to love we fail to keep the law. We cannot obviously in this keep it perfectly, but if we begin to love others with the same love that our Lord had on the Cross, we will be on the right path.
This Advent season has so many beautiful things, the Calendar, the Advent Wreath, the scents of the coming of Christmas but if we wish to please our Lord, we should love in word, deed and attitude even when we do not feel much like it.
Happy New Church Year in Advent I!
Let me open this new Church Year with a story. I was out walking the dogs the day after Thanksgiving am Friday, and this account popped into my mind regarding the Romans text we heard read . In the early 60's when my Dad was stationed in Viet Nam, my mother, sister and I lived with my grandfather in Philadelphia for a year. It was an old interesting triple decker house in the suburbs of Philly. I had the roam of it, and it was exciting. One day though I got myself into trouble.....I was almost 8 and broke a window in the third floor bathroom trying to open it. I thought my grandfather would be very mad, but he wasn't. He said, " That is an old window anyway and it needed replacing." I felt very guilty about breaking it , and thought I deserved a good punishment. Instead he was kind, loving and grandfatherly in the best sense. This widened my thinking at that very young age! Imagine someone treating you nicely even when you did not deserve it!
We already probably know this but for me it was an eye opener. The Romans text tells us that, " ....he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Again in vs. 10, "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." I had never heard it this way till I read it last week thinking about this Advent message. DID WE HEAR THAT?
The Apostle is saying that if we love others we have fulfilled the law. I know a lot of Christians and I may have been in that camp for a bit that thought that law keeping was so important. Well it is , and it is not. First of all, Jesus did say , " I have not come to destroy the law...but to fulfill it...He that breaks one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven...." Matthew 5 The Apostle Paul repeats the commandments here lest we get the wrong idea.
Look again in Romans 13. Listen to it......vs 9 repeats some of the commandments lest we think they are just optional. The Ten Suggestions? No, of course not. But the emphasis of this passage again is dramatic...."
IF THERE BE ANY OTHER COMMANDMENT, IT is briefly comprehended in this namely, THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF." VS. 9b
The word for love here used throughout this passage is not friendship love, phileo. It is the word agape, the sacrificial word for love in the greek language. " love in the moral sense" as Thayer's Greek says. There is no reason to do it on earth, but we as Christians are commanded to even love our enemies , Matthew 5:44.
I seem to remember that the Sermon on the Mount has a lot of references to this ...." Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." " Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." 5:44
2. What are some of the other actions of love?
Listen, understand, be patient, be kind, be forbearing, love never fails or as R . Brault, " Love becomes easier when you learn to accept the apology you never got."
The word for love means sacrificial love. Loving the unloveable. It is the love that only Christ can give us at the Cross.
Love does not keep a record of wrongs. Or one time, and you are out! We all need the forgiving love from others in our lives for we are fallible, human and short tempered if the truth be told.
Love as FF Bruce said in his little book on Romans ," Love never harms another." " Love fulfills the law."
" Love is the sum of all virtue, and loves disposes us to good." Jonathan Edwards the famous New England preacher in early America
One poster I saw said it this way, " Leave footprints of love and kindness wherever you go."
3. LOVE NEVER FAILS. We remember this from I Corinthians 13 from the Apostle Paul. Unfortunately being human we fail, and we fail to love sacrificially. We are too busy finding other things to argue about? Keeping the law is so important, but if we fail to love we fail to keep the law. We cannot obviously in this keep it perfectly, but if we begin to love others with the same love that our Lord had on the Cross, we will be on the right path.
This Advent season has so many beautiful things, the Calendar, the Advent Wreath, the scents of the coming of Christmas but if we wish to please our Lord, we should love in word, deed and attitude even when we do not feel much like it.
Happy New Church Year in Advent I!
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