True Love Triumphs (Romans 12:9-21)

Matthew chapter 18, beginning at the fifteenth verse.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.

If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.

The word of the Lord.

O Lord God, grant your people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

Amen.

Towards thee I roll.

Thou all destroying but unconquering, wail.

To the last I grapple with thee.

From hell's heart I stab at thee.

For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.

These are words from Captain Ahab from the classic Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

Moby Dick is a book I have not read, but I like to pretend that I've read it.

This is a this is perhaps one of its most recognizable quotes that comes from the mad and megalomaniacal Captain Ahab.

Captain Ahab has had the white whale bite off his leg years earlier, and now with single-minded pursuit, he seeks revenge against this whale that has become for him an embodiment of every wrong done to him.

Like I say, I haven't read this book, but I have seen the Patrick Stewart version in the movie as a movie.

I feel like I've read it.

It's close enough.

Exactly.

Thank you, Samuel.

It's close enough.

So maybe we've never set off on a globetrotting voyage to seek revenge against a whale, but I'm willing to bet that at one point or another, we have all of us desired to get even.

We've all of us desired to realize our uh retaliation and resentment in real time.

We have all of us perhaps wanted to inflict the kind of pain on someone that they themselves have inflicted upon us.

We might know what that feels like.

We might know where Captain Ahab's coming from.

Perhaps a coworker threw us under the bus.

Perhaps a family member we loved and trusted betrayed us.

Perhaps a dear friend or so we thought left us high and dry or abandoned us when we both when we most needed them.

I suspect we all of us, at some point or another, or perhaps even still, desire to realize a revenge.

There goes someone right now looking to realize some revenge.

If you hurt that motorbike.

To know that we made someone understand just what kind of pain we had to go through because of them.

And so, like Captain Ahab, we set out on revenge.

But perhaps, like Captain Ahab, we discover that when we endeavor to take revenge, we find that revenge eventually takes us.

That like Captain Ahab, we destroy our souls.

That perhaps, like Captain Ahab, we endanger those we love the most on this single-minded pursuit.

Paul calls Christians to a much more radical response to evil.

If we're not to overcome evil by evil, what is the answer for a Christian?

Well, this is what we discover in our Romans reading this morning.

Romans chapter 12, verse 21 says this do not overcome evil, do not be overcome by evil, sorry, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:21

Well, what kind of good is he talking about here?

Well, if we back it up and look at verse 9, Paul says this.

Don't be overcome by evil, hold fast to the good, overcome evil with good.

And this good that we hold on to is an actualized love.

Is not just willing the good of another, but actually putting into action that love, that genuine, sincere, true love, which benefits the other, even our enemies, even those who've done us wrong.

That's this genuine love that Paul is calling us to.

True love.

Not just a fake love, but a love from the center of our being.

A love that fulfills the purpose of the law, or so we read in the next chapter, Romans chapter 13.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

Friends, for those of us who know what it's like to desire to desire overcoming evil with evil, we discover in our Romans reading that we're called to a much more wild and adventurous path.

We are called to let true love triumph.

True love triumphs over evil, over revenge.

This is the hope for the Christian.

And what does it look like to let true love triumph?

True love that wills the good and puts into practice the actions of goodness towards the other, even the wrongdoer.

What does that look like?

Looks like leaving the justice to God.

Looks like serving our enemies.

Or so we see in our Romans reading.

So, friends, if you find yourself trapped this morning, trapped in a desire for revenge, locked in to the dance of retaliation, or consumed by resentment against another, this morning there's good news for us.

This morning there's good news of release.

Good news of the release that comes with putting into practice the true love that triumphs, the true love that we receive in Jesus.

So let's dive into our Romans reading this morning.

We've been going through the book of Romans, letting our lectionary series more or less give us a guided tour of Paul's magnum opus of the gospel, the gospel for which he is not ashamed, because it is the power of salvation for all who believe.

Paul has walked us through the movements and themes of this powerful gospel, this family-making gospel, this covenant grafting gospel.

And now Paul is reaching the final chapters of his letter, and here we're going to uh we're going to leave off with the lectionary, where the lectionary leaves us.

And it might seem like a strange thing to end our series on Romans right here in chapter 12, when there's three more chapters to come.

In one sense, it's it might seem strange, in another sense, I think it's it's really quite logical.

See, Paul is is drawing our attention to this gospel principle.

This gospel principle at the heart of the gospel is a true love that triumphs.

And now for the following three chapters, Paul is going to apply that principle, that true love triumphs, to ourselves, to our relationships, to our communities, to our civil government.

Paul is going to trace that principle through our very lived life.

And so I encourage you, if you haven't already, take some time and read chapters 13, 14, 15, 16.

I guess there's four more chapters left.

Take some time and meditate on how Paul applies this principle.

And so here we're going to dive in.

True love that triumphs, true love that seeks to serve others and benefit the other.

See, our reading this morning might read like a bit of a shotgun of application.

Paul's just, you know, throwing things out like, let your love be genuine, right?

Practice hospitality.

And he's he it might seem kind of scatterbrained, it might seem kind of stream of consciousness, but the truth is Paul's being very measured.

He's being very precise, even very surgical.

See, he's putting into practice that kind of love that he's calling us to, that genuine love that verse 9 talks about.

And that word in Greek that gets translated genuine is a word that we could rightly translate unhypocritical.

It's not fake, it doesn't wear a mask.

A hypocrite for first century Roman would have been an actor, someone who puts on a mask and pretends to be another character.

We act hypocritical when we put on a mask.

When we're fake, when we say the things that we think are nice or expected of us.

No, let your love be sincere.

Let it come from the center of who you are, is what the message translation says.

Don't play act.

Engage your heart when you love someone.

Which, by the way, is way more than how you feel about them.

We have this tendency, I think, in our culture, to talk about love like it's really a feeling at the end of the day.

If I fall in love, if I feel love, if I get the warm fuzzies, then I really love someone.

But no, a biblical version, our biblical vision of love, rather, calls us to a much deeper kind of love, a genuine love, a sincere love.

A love that engages the very core of who we are and orients us towards our neighbor, so that we seek to do them good, even by sacrificing of our own self for their sake, which is the essence of this word that gets translated love, agape.

Agape love is a selfless love, a self-giving love, a serving love.

It is willing to risk self-sacrifice for the sake of the other, to benefit our neighbor.

That's what we see in verses 10 and 16.

When we're called to hospitality, when we're called to, when we're called to engage with the lowly, we're called to a serving kind of love.

We might not feel it.

We probably don't feel like associating with the lowly, but that's what true love looks like when it's realized.

It seeks the good of the other, it seeks their benefit, it serves them, it seeks out the needy.

So if that's true, if genuine love doesn't just look like how we feel, the warm fuzzies, if it really engages the center of who we are and causes us to exercise ourselves outwardly for the benefit and sake of our neighbors, then what does that look like for those who've wronged us?

What does that look like for our enemies?

What does that look like for those for whom we we love to get some revenge?

Well, here's what Paul calls us to in verse 17.

Paul says this repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.

For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

So we're not to overcome evil with evil, be overcome by evil, but instead to overcome it with good.

What is that true love, that exercise of the good, what does that look like?

Well, here's the first principle I think we see.

I think it looks like leaving justice, true justice, to God.

Do what is honorable, Paul says.

Do what is right, do what is good, do what is beautiful.

These are all ways you could translate that word.

Do what's right, good, and beautiful to all.

All includes our enemies.

All includes those who've wronged us.

Because we've been wronged, that does not give us permission to retaliate.

We are instead called to do what is right, good, beautiful, honorable, even towards them.

Never avenge yourselves, Paul says in 19, but verse 19, but leave it to the wrath of God.

That phrase leave it, you could translate to give place.

Make room.

Make room in your hearts for the justice of God, is what Paul is saying to these Roman Christians.

These Roman Christians, by the way, who know plenty of persecution, they know what it's like to be wronged.

They are on the fringes of society, they are running for their lives, and in a few decades they will be persecuted ruthlessly, mercilessly, by an emperor who will snag Christians, put them on spears, and light them on fire just to give his dinner parties some mood lighting.

These Christians know what it's like to be wronged, to face persecution.

And yet Paul is calling this Roman Christian community not to seek revenge, don't seek vengeance, leave it to God.

That's not an easy thing to do.

Because I suspect if if anyone came after a brother or sister here at Newsong, you better believe we'd get together quickly and organize a committee and go after them.

Wouldn't that be something we'd want to do?

That's what my heart would want to do.

Do we give place for God's justice to be realized?

See, this is what revenge means.

Revenge looks like claiming God's place for ourselves, sitting on the throne of judgment, and executing our own will for ourselves.

Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

Revenge says, no, vengeance is mine.

Vengeance belongs to me.

Retaliation is my right.

Revenge means we usurp God's role as the judge, and we take his wrath into our hands.

So instead, we give it to God.

Paul cites Deuteronomy chapter 32 when he says, Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

He's quoting from the song of Moses, Moses' final sermon to the people of God as he gets ready to pass away, as Israel gets ready to head into the promised land and receive God's promise.

Moses is saying to the people of Israel at this very important transitional moment that you are going to be a different kind of people, defined by a very different kind of justice than the pagan nations around you.

Your justice is going to be centered on the character and promises of God.

Your vision of justice is going to have God sitting on the throne, so that ultimately your understanding of justice submits to him as Lord.

Evil gets answered, but it gets answered on God's terms, not on your own.

That's not to say we're resigned to be helpless recipients of evil, as if people just keep piling hurt or pain or whatever else on us, and there's nothing we can do, because we just turn the other cheeks, so to speak.

No, Paul is going to call us to an understanding of a right practice of civil justice in Romans chapter 13, because God has established these authorities.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

So, you know, so so just to just to clarify, what does that mean?

So let's say you're a Christian business owner and someone came into your shop each and every day and stole a high-priced item and walked out the door and gave you a.

Are we just supposed to say, well, I'm I'm, you know, a vengeance isn't mine, I guess.

I, you know, I have a great day and let them walk out the door.

No, we we trust in the civil authorities that that God has established.

But what Deuteronomy 32 calls God's people to is what Romans chapter 12 calls God's people to do, and that is not to have a heart that resents, seeks revenge, or retaliates against our neighbor.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Ultimately, vengeance is the Lord's.

Ultimately, we trust him.

Maybe part of how we trust him is trusting in our civil authorities and in that process.

But ultimately, this isn't our place to take his justice into our own hands.

Instead, Paul says, verse 18, live peaceably.

Live peaceably with all.

That is, if possible, because it's not always to live, it's not always possible to live peaceably with others.

But instead, engage true, genuine agape love towards your neighbor, even towards the wrongdoer, and leave the outcome to God.

Friends, do we hold resentment?

Do we hold a desire for revenge?

Do we entertain fantasy of getting what's ours against our neighbor?

We're called to more than that.

That's us usurping God's role in our life.

We are called to leave it to the Lord, leave justice in the hands of God.

That's the first thing we we see.

Here's the second thing I think we see in our Romans, what it looks like to let true love triumph.

True love, true love that triumphs leave just leaves the justice to the Lord.

True love that triumphs seeks the wrongdoer's good.

Here's verse 20 and 21.

Instead of seeking vengeance, to the contrary, Paul says, if your enemy's hungry, feed him.

If he's thirsty, give him something to drink.

For by so doing you are heaping burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, he says, but overcome evil by good.

Do you catch that language?

Hungry, thirsty?

Does it ring a bell?

Here Paul is pointing us to the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 25.

In Matthew 25, Jesus is talking about the final judgment.

He's talking about those faithful, who have faithfully fed the hungry and and um and given drink to the thirsty, those who have cared for the needs of others, and now Jesus is inviting those faithful into his kingdom.

And yet, Jesus says, there will be many left who will who uh for to whom Jesus will say, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry, you gave me no food.

I was thirsty, you gave me no drink.

And then, of course, these people respond, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty?

When didn't we give you food or drink?

But Jesus says, I see, I truly I say to you, you did not do it to the least of me.

Pardon me, you who did not do it to the least of these, you did not do it to me.

This is radical.

This is wild stuff that Paul is calling us to, because he's calling us not to just serve others, but even serve our enemies.

To put into practice that self-sacrificing love that Jesus calls us to here in this passage.

This doesn't leave us in a neutral place, as though it's as though we're wronged, and now as long as, you know, as long as we keep them at a distance, I guess, and as long as we don't take negative actions towards them, that's okay.

No, we're actually called to take active, positive actions of genuine love even towards our enemies.

That's way beyond fantasizing revenge, way beyond wishing them ill.

That's actually seeking in prayer and in humility what good our enemy needs.

Maybe that's accountability, maybe that's being held into account for their actions, like Romans 13 says, but that means we can't hold revenge, retaliation, or resentment in our heart.

That is a poison that we drink ourselves, hoping that the other person dies for it.

We're called to more than that.

We're called to recognize the image of God even in our enemies and seek to serve them for the sake of Christ.

Friends, true love triumphs.

True love leaves justice ultimately to the Lord, and true love seeks the good of the other, and this means that revenge, retaliation, even resentment are always for us a sin.

They are always for us a sin.

There is never a time where we are called to take the Lord's justice into our own hands.

Instead, we are always called to seek the good, even of those who do wrong.

And in so doing, Paul says we heap burning coals on their heads, which is a really weird thing to say, because it makes no sense to us modern readers, right?

But here's three interpretations generally of what Paul's calling us to.

He's quoting Proverbs 25.

Maybe the burning coals he's talking about is a future divine punishment they have in store for their wrongdoing.

Maybe it's the shame of having done us wrong and we go ahead and do their good.

Or maybe option three, it's calling them into penitence.

Maybe it's calling them into repentance, to change their ways.

But all of this ultimately leaves the outcome in God's hands.

It's not ours to take for ourselves.

It is always a sin for us to take the outcome into our own hands and to make that justice realized in our way, in our time, because that's not really justice at all.

Instead, we're called to serve the wrongdoer.

That this is God's will for the wrongdoer, precisely because we see in Ezekiel 33, we see the Lord's heart, even for the wicked.

As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

I don't want to see revenge, retaliation, squash them.

Instead, I desire that the wicked would turn from his way and live.

When we live in accordance with true love, true love that takes genuine action of reconciliation, true love that actually wills the good, even of our enemy, then we can see this repentance, this renewal take place.

We can leave a place for God's justice even in our hearts.

Repentance, renewal, reconciliation.

This becomes a part of a bigger picture of what God wants to do in the hearts, even of wrongdoers.

So we see that we're called to bless those who persecute us, bless and do not curse them, to speak life, to perform what's good on their behalf.

This is not something that's fake.

This is not something that is disingenuine, not insincere.

Instead, it engages us at our deepest level.

And the truth is, I think if we're honest with ourselves, rarely do we want to love those who've done us wrong.

I think that that's okay.

I think that we get permission, at least it's it's okay to acknowledge that.

I think we see permission in the Psalms to acknowledge with brutal honesty exactly where our heart is before the Lord towards our wrongdoer.

I mean, my goodness, read Psalm 58 if you have some time today or this week, and you will read words that I find hard to say out loud, let alone read them or pray them as an act of devotion.

You will read these words where the psalmist makes known exactly what he'd like to see happen to his enemies, and yet we see the psalmist pouring out his heart to the Lord, not pouring out his wrath upon his enemies.

That's the kind of permission we have.

When someone has done us wrong, we can pour out our guts to the Lord, and we don't have to hold back.

And we will discover by God's grace that he is renewing and transforming our hearts such that we can exercise the true love of Jesus even towards those who've done us wrong.

So do we trust in God's justice or do we seek out our own revenge?

See, taking revenge is taking God's justice into our own hands.

We discover when we take revenge, it ultimately takes us.

Only true love triumphs, and this is the true love of the gospel.

Because, friends, if we zoom out the camera lens a little bit and look at revenge and wrongdoing, we have to acknowledge that we ourselves are the wrongdoers.

Romans chapter 1, the righteousness of God is revealed against all wickedness.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

And in Romans chapter 3, we see that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

Friends, we have sinned.

We have committed grievous wrong to our holy God.

And we are we rightly are recipients of God's judgment, his justice, his wrath.

We rightly deserve that.

And yet, the cross ultimately shows us that true love triumphs.

True love triumphs even over evil and revenge, over sin and death.

In Romans chapter 5, Paul writes that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

In other words, while we were still enemies of God, he took the action, the action of love, the action of leaving justice in his Father's hand, and our Lord came and served us.

He came not to be served, but to serve.

He came to be a ransom for many, so that we by who are justified by faith can live at peace with God our Father.

That's what we see in Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

This is Christ's agape love towards us that we have seen throughout our study of Romans.

And now we who have been freed from an endless cycle of revenge, violence, or retaliation are now open to this wild new possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Our Lord has been raised to new life, and so too he promises us a new life of redemption, renewal, and reconciliation as we grow in Christ's likeness.

We are called to be agents of redemption, of renewal, that overcome evil not with evil but with good, just as Christ did himself on the cross, and to serve our even our enemies.

It doesn't mean that conflicts don't happen.

We see that clearly in Matthew 18, and there is a pattern of restoration that acknowledges the wrongdoing for what it is and engages the center of our beings, our hearts, towards the other in actions of goodness and genuine love.

So, friends, do we have place in our hearts for God's justice?

Or do we seek to take justice into our own hands?

Do we seek our wrongdoers good, or would we love to see them burn?

Maybe the first step for us, those of us who've been ensnared by resentment or desire for revenge, is to pray that God would give us that place in our hearts for his justice.

Ultimately, vengeance belongs to him.

Justice belongs to him, and he will realize it in his way and in his time.

Perhaps we need to repent of ways that we have tried to realize that justice in our time and in our way.

And then perhaps we need to humbly and courageously pray that the Lord will show us how to seek our wrongdoers good, even as we follow Christ.

See, Captain Ahab says from hell's heart he stabs at the object of his revenge.

That is because hell has literally poured itself into his heart in this act of retaliation.

When we take revenge, hell ensnares our hearts.

And what we discover, like Ahab, is when we take revenge, revenge ultimately takes us.

The cross shows us that true love triumphs.

True love leaves justice to God.

It seeks to serve even our enemies, just as Christ has served us.

So, Father, show us how to love our enemies.

Show us how to give true justice to you.

Give us wisdom, courage, and humility.

Let us love our enemies even as you have loved us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.