BACK TO BASICS PART 8 - LOVING ONE ANOTHER

 

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on August 4th 2024 by Colin. For the audio & video please click here.  For the worship please click here.

BACK TO BASICS PART 8

LOVING ONE ANOTHER

Rom 12:9-17

How do we love one another? In Romans, Paul lays a foundation of doctrine in chapters 1 to 11.

Rom 3:20  Through the law, we become conscious of sin, but obeying the law does not make us right with God.

Ch3:21 But now righteousness apart from the law has been made known….but through Jesus to all who believe. Jesus changes us by his Spirit.

Ch1-3 Talks about the sinful state of man.

Ch4-8 Talks about how to get right with God

Ch 9-11 Talks about the role of Israel after Christ

And then comes chapter 12 with the big ‘therefore’.

Romans addresses both Jews and Gentiles who are believers and how they should live as children of God.

There are more than 1000 commands and instructions in the New Testament. Some think there are no commands in the New Testament except to love one another. Yes, the whole law is summed up in the two great commands.

There are over 100 ‘one another’ commands in the New Testament. How do we relate with fellow believers and those in the world? How we treat people is a reference to how we relate to Jesus.

Matt25:35-30

What does love look like?

V9. Love must be sincere –‘agape’ which is unconditional (The same word is used in Rom 5:8, i.e. God demonstrated His agape to us in this that while we were yet sinners…)

Matt 10:37 Anyone who ‘loves’ – Stergeo love which is family love

Jn11:3 the word used is ‘Phileo”, which is for friendship.

And then we have Eros love, which is romantic love.

Rom 12:9-10 Mentions agape, storge and philio

V10a Brotherly love – we should be like family and friends.

V10 Be kindly affectionate. The church is our family, and we should love each other in a manner we bear with each other. All families have squabbles; we must know how to handle them and makeup.

V18 Keep the peace as far as it depends on you

V10b Honour one another (ESV says outdo one another in paying the price). Are we willing to pay the price to honour one another, i.e., everyone? We take the initiative and do not wait for others to honour us.

We can show this in deeds and words.

DEEDS Greeting one another. The command to greet one another are repeated five times. Rom 16:15 with a holy kiss. 2Cor 13:12 ..holy kiss.

Lev19:31 says Rise in the presence of the aged – revere your God. I am the Lord.

Rom 13:7: “If respect then respect..”

How do we do this biblically?

Phil 2:3 Consider others better than yourselves. We are the light of the world – how? We are light by our deeds, behaviour and words. We are called to be thermostats and not thermometers.

WORD – appreciating people. Start in the home between spouses and children.

V12 Share with God’s people in need. Practice hospitality.

V16 We need to honour everyone across ethnicity, language and cultures

Revelation 7:9 People from every tribe, language and tongue are before the throne of God. When we do this, the manifold wisdom of God is on display, and the people will see that the Father sent Jesus.

Rom15:15 Admonish one another i.e. caution or reprove gently

If we care for one another, we need to warn our brothers and sisters in love and gentleness with much humility and grace.

Col 3:16

You can only do this if you have a relationship.

People do not want to know how much you know till they know how much you care.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English-speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.