Romans 12:9-21

I don't know about you, but I hate lists. I know they're necessary, especially when you go to the grocery store and you want to remember all the things you agreed you would pick up. It certainly cuts down on the trips to the store. But lists become most annoying when they are used in such a way as to hold others accountable to the point of being restrictive. They then basically become the rules and the rules turn out to be sacred: no one dare break the rules!

Lists in the bible were not meant to be this way. In fact, the writers of the bible use lists to offer possibilities. The only list that is worth regarding as sacred are the list of ten commandments given to Israel in the desert of Sinai. These were given by God to help Israel see how far they had strayed from God and their relationship with Him. Paul in Romans uses lists much differently. Case in point is the list we find in the passage for this week. The ruling behaviour that accompanies this list is found in verse 9, of chapter 12: "Don't just pretend that you love others. Really love them!" [NLT] Paul goes on then to suggest what this might look like.

When you read the list, it actually reads as a list to motivate one to truly love others. There are 22 separate items on this list: [taken from the NIV]

1. Hate what is evil –cling to what is good
2. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love
3. Honour one another above yourselves
4. Never be lacking in zeal
5. Keep your spiritual fervor in serving the LORD
6. Be joyful in hope
7. Be patient in affliction
8. Be faithful in prayer
9. Share with God’s people who are in need
10. practice hospitality
11. Bless those who persecute you – bless – don’t curse
12. rejoice with those who rejoice
13. mourn with those who mourn
14. Live in harmony with one another
15. Do not be proud
16. Be willing to associate with people of low position.
17. Do not be conceited
18. Do not repay evil for evil.
19. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody
20. Live at peace with everyone [if it is possible as far as it depends on you]
21. Do not take revenge – leave it up to God
22. Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good!

When you read this list you get a feeling that rather than being restrictive, all these items on this list encourage the reader to be free to love and diligent to not allow evil to undermine that love. What this list describes is the life that Jesus lived while on earth and the life He has given us by His Spirit to live today. And by this, we can experience what C. S. Lewis calls a good infection. The very Christ life is made alive in us by God's Spirit so that we can be the true human beings God desires for us to be: His sons and daughters.

Well, when you think of what was going on in the Roman church as Paul is writing this to them some time in the 50s AD, this motivation to love is an attempt on Paul's part for the believers to live with a sense of love toward others and a place of importance for each in the community that centers around Christ. When all people give their lives over to God as living sacrifices, the behaviour of love toward each other is a natural outcome of such commitment and devotion.

In chapter 13, Paul will expand on this expression of love beyond the community of believers to the the community at large.

Questions:

1. What are some items on the list that Paul mentions that resonate with you right now?

2. Take those that resonate and share with your group how they apply to specific situations you are going through.

3. Discuss item 22 of Paul's list - "responding to evil with good" - and the challenges that presents in our world.