Chardon church of Christ

Practicing Hospitality

Practicing Hospitality
Romans 12:9-13

There is a lot in Romans Chapter 12 to help us in our daily pursuit of being more spiritual.  We are to give ourselves as living sacrifices to God; we are to renew our minds that we might prove what is the perfect and acceptable will of God. 

Romans 12:9-13 – “9. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11. not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12. rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13. distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.”

Paul concludes verse 13 by saying “be given to hospitality”.   He says practice hospitality.  What is hospitality?  How do I practice hospitality and how much of an impact does it make in the life of the Christian by doing what Paul commands here?  How can we know whether or not we are hospitable people?

Love Without Hypocrisy - Part 3

Love Without Hypocrisy – Part 3
Romans 12:9-10

In our study of verse 9, where Paul says “Let love be without hypocrisy”, we looked at love and saw the biblical definition of love in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13 and some other places.   We recognize that love is a vital part and maybe the most vital part of our relationship with God.    Not only that we love Him, but first and foremost that He loves us.   

We learned that it is love that makes everything meaningful and that the original language describes the facets of love with verbs, action words.   Love is not a feeling in biblical terms but activity.  

Let's turn our attention to the qualifying phrase of that first part of verse 9.   Paul says “Let love be without hypocrisy”.   The hypocrite is a common topic in the Bible. There are a lot of passages about hypocrisy and the place of the hypocrite.    Jesus spends a lot of time rebuking the religious leaders of his own day because of hypocrisy.

Let’s look at hypocrisy and define it from the standpoint of what the Bible says, then consider some applications of our own.    I will let you know right off that I am apprehensive when talking about hypocrisy because there's a tendency to deal with this subject from the standpoint of; that hypocrite out there somewhere.   That other person, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Scribes, the people that Jesus talked to in His own day, those are people that are beyond me.   I think there's a real tendency and perhaps temptation to talk about hypocrisy as something that doesn't apply personally.   I want to be very careful about that because that would be the most hypocritical thing that we could ever do, to talk about hypocrisy as though it could not possibly apply to us.

Love Without Hypocrisy - Part 2

Love without Hypocrisy – Part 2 
Romans 12:9-10

Paul says “Let love be without hypocrisy”.   In part 1we looked at love in general and what the Bible teaches us about the nature of and the definition of love.  

The Bible has a very concrete use for the term love particularly in the examples of love. Contrast that with society today and even our language where we use love in a very general or abstract way.    We talk about a lot of different things that don't all have the same meaning.  We talk about loving a certain kind of food or loving our new house.  We love our puppy or our spouse, or our mother,… and we love God.  We use the same English word to describe all those things, all those connections yet those connections are not all the same.  

Those connections certainly don't carry all the same intensity nor do they describe in anyway the same activity.   In the practical language of the Bible though, when God calls us to love one another, it is based upon the love He has already expressed to us. Because of that there is a practical foundation for God's demand that we love one another and that we love Him in the same way that has already been clearly defined for us.

 

Love Without Hypocrisy - Part 1

Love without Hypocrisy – Part 1
Romans 12:9-10

 It's our focus through this quarter where we are looking at the apostle describing for us what it means to give ourselves as a living sacrifice to God.   Our study this morning takes us to verse 9.

Romans 12:9 – “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.”    I think it's important for us to recognize, particularly as we look at the rest of the chapter, how all of the information, the admonitions, reflect back on what we read at the beginning of chapter 12 where Paul called upon them, and us to give our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice before God.  

We learned that part of the process of being a living sacrifice was for us to recognize and use the gifts that God has given us as Christians.    The person who exercises their spiritual gifts and offers themselves to God as a living or continual sacrifice is going to live differently.   They are going to be evidence of a different lifestyle from those around them, for their life will be Spirit filled and Spirit lead.   We don't use that terminology in a mystical way or to promote a new denominational teaching.     We are to recognize that the Bible does teach clearly, that the Christian needs to be led by the Spirit of God and their life is to be filled with the His spirit.

Roman chapter 12 verse 9 is the beginning of a series of short, concise admonitions that we might describe as a synopsis of spiritual living.   Romans 12:9 – “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.”