Romans 12:9–21 is not a random collection of admirable sayings. It is a portrait of the Christian life. Paul begins with genuine love and ends with goodness overcoming evil. Everything between those two statements shows us what such love looks like when it walks around in the world.
This is not merely empathy as a feeling. It is empathy made radical by the Spirit of God. It enters another person’s joy and sorrow. It makes room at the table. It relinquishes the need to occupy first place. It pursues peace without surrendering truth. It blesses when the expected response would be a curse.
Most astonishingly, it refuses to permit evil to determine its character.
The Scripture
Romans 12:9–21, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue)
Romans 12:9-21
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Everything in this passage swings on two hinges:
· “Let love be genuine.”
· “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Between those hinges is an entire way of life. Genuine love is morally clear, warmly affectionate, energetically engaged, prayerfully resilient, generously hospitable, emotionally present, humbly peaceful, and radically kind—even toward an enemy.
This is not sentimental love. It is love with muscle, courage, discipline, and endurance. It is the life of Jesus taking shape in his people.
Sincere Love
There is much in the world that disguises itself as love. Out of the noisy menagerie of voices declaring what true love is, there comes a call to sincere, undiluted, unpolluted love.
The clarion cry is the music of agape—God’s purest and best favor toward undeserving and nonreciprocating people, including the sons and daughters of our first parents who turned their backs on their Maker.
As George Matheson wrote:
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee.
Such durable and relentless love has two defining marks: it hates what is evil and holds fast to what is good.
To hate evil is not to become harsh, hateful, or self-righteous. It is to reject every enemy of love and everything that sets out to destroy the object of love. Whatever degrades people, diminishes the human soul, or disrupts intimacy with God cannot be welcomed in love’s name.
To hold fast to what is good is to embrace everything that nurtures, purifies, challenges, encourages, and builds.
Genuine love is not blind. It possesses moral clarity. It refuses what destroys and clings to what gives life.
Affection and Honor
Paul layers the language of love. There is agape, the self-giving love with which the passage begins. Then there is warm affection and familial devotion—the love of people who know that they belong to one another.
There is an expectation that believers will enjoy one another’s company, laugh together, cry together, linger over conversations, and share moments of profound togetherness. Perhaps you have lingered over dinner late into the evening or closed a coffee shop because the conversation was too rich to end.
Such affection can also be painful because it is tender. We feel the pang of separation precisely because the fellowship has been sweet.
As John Fawcett wrote:
When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain.
The church is not merely an institution. It is a family. It is a place of belonging and shared life. Such love is not only expected of us; it is one of the privileges of belonging to the Lord.
Then Paul turns affection into action: outdo one another in showing honor.
You do not have to have all the honor. You do not need to occupy the first chair or receive the loudest applause.
Leadership gives credit away. A healthy church is made up of people who build one another up and loosen their grip on self-glorification. That is why superstar Christianity is such a contradiction. The way of Jesus is not a scramble for recognition. It is a willingness to push others forward, lift them higher, and rejoice when they shine.
Jesus taught us that the way up is down, and it is still true.
A Heart on Fire
Half-heartedness is the curse of mediocrity. Lukewarm faith may maintain an institution, but it will not transform a life or a community.
I once used a word that may or may not exist: pyrocardia—a heart on fire.
That is what Paul describes. Do not lag in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Spiritual fervor is heat. Zeal is motion. Service is direction.
This passion is not frantic religious activity, nor is it a personality type. It is a life made responsive to God. The Spirit kindles love into faithful action, and every dimension of life becomes an arena of service to the Lord.
One heart set aflame by the Holy Spirit can ignite an entire community. Half-hearted service merely maintains. Wholehearted service can effect transformation.
Radical empathy is not passive. It is energized goodness.
The Triple Threat to Discouragement
Discouragement meets its match in three movements:
· The forward view—rejoice in hope.
· The inward view—be patient in affliction.
· The upward view—persevere in prayer.
The Forward View: Rejoicing in Hope
The forward view refuses to become trapped in the bleakness of present circumstances. Hope sees unrealized possibility. It looks beyond what is immediately visible and trusts that God is not finished.
Hope does not require us to cover up our failures or deny our difficulties. Because God receives us with all our faults and frailties, we can face the future without pretending. Christian joy is not a denial of the present; it is confidence that the present does not have the final word.
Hope lifts our eyes.
The Inward View: Patient in Affliction
No human being is exempt from affliction. Until eternity redefines life, we suffer—some more, some less, all some.
Patience is not passivity. It is the settled endurance that remembers we are people of hope and that we can face the present trial with God’s help.
We are not called to look through an opaque window at a glossed-over version of reality. We see the trouble, name it, engage with those caught in it, and seek to make a difference. At the same time, we are stabilized by roots deeper than our circumstances. We trust God’s character and providence even when the outcome is not yet visible.
Patience steadies our feet.
The Upward View: Persistent in Prayer
Prayer energizes and guides the other two movements. It is an ongoing partnership with God in which we open our hearts, listen, speak, groan, wait, and learn to breathe in the rhythm of grace.
Prayer is therefore persistent. We do not stop. There will be ebbs and flows as our moods mingle with the challenges of our times, but quitting is not the plan. We pray as individuals and as a community. Persistent prayer informs our hope, infuses our joy, and strengthens our patience.
Prayer anchors our souls.
Discouragement has no hope. We do.
Below the paywall, we will look beneath the English text at five vivid Greek expressions. Then we will follow radical empathy to the table of hospitality, into the joy and sorrow of our neighbors, through the hard work of peacemaking, and finally into the presence of our enemies. We will conclude with practices for the coming week and stories of three people who refused to let evil determine their response.
