Rx for Daily Living

Romans 12:9-21

Throughout the last few months the Bible study group at my home church has been delving into the book of Romans, Paul’s letter to the people in Rome. Paul has a unique way of getting his words across to the people. He spent much of his time in prison but never let that circumstance be a deterrent to his spreading the good news of his savior.

In reading these words we read today, Paul emphasizes the ways in which a faithful follower of Christ lives out and expresses the unmerited grace of God in his/her own life.

Since studying these words, I have thought about how they are truly a prescription for life from our Great Physician. There is so much here that any one verse could be a column of its own.

Paul gives us concrete examples of living a life transformed by God. And he weaves it together with the first four words: LET LOVE BE GENUINE.

God himself IS love, so it seems as though one of His top priorities in our prescription to being transformed would be our Christian Love. Two qualities of that love might be sincerity and discernment. In the ways of the world, we see love become manipulative, competitive, but there is no room for these characteristics because love and truth should go hand in hand. Love clings to that which is good. It is characterized by devoted, warm affection. In our case, that is the strong affection we have for all of God’s people. Sometimes we encounter people who are difficult to love, but we make the effort because our family of God bonds cannot be broken.

Generosity is also a part of love. Love means sharing with the less fortunate. Love means sharing in the joys and in the suffering of our fellow human beings. Do you regard your resources as personal possessions to be used as you desire or do you see them as gracious gifts from God to be used for His glory and the benefit of mankind?

Closely tied to generosity is hospitality. Love takes the initiative and actively looks for opportunities. Tied to both generosity and hospitality is graciousness. Graciousness means returning good for evil. God himself pours out grace upon us which can only overflow to those with whom we come into contact.

Genuine love means showing compassion, sympathy and empathy. It celebrates joy and it grieves with those who are grieving. It says, “I will do whatever I need to do to stop your hurt.” Our Lord and Savior was willing to die to stop our hurt and give us eternal life.

Paul urges us to think like other Christians but not to blindly go along with the group. We are to be for the same objectives even when our methods and viewpoints are different. We are to seek out and serve. Most of the time we will probably be tender and understanding, but there will also be times when we need to be tough, firm and unbending, especially when speaking the truth of God’s word.

Truly, all of these attributes of love point us back to what we have always known in our hearts. Love for God. Love of our neighbor. The greatest of all things is Love. Ideas that are easy in theory but not always so easy in practice. We must keep our spiritual fervor burning so we can be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Paul is not telling us to be mere people pleasers but, indeed, as far as it is possible, live at peace with everyone. There is space here that we leave up to God; we don’t take the sword of vengeance into our own hands. We act in love and let God be God.

All of these verses make up the prescription for a transformed life, a life where we are holy and acceptable to God (Romans 12:1)

I think this is the one prescription we can all follow. I think I am going to post these exhortations on my refrigerator. We are called to love as Jesus loved us, to serve in real, authentic, and genuine ways. I know I need a daily reminder to keep living as healthily as my Great Physician recommends.