Just how important is love? What is the place of love in Christianity? What is the evidence that you truly love God? What Who When Why How.
Romans 12:9-21 - Love Must Be Real; Love and its manifestations. [The transforming power of the gospel: Christian conduct (12:1-15:13).]
From Rom 12:1 Paul shifts his focus from instruction to exhortation, from theological to practical, from "indicative" to "imperative," and from "what God has given us" (Rom. 1-11) to "what we are to give to God." Yet it must be noted that what we are to give to God cannot be produced independently of God's continuing gracious provision; it cannot be anthropocentric.
Commands are rare in ch. 1-11 (Rom 6:11-13, 19; 11:18, 20). To Paul, what he teaches in Romans has an eminently "practical" significance. For if we take the gospel to heart it will affect our lives in uncountable ways. In ch. 6 Paul makes clear that our union with Christ in his death and resurrection leads to "walking in newness of life" (Rom 6:4) and demands that we "present ourselves to God as those who are alive from out of the dead" (Rom 6:13). Now in 12:1-15:13 he fleshes out these general principles about the transforming power of the gospel by urging Christians to manifest the power of the gospel in specific areas of day to day life.
Ro 12:1-2 is one of the best-known passages in the NT. Its fame is justified. Paul succinctly and with vivid imagery summarizes what the Christian response to God's grace in Christ should be.
12:9-21 is a parenesis. It strings together admonitions of a general ethical content and is characterized by eclecticism (borrowing from many sources). Rom 12:9a is regarded as the heading for the entire section. Genuine love is the overall topic and the underlying motif of the section. In Rom 13:8-10 Paul spotlights again that love is the fulfillment of the law and basic to the section. Paul keeps coming back to love as the single most important criterion for approved Christian behavior.
There is no verb in the Greek in Rom 12:9. Paul says, literally, "sincere love," "genuine love" or "real love." These words are the heading for what follows, as Paul proceeds in a series of clauses to explain just what sincere love is. The addition of an imperative verb in all major English translations is not off the mark, as Paul's purpose is to exhort, not simply to describe.
Jesus singled out love for others as the essence of the OT law (Mk 12:28-34), and the central demand of the New Covenant (Jn 13:31-35), which is enshrined as the traditional and characteristic ethical norm of Christianity (1 Th 4:9; Gal 5:13-14; 1 Cor. 13; Jas 2:8-9; 1 Pet 1:22; 1 Jn 2:7-11; 3:10-18; 4:7-12, 18-21; Rom 13:8-10). The love of Christians for others is grounded in, and enabled by, the love of God expressed in the gift of his Son (Jn 13:34; 1 Jn 4:9-11). Love is a necessity and is an indispensable mark of the new creation in Christ.
Rom 12:9. Paul has already reminded us of this love (Rom 5:5-8). So basic does Paul consider love that he does not even exhort us here to love but to make sure that the love he presumes we already have is "genuine." In urging that our love be genuine, Paul is warning about making love a mere pretense, an outward display or emotion that does not conform to the nature of the God who is love, and who has loved us. The Greek word literally means "without hypocrisy," not playing the part of an actor on the stage. This same adjective is applied to love in 2 Cor 6:6, 1 Tim 1:5 and 1 Pet 1:22 (2 Tim 1:5 describing faith; Jas 3:17 describing "wisdom from above").
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