Summary
In this week’s service, Rev. Steve Mclaine explored the challenging instructions found in Romans 12:9-21, contrasting comforting scriptures with the practical, often difficult, call to live out a genuine Christian faith. He emphasized that true love is not merely verbal, but is demonstrated through active patience, forgiveness, and the essential ministry of being present for others during times of both rejoicing and weeping.
Rev. Mclaine also addressed the necessity of overcoming evil with good rather than allowing bitterness or anger to transform us into the very things we oppose. By focusing on what we can control—our kindness, our truthfulness, and our prayers—we are called to follow the example of Jesus, choosing grace and peace even when we face those who seek to hurt us.
There are small passages in Scripture that are comforting. They’re easy to hear. They remind us that God helps us. John 3.16, right? And that Christ is with us. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. And that we are never alone. And then there are passages like Romans, chapter 12, verses 9 through 21. This passage is beautiful. But it’s also challenging. It really causes us to think and reflect on ourselves. Paul doesn’t simply tell the Christians what to believe. He tells them how to live. He says, let love be genuine. Love one another. Honor one another. Be patient and suffer. Pray faithfully. Share with those who need. Welcome strangers. Bless those who hurt you. Don’t repay evil for people. Then Paul gives us perhaps the hardest instructions of all. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That’s not always easy, is it? In fact, sometimes it’s incredibly difficult. Because when someone hurts us, our first instinct can be to hurt them. It’s a natural feeling. When someone speaks badly to us, we want to defend ourselves. When someone treats us unfairly, we want justice. We want, and so sometimes we want a little revenge mixed in with that justice. But Paul understands human nature. He understands what kills them. He knows how difficult relationships can be. He knows that churches are made up of people who are, where there are disagreements. Though we misunderstandings, didn’t hear something quite right, or disappointments, and often sometimes hurt feelings. So Paul gives the church a different way to live. Let your love be genuine, this is the one. Paul begins with these words, let your love be genuine. In other words, don’t just talk about love. Christian love isn’t simply saying nice things to people that we like, which is easy, right? Yeah. It’s Christian love is choosing to care even when caring isn’t easy. That’s difficult. It’s easy to love people we agree with. Yes. It’s easy to love people we appreciate. Yeah. But Jesus calls us to something deeper. Genuine love means that our faith becomes visible in the way that we treat the kingdom. Way that we love. That our love is seen. Sometimes love looks like forgiveness. It could just be forgiveness of heaven. Sometimes love looks like patience. Sometimes love means giving someone another chance. Sometimes love means refusing to say hurtful things instead of what we really want to say. Sometimes love means simply remembering that that person is love I thought too. That’s important. You know, I remember one time with my wife, we were at the… We used an apartment. And there was a African-American man who cleared his plans through some struggles in his life. And I loved that her and she had a good meeting. She felt like, well, we’re awesome. But that’s the only thing she did. I love being on the center of the new stage. And remember, with that, he taught us a child too. And what he’s going through right now is something difficult. So the best thing that we can do is we can pray for them. Change your mind. changed the way she thought that she remembered that God first made me. Why could I not forgive it? I feel that I don’t like this. The person who disagrees with us is still God’s child. The person who has hurt us is still God’s child. And all of us are still God’s children, So let us close before God because we’ve heard. We come because God has first told us. That’s how we know that we are going.
So then Paul continues. He says, rejoice with those who rejoice. Weak with those who weep. What a wonderful description of our Christian community, our church. When someone celebrates, we celebrate with them. When someone struggles, don’t leave them alone. When someone receives good news, we’ll tell you if they’ll celebrate, right? And then when someone receives difficult news, we set the sun again. You don’t agree, we’re holding that person. Sometimes, we don’t need an answer. Sometimes, we don’t need to explain how and why something happened. Sometimes, we just need to say, But we don’t need to say that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes the most Christian thing we can do is simply sit beside someone and pray. Be a different couple. Say, I’m here. I’m here with you now. There are two greatest ministries and simply being present. Feeling like somebody else is there with you is an amazing feeling Because a lot of the times, if we admit it, there are things that we go through that we feel all alone. That somebody doesn’t always know what we’re feeling or that it’s experiencing the same thing that we do. And having someone sit with you to help me know that they aren’t here to feel that I am here. It’s comforting, reassuring. Maybe you don’t have a perfect person saying it. It’s okay. Maybe you couldn’t fix the model that was wrong. But they showed up. Showed up. They called. They prayed. They sat in fear. They listened. Somehow, their presence reminded you that you weren’t the wrong one. That’s what Paul’s describing. The church isn’t supposed to be a selection of people sitting in the same room. the church is supposed to be a family that carries one another that supports each other right?
Now Paul takes us into a much more difficult territory he says bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse them that’s wrong if I’m honest with myself I admit that that’s really hard to do this because when somebody hurts us, we want them to understand how we feel, how they hurt us. We want them to feel what we felt. We want them to experience consequences. Paul says, bless them. Bless them. Notice that Paul isn’t saying that evil doesn’t matter. He isn’t saying that injustice should be ignored. He isn’t saying that we should allow people to continue hurting us. There are times when boundaries are necessary. That is important. There are times when justice is necessary. And there are times when people need to be held accountable with the things that they have done. But Paul is talking about what happens inside our hearts. When we allow these things to fester inside our hearts. He said, don’t let somebody else’s evil turn you into an evil version of yourself. Don’t let somebody else’s bitterness become your bitterness. Don’t let somebody else’s anger take control of your heart. Because here’s the danger. When we hold on to that, sometimes we think we are hurting the other person. But the truth of the matter is, we are at once caring for the world hurting ourselves. Forgiveness doesn’t mean pretending that nothing happened. Things are real. Things really do happen. Forgiveness means refusing to let what happened have the final word. It doesn’t have to control the light. And that’s where Jesus enters his passage. Because Jesus lived that kind of love. He forgave. He loved the people who rejected him. The people who persecuted him. He showed mercy to people who didn’t deserve it. Us. It’s personal, right? He prayed for those who crucified him. Father, forgive them because they know not what they are doing. He prayed, excuse me, Jesus didn’t overcome evil by becoming evil. He overcame evil with love.
Now, Paul says, if it possible, okay, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. I love the realm of this verse, okay? Because Paul doesn’t say everyone will always get along. He simply says, if it is possible, knowing that there will be times when it may not always be easy. And then, as far as it depends on you, so that means that we have the responsibility for our part, the things that we have control over, right? We can’t control somebody else’s behavior, right? And we can’t control what another person says. we also can’t control whether somebody forgives us and we can’t control whether someone else chooses peace or not what we can do is we can control whether we respond with kindness we can’t control whether we speak truthfully and we can’t control whether we listen We can’t control whether we apologize when we are wrong And we can’t control whether we forgive. We also can control whether we pray for that person who has hurt us. That’s important too. Sometimes peace begins when we stop asking and start singing. We stop asking, why won’t they change? You know, I wonder if my parents prayed that same prayer. God, why won’t he change? Why won’t he just stop that destructive behavior? You know, and instead, maybe they say, Lord, what do you want to change in me? What can I change that might help him along that way? What can I be better about myself? That’s the powerful prayer. When you say, Lord, what do I need to change inside the week? God likes that. He does. Now, Paul says, don’t repay evil with evil. That’s a tough two percent. Right? The world often teaches us just the opposite. Get even. Right? Don’t let anyone walk all over you. Give them a taste of their own medicine. These are all words that we’ve heard all our lives. And make sure that they know that you aren’t going to take that. Be tough, right? But Christianity gives us another way. Paul says, don’t repay evil with evil. Why? Because when evil is answered with more evil, evil grows. even becomes smaller. It becomes bigger. Someone gets angry. We get angry. They say something hurtful. Then we say something even more hurtful. And it just continues to go and grow, go grow. They all arise. We all arise. The next thing you know, we’re not talking for years, right? Brothers and sisters, this has happened between us, right? And suddenly, something that began with one moment of hurt becomes years and years. or bitterness. Somebody has to stop the sign. Paul says, let it stop. That’s you. That’s not weak. That’s strength. Let me tell you, it takes more strength not to say what you want to say sometimes than what is actually happening. It just takes strength to refuse to retaliate. It takes strength to forgive somebody who’s just argued. It takes strength to walk away from an argument when you know that you might be right. It takes strength to walk away. It takes strength to say that I’m not going to become that kind of person this situation is trying to make me. It takes strength to be those days. Paul says sometimes Sometimes something is surprising. He says something surprising here. He says, if your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. Well, that’s tough too, isn’t it? The last thing we want to do is help our enemies from hurting us. Paul isn’t telling us to become friends with everyone. He’s just saying, offer love. of her kindness, of her forgiveness. He’s telling us to treat people with humility. Excuse me, have humanity. And even when we disagree, still do the right thing. Imagine if someone was to criticize us, and then we respond with grace. Imagine when someone disagrees with us, and then we listen before responding. imagine when someone hurts us and we pray before speaking that kind of life gives people’s attention when they realize that I’ve done awful things to you and yet you still forgive me what a system amazing God that you serve does he walk like you do
Now Paul says, finally, Paul gives us the words that bring this whole passage together. He says, do not become, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Notice the choice. Paul says, do not be overcome. That means that evil has the power to influence if we allow it. If we allow it. A cool person can make us cool. A bitter person can make us bitter. An angry person can make us angry. In a hateful environment, well, it can make us hateful. But Paul says don’t let it happen. Stop. Don’t let someone else’s darkness steal the light that Christ has placed inside of you. Don’t let someone else’s anger take away your peace. Don’t let someone else’s bitterness destroy your joy. Don’t let someone else’s actions determine who you become. Instead, overcome evil with good. So here’s a simple challenge for us this week. So what does Romans, what do we do with Romans to fall this week? Perhaps we begin with three simple questions. Who beats my mom? It’s a good one to start with. Maybe someone in your family. Maybe it’s someone at work. Struggle with a co-worker. Maybe it’s someone that you haven’t spoken with in a long time. Or a cousin or a friend or a family member. Maybe it’s someone who’s difficult to love. How about second question? Who needs my presence? Who needs me to be there with them right now? Would you say, I’m here with you? What’s the weekend? What’s lonely? What’s lonely or something? Who needs somebody to sit beside them and simply say, I’m here with you? And then the third question, how do I need to forgive? What have I done that I need to forgive? Or who do I need to forgive? Maybe forgiveness is a process. Sometimes it takes time. It takes a lead or sometimes a little bit more. Maybe it won’t happen overnight. Maybe we need to pray about that forgiveness first. Let God stir in our hearts then, prompting. Maybe He needs help from someone that you trust and help you understand that house is forgiveness. But begin by giving your hurt to Jesus. Don’t let it control yourself. So here’s my conclusion. Romans 12, visiting the present isn’t asking us to be perfect. is asking us to be different. Different from the world. Different because Christ has changed us. Different because we have experienced grace. Different because we know what it means to be forgiven. Different because we understand that God’s love is bigger than our failures. The world knows how to fight. We see this all the time. The world knows how to get even. The world knows how to divide people into us and them. But the church is called to show another way. Love genuine. Honorable. Rejoice together. Weep together. Pray generously. Live peaceably. When evil comes knocking at your door, don’t answer with more evil. Because the greatest example of overcoming people with good is Jesus Christ. Amen. Yeah.
