BIBLE STUDY FOR TEXAS: True love has many faces

October 23, 2000

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Nov. 12 Lesson

True love has many faces, but all resemble God
___Romans 12:9-21; 13:8-10
___^12:9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹²Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
___¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
___ ¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. ¹⁸If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge, I will repay," says the Lord. ...
___^13:8Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. ⁹The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." ¹⁰Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

___By Carol Younger
___A couple is celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary when a grandchild asks: "How did you know this was true love? How did you recognize this was the one?"
___What do they say? How do they describe what true love looks like?
___A youth is considering baptism and asks you: "How do you know when you truly love God?" What might you say? What does authentic love for God look like? What helps you recognize it?
___Defining genuine love can be difficult, but we often know it when we see it. A missionary kid from South Asia was talking to friends at seminary about whether or not they were "cut out" to be missionaries. "It takes love to do missions," he said. "And do you know what love looks like? Once I watched my dad hold a man's diseased feet in his hands. Though his feet were swollen, full of infection, he wasn't afraid to touch the man. His only concern was to love him like Jesus did. That's the kind of love I want to have."
___Love made visible
___Mary Alice and Charlie Wise of Gatesville lead lives that make their love for God visible. Love has literally shaped their days and weeks for years. As they have taught missions to children, immersed themselves in the work of the church, led outreach in their town and committed themselves to volunteer prison ministry, their love for God has directed their lives.
___For 20 years, Mary Alice has led weekly Bible studies for Death Row inmates at the Women's Prison in Gatesville. When Karla Faye Tucker was on Death Row, Mary Alice studied Scripture with her weekly. As Tucker's execution approached in February 1998, worldwide media turned its attention on her spiritual transformation. But equally significant was the spiritual transformation of those who worked with her.
___A love for Christ led the Wises to love those in the prison system who desperately need Christ. This love transformed their vision of people--and their views on rehabilitation and justice issues. "Karla's heart's desire was that the body of Christ in the free world would embrace the body of Christ in the prison," Mrs. Wise said. For the Wises, life is all about experiencing and living Christ's kind of love.
___Love is not optional
___When we sing, "They'll know we are Christians by our love," we agree with Paul that love is the mark of our faith. Letting love shape our lives is not an option for Christians--it is our identity. As he wrote Romans 12:9-21, Paul may have been giving instructions to new converts before their baptism. He gave examples of what love does and what it looks like, because love is central to who we are and whose we are.
___Genuine love finds its source in God
___In our English language the word "love" covers a multitude of meanings, from the promises we make in marriage vows to the way we feel about sports teams. Paul wants to be clear about what God-centered love means. The Greek word for love in this passage is "agape," which differs from other Greek words for love, such as "eros," a kind of need-oriented love that is interested in receiving affection, or "philia," a love of mutual giving and receiving.
___Agape love wills the good of another, whether this love is reciprocated or not. Agape describes God's love toward us in Jesus Christ. Paul writes of this kind of love after he has appealed to Christians to become living sacrifices, constantly being transformed by renewing their minds to discern what God wants them to do. The love we live grows out of this renewal and transformation. The discipline of offering ourselves to God in prayer is what makes our love both possible and holy.
___Paul writes, "Let love be genuine" (v. 9). When someone describes a person as "real," it is usually a wonderful compliment. Compare the person who cares deeply about something with the one who only pretends to be concerned. How do we recognize this difference in others and in ourselves? Have you known the difference between doing good out of the desire to respond to an experience of God's love versus doing good out of a sense of duty or an attempt to earn God's love? Sometimes we are the ones most affected by our loveless attitude.
___A woman describes the years when she cared for her mother-in-law because it was the right thing to do, but her heart was not in it, and everyone in the Bible study nods. We all find ourselves in situations we resent at times.
___When what is "right," does not feel right, we need to make these matters of prayer. The genuineness that we need may only come through God's transformation, the renewing of our minds. When we feel empty and find ourselves going through the motions without passion for what we must do, we need reminding that our actions can be opportunities to respond to grace, rather than efforts to earn God's love or peoples' praise. Such a renewed perspective may make all the difference.
___When our love comes from a transformed life, there is a vibrancy to our faith. The strong language here, "Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good" (v. 9), indicates that transformed lives maintain a keen sense of moral values. Faith becomes alive and active in the variety of ways mentioned in verses 10-13. Such love invigorates the body of Christ by caring for its members, serving with zeal, rejoicing in hope, being patient in suffering and persevering in prayer. Even the art of hospitality finds deep spiritual roots when God is its source. Paul envisioned hospitality as the act of caring for those who could not return the favor. Too often our acts of hospitality became attempts to impress or achieve a certain status.
___Genuine love cares for community
___When love becomes a lifestyle, the Christian relates to every person he or she encounters from a transformed perspective. No longer are we conformed to a worldview that seeks revenge on those who would harm us. We look for ways to demonstrate redemptive love in every situation.
___Paul describes this distinctive way that we must relate to both Christians and non-Christians in verses 14-21. Christ offers to transform our desires to "get even," or live in an "eye for an eye" society. He offers us a better vision of life. On the cross, Jesus forgave and prayed for those who persecuted him, and Paul reminds us that this love is both our model and our strength for dealing with enemies.
___In verse 15 Paul writes, "Rejoice with rejoicers, weep with weepers." Genuine love leads us into significant experiences with the people around us.
___During a particularly intense week, my husband found himself experiencing both extremes of life during one hospital visit. On one floor, he sat with a family who had just experienced the sudden death of someone who was much too young to die. When he left them, he stopped to see a family on another floor who had just delivered a baby they had almost given up on having. As he walked to the car afterward, he reflected on the rich calling we all have to care for those who are hurting and those who are happy.
___Paul knew that letting love transform our lives would be a difficult and a constant calling. More than once in this chapter he reminds us to see ourselves as part of a larger body. His admonitions in verses 16-21 address two attitudes that threaten a peaceful community--that of superiority and the desire for retaliation.
___"Associate with the lowly" (v. 16), he tells us, which is a good antidote for pride. "Never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God," (verse 19) he instructs.
___"To take the matter of vengeance into one's own hands is to betray a lack of trust in God's ability or judgment," writes Vernon Davis, dean of the Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University. "Vengeance is wrong because it reveals a lack of faith." Returning evil for evil begins a destructive cycle. Paul believes that the only way evil can be overcome is through love.
___In Romans 13:8-10, Paul explains that love is the fulfillment of the law. These verses describe two ways people relate to each other, and then offer a better basis for relationships.
___The first alludes to a debtor-lender relationship. A person's debt can limit his relationship toward the lender. Paul advises against being bound to another by legal ties, stressing that a voluntary bond of love is preferable.
___The second way of relating, based on commandments about how not to treat people, does not fully describe the Christian's relationship to others. Christian love, writes Davis, "involves more than simply not doing anyone any harm. It goes beyond not harming another to actively working for that person's maximum fulfillment as a person."___
___Strength to live the way of love
___The experience of God's grace is what helps us love authentically. It is by the mercies of God that we learn to give ourselves to God and find ourselves transformed into the body of Christ. Living the way of love requires prayer and patience, insight and forgiveness. It demands a strength that comes from the one who first loved us. A prayer from the Celtic Christian community in Iona, Scotland, may be helpful as we ask for strength to live the way of love:
___"O Christ of the poor and the yearning / Kindle in my heart within / A flame of love for my neighbour, / For my foe, for my friend, / for my kindred all. / From the humblest thing that lives / To the Name that is highest of all / Kindle in my heart within / A flame of love.

For thought and discussion
___ Sing "They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Love." Is love the best witness we can give for our faith? Explain. How is love made visible?
___ If we truly lived by love, how would we live? How would our day planners change? What would our lives look like? What is something love might ask us to do that we wouldn't normally do?
___ Do we have to like others to show them love? What's the difference?
___ Look at verses 14-21. What is the most difficult thing about following each of these verses?
___ Love must dominate our lives. Make a top 10 list of specific things you could do this week to be more loving.
___ How do we reconcile the words in verse 9, "hate what is evil," with the admonition in verse 21, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good?"
___ How does the instruction "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep" affect our daily lives? How do we find balance when we are deeply involved with the joys and the sorrows of others?
___ What could we pray when we feel unloving or find ourselves serving without a heart for it?
___ What are ways we can extend hospitality to strangers?
___ Think of a person you struggle to love. How could you bless that person? What could you pray for that person?
___ Name a situation in which good overcame evil.

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