JUST DO IT!

Last fall I did a short teaching series based on Romans 12:9-21 for the Home Group that Carol and I were leading.

The first eleven chapters of the book of Romans are heavy with theological truth and insights into God’s plan for the church and Israel. Beginning at chapter twelve, it seems to me that Paul shifts his attention to more personal and practical truths. In the English Standard Version, the passage I taught from is titled, “The Marks of a True Christian.”

This is a very challenging passage. Paul begins with the place of love in the life of a believer: “Let love be genuine.” Far too often Christians say the words, “I love you,” like a slogan, with no real love backing up what they are saying. Paul calls this hypocrisy and says in very loud terms, “Don’t do this! If you don’t love the person, don’t say you do!” This is just the first part of the first verse of this passage and one after another Paul lists the qualities that should be showing forth in the life of believers. This is a very personal and confrontational passage.

Why would Paul do this? Why would he take the time to bring these matters to his Christian friends? Because Paul is a father in the faith and sometimes we need a father to remind us of how we are to live and the qualities that are to exist in our lives. Nobody does that better than this apostle does! He puts his finger right on the end of our nose and says, “Child, it’s time to grow up. Here are some of the qualities that need to be evident in your life if you are going to mature as a believer!”

Try always to remember that what Paul is laying out as the traits or marks of being a mature follower of Christ are not going to suddenly appear fully developed in your life. You don’t get saved one day and the next become a full-grown, mature Christian. You get saved (born again as a baby Christian) and then you go through the same phases as a believer that the natural child does in growing up. You go through childhood (you act like a child, you talk like a child, you learn like a child because you are a child). It does not matter how young or old you are (physical age) when you get saved, spiritually you are going to go through childhood and then adolescence and eventually arrive at adulthood. When you finally get to adulthood, well surprise, but there is still room for growth and change as you are led by the Holy Spirit. And when you finally get “grown up in God” you realize, “My goodness, I know so little and there’s so much more to learn, so much more growth to experience!”

Paul is writing to us in Romans, not to put anyone under condemnation because of failure to achieve but to give us benchmarks, goals to work toward. The pursuit of the qualities that Paul has laid out here are for a lifetime of personal growth.

In summing up this challenging passage, Paul concludes by saying, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (9:21). The essence of what Paul is saying is, “Don’t let the evil of the world system conquer you; don’t let it cause you to live a defeated life! You will triumph over evil by learning to respond — not by doing what your flesh encourages you to do but by responding to what you are learning as a follower of Jesus.”

A key word to understand in this verse is “overcome.” In Greek this word is nikeo (which is sometimes presented in the Greek as nike) and means to overcome, to prevail, to triumph. It is from this Greek word that the famous sportswear company took its name.

In the verses leading up to this finale, Paul has exhorted his church family to respond to evil with good. Paul is a product of this kind of response. I believe that as he stood and watched Stephen being stoned in Acts 7, the evil intent in Paul was shaken by the good in Stephen as he cried out just before his death, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”(Acts 7:60). When Paul was confronted by the Lord on the road to Damascus, I believe the conquering effect of good had already begun to overwhelm the evil in Paul’s heart.

When we respond to evil with a bad attitude then evil wins and that is the whole intention of evil — to destroy the good in you or the good that could have flowed through you. But when we respond to evil with good, then good triumphs every time and Paul was proof that good triumphs over evil.

So . . . just do it! Triumph over evil with good!

(A few months ago I wrote about the final three verses of Romans 12 in a blog entitled “Heap Burning Coals on His Head” [December 21, 2012] and if interested, you can access that article in the archives on this blog site.)