The Christ-transformed life is a life of loving what Jesus loves. Paul recognizes that loving God and loving our neighbor (Matt. 22:37-39) naturally and necessarily creates relationships and community life. Living with that kind of love draws us together and lines our lives up with people who share the same heart as Jesus, loving the same things as Jesus and, therefore, loving the same things as all the people of Jesus. Love brings us into community together. The world's way is very different, and the world is always trying to get us to comform to its ways. The opposite of love--Christ's ways--is self-centeredness. Self-centeredness is a form of pride, arrogance, narcissism. This self-centered life most often expresses itself in the form of competition, declaring "I'm better, more important, more valuable than you." Love calls us to give up that kind of competition in the humility and other-centeredness of love. Produced on May 21, 2020

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The Christ-transformed life is one marked by selfless love. That selfless love creates a community of shared lives. Sharing our lives with each other means caring about one another and feeling the joys and sorrows, the hopes and fears of the people we love. It means caring about the concerns and experiences of others. This shared life is vitally important as the people of God don't agree with each other and must make decisions together. Maintaining loving community especially in times of difficult and complicated decision-making calls for us not only to be right but to be right in the right way, being right in a way that is bathed in love and mutual respect. Produced on May 19, 2020

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The Christ-transformed life is a life of love but not just a love of those who love us. Paul calls us to a dramatic departure from the ways of this world. He calls us to love those who intentionally and maliciously hurt us. And the love he calls us to is a love that is expressed in positive action--"Bless those who persecute you." We are called to actively seek the well-being of those who hurt us. But of course, as followers of a crucified Lord who died to bless and save those who crucified him, we have a high example to follow. Let's love the way Jesus loves. Produced on May 15, 2020

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Paul calls us to a God-Transformed life and tells us that the crucial mark of that transformation in us is love. In the first half of Romans 12:13, he shows us that that love involves a sharing of our lives with fellow Christians who are in need. In the second half of that verse, he pushes the boundaries of love out to include the stranger who is not part of "our people." The word he uses for hospitality is "love of the stranger." That kind of love looks weird to our world. In these angry, divisive times, the world really needs the followers of Jesus to show them what that kind of love looks like. Produced on May 14, 2020

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The mark of a transformed mind (Romans 12:2) is love. Love, the apostle Paul tells us, should lead us to share our lives with others, to open our lives, especially to those in need (Romans 12:13). The world tells us that need should divide people. But Paul sees need as an invitation to God's people to open their lives and to share their lives with others. That is something that God's people should be showing the world, especially now in this time of great need. Produced on May 13, 2020

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All these weeks of being bottled up can lead to unhealthy and unhelpful responses in us, such as "What's the use?" and "I can't take it anymore!" Neither indolence nor outrage are godly ways to serve the Lord. Paul calls us to make serving the Lord the focus of our identity. No matter what the circumstances of our lives, our identity can and must always be that we are those who are serving the Lord. And Paul tells us that the hallmark of that service to the Lord is seen in our joyful hope, patience in affliction, and persistent prayerfulness.  Read Romans 12:11-12

Produced on May 8, 2020

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Hard, scary, frustrating times can cause us to think, speak, and act in ways that we should not. Such times can cause us to become all focused on our own concerns. They can cause us to make ourselves the most important thing in the world. Self-interest, self-protection, and competition with others do not lead us to be the kind of people God wants us to be. Here in Romans 12:10, Paul calls us to place our passionate love on others rather than ourselves and to hold others in higher esteem than we do ourselves. In this way we demonstrate the character of Christ, we live into the joy, peace, and love that we are made for. Produced on May 7, 2020

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Here in Romans 12:9, Paul calls us to love others sincerely. As I've pointed out in earlier sessions, loving others means to work for their well-being. Loving others means doing that which contributes to their well-being. But how do we know what that is? The good is that which contributes to human well-being; evil is that which undermines human well-being. It is God who defines that for us (see Romans 12:2). Knowing and loving what is good will show us how to love others--all others both our friends and our enemies. Now is the time for us to show the world what that kind of love looks like. Produced May 6, 2020

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Paul uses a word related to the English word "hypocrite" to help us understand what genuine love should look like. Genuine love is love that has no pretense about it, love that is sincere, authentic, real. The great poison for this genuine love is self-interest. Self-interest kills genuine love. And when are we most prone to self-interest? When are we most prone to focus on ourselves and our own needs? It is when we are afraid. So, let's beware. These are frightening times. Let's be very careful not to allow these scary times to poison our ability to love. Produced on May 5, 2020

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In this verse (Rom. 12:9), Paul gets to the heart and soul of this great chapter of the New Testament. He calls us here to an unconditional, selfless, unself-interested commitment to the well-being of the other. A love that is utterly non-coercive. This love (agape) is to be the instrument of transformation that God uses in us and through us in the world to bring about his kingdom. The world sees political power and crushing our opponents and angry words as the way to go. Paul, following Jesus, says, "No. It is love that changes the world." Jesus proved that on the cross. The followers of Jesus dare not take any other course. Produced on May 1, 2020

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