8/18/24 “Love’s Battle Strategy”
“Love’s Battle Strategy”
Romans 12:9-21
(Show Picture of Board Game)
Has anyone ever heard of a board game called ‘Stratego’?
Anyone ever played it?
Originally Invented back in 1946, It’s a 2-player game that uses a board divided up into 100 squares.
Each player controls 40 one-sided plastic pieces with each piece representing various officers & soldiers, as well as bombs & spies
…your opponent cannot see what specific pieces you have placed in what specific locations – and neither can you see theirs.
The objective of the game is to either find & capture your opponent’s flag – or to capture so many enemy pieces that your opponent cannot make any further moves.
…kind of like chess – on a battlefield.
As a youngster, I remember playing many games of stratego with my Dad – I As I recall, I would usually end up losing…but every so often I would squeak out a victory!
Even though Stratego is simple enough for a child to play, it requires a great deal of strategy and planning to secure victory.
In verses 9-13 of Romans chapter 12, Paul lays out a battle strategy for how we as believers are to engage our enemy – that being the Satanic influence of sin and evil that completely saturates the world in which we live.
Except, our war is not a physical one.
Guns, missiles, tanks and drones are of no use to the Christian soldier…for our fight is not physical in nature – but spiritual.
Pual reminds us of this truth in Ephesians 6:12 where it says “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
As believers we are engaged in an ancient battle between good and evil that non-believers know nothing about.
To the unbeliever, the struggle does not even exist as they are satisfied with allowing the raging current of this world to take them further and further down the river of sin and depravity.
And, sadly, they do not realize that at the end of that river of sin lies a waterfall that flows into an eternal abyss of pain, anger, sadness, hopelessness, and destruction.
Back in June when Lisa and I were in Alaska, we learned a lot about salmon…I found it amazing how these fish can survive in both freshwater and saltwater regions…
…And – as some of you may know – when it comes time to spawn, salmon will actually change color and leave the ocean to begin swimming upstream against the current…until they eventually find the place of their birth.
To put it another way, they realize that its time to go home – and they will battle against the strongest river currents to get there.
When I heard this, it reminded me of our battle as believers against the raging current of the world.
…How when a person accepts Jesus as Lord of their life, they “change color” so to speak – they are now different than those around them…
…And they have a new mission.
Their new mission (OUR new mission) is to swim against the current – and to tell others why we are swimming against the current - until we reach our spiritual home.
When the world is effortlessly swimming downstream – the changed members of the army of Jesus Christ courageously swim upstream…and love is what motivates us to continue.
The idea of swimming against the current is exactly what Paul is talking about in our passage for today.
In verse 9 (Romans 12:9) Paul begins by reminding us that “Love must be sincere
I like how the NASB translation puts it: “Love must be free of hypocrisy.”
In ancient Greece, a hypocrite was an actor who would come out on stage holding a stick with a mask on the end of it, covering the actor’s real face.
Back in the 90’s when almost every country music singer wore a cowboy hat – I wore one too.
For a while, we were playing all over the upper Midwest – and everywhere we played, I wore a cowboy hat, a cowboy shirt, cowboy jeans (With a cowboy belt buckle), and cowboy boots…the only thing was – I’d never even ridden a horse!
I knew a few things about beef cattle from working on my Grandpa’s farm –
but most of my days were spent operating large, modern day farm machinery….not riding the range on horseback pushing dogies down the trail!
At our shows, I was portraying something that I wasn’t…I was putting on a mask…I was being a bit ‘hypocritical’ in that sense.
This is the idea conveyed in verse 9 – that the love we have for other people (Especially those who are brothers & sisters in the faith) must be a genuine love…never a mask of inauthentic affection or a relationship based upon selfish gain.
Matthew Henry once said that “Hypocrisy is to do the Devil’s work in God’s uniform.”
Think of how Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus with a welcoming kiss – there is no better example of hypocritical love than this!
Scripture calls us to express what’s called agape love – this is the opposite of hypocritical love.
Agape love is the kind of self-less love that Jesus showed to others while on this earth – and the kind of love he shows to all of us through his sacrifice on the cross.
Agape love puts the needs of others before those of our own – and this kind of love is a supernatural love…it cannot naturally come from within us.
The power to convey agape love to others comes directly from the Holy Spirit through a relationship with Jesus Christ –
…this is the only channel by which agape love can be known or administered.
Verse 9 (Romans 12:9) also tells us to “…Hate what is evil and cling to what is good.”
It’s not often in scripture that we are commanded to hate something…
But evil is something that we are told to hate, to detest…some translations use the word ‘abhor.’
To hate something is the extreme opposite of loving something.
As much as we are to love God & others with a supernaturally pure love, we are also to hate Satan, sin, and evil with an equal amount of passion and zeal.
This begs the question of us all: How much do we hate evil?
How much do YOU hate evil?
To what extent do you detest the unholy things of Satan in this world?
To what extent do you abhor sin in your own life?
When evil knocks at the door of your heart, do you drive it away with God’s Word – or do you invite it in for some coffee and donuts?
The psalmist writes “Let those who love the Lord hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 97:10)
Tolerance for evil has been a problem that has plagued the church since its inception.
The church at Corinth had become so enamored with the hyper-sinful culture around it that Paul had to chastise them repeatedly about their willingness to allow the things of the world into the church.
Corinth was known as “Sin-City” (It was the Las Vegas of its day)
…and folks, we live in a very Corinthian society today
…and way too many denominations have gotten lazy about staying true to God’s Word…thereby allowing the world and its ways to infiltrate their communities of faith.
Many major protestant denominations made up of churches that at one time held firmly to the truth of God’s timeless & unchanging Word –
These churches are now barely more than social gatherings based upon neo-gnostic intellectualism, subjective feelings, or hyper-emotionalism.
For every church that has drifted into the backwaters of bad doctrine and worldly entrapments – they all have one thing in common…
At some point they made the decision to approach God’s Word as something less than fully true & authoritative in doctrine and in life application.
When this happens to a church, it begins to resemble the church of Laodicea in the book of Revelation.
Jesus tells this church that because they have allowed the ways of the world to eclipse God’s truth….they are no longer useful for the kingdom –
and that, like lukewarm water, he will spit them out of his mouth!
What a vivid (and scary) description of how our savior views a church that compromises itself by aligning with the sinful world around it.
Folks, we simply cannot – and we will not – allow this to happen here at LaValle Advent Christian Church.
As long as I am your pastor, you have my pledge that we will unashamedly stand upon God’s immutable, inerrant, infallible, timeless Word in respect to doctrine, polity, and practice.
Just as God hates the evil system of this world – we need to hate evil as well.
In Verses 10-13, Paul elaborates on the importance of loving our fellow brothers & sisters in the faith with a true and genuine love.
…He drives home the point that love is more of a verb than it is a noun.
In verse 13 (Romans 12:13) we are told to “Share with God’s people who are in need.” And to “Practice hospitality.”
We’re back to agape love, aren’t we….the practice of placing other people’s needs before those of our own…
this is such an important – and recurrent – theme in scripture of what it means to genuinely love others.
1 John 3:18 says “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
In verse 14, Paul begins a section of 8 verses dealing with how the Christian is to relate (In love) to non-believers…
…People who are swimming with the current of the world– some of whom will undoubtedly be hostile toward our message of salvation through Christ alone.
The easy solution would be to simply isolate ourselves from the world, right?
To live in our own little Christian bubble and never have to interact with all of those ‘wretched sinners’ out there.
Not too long ago in my own life, I entertained the idea of becoming a Christian author.
Let me tell you, After 20 years of working with the general public in a retail setting, the idea of locking myself away from the world with just a laptop, a Bible, a bunch of commentaries, and an occasional butter burger value meal sounded really enticing…kind of like being a ‘protestant monk’ ! 😊
That idea sounded pretty good until the Holy Spirit reminded me – and convicted me - of Jesus’ words in John chapter 17, verses 15-18 concerning his disciples…and by extension…you & I.
Jesus prays these words to the Father, “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:15-18)
Jesus wants you and I to interact with the non-believing world…
Yes, even though it may result in persecution and hateful discrimination on account of the message that we proclaim.
If we all locked ourselves in a Christian bubble and never had any interaction with the unbelievers, how would people ever hear about Jesus and come to the savior in repentance…?
In short, without the church engaging the world, how would people get saved?
Think about it, many of you were saved out of this world’s swift current of sin because someone who knew Jesus became your friend and introduced you to the savior.
This is what we are called to do for others…even if we endure some hardships along the way.
Paul speaks to the reality of persecution – and how we ought to respond to it - here in verse 17 (Romans 12:17) when he says: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil….”
…Then he continues in verse 19 (Romans 12:19) “Do 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.”
…and then in verse 21 (Romans 12:21) “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
All of these verses drive home the point that whatever the world does to us because of our faith – we are not to respond or retaliate in a similar manner.
Retaliation, revenge, and retribution are not to have any place in the life of the believer.
This is the battle strategy of agape love – and it is a strategy that most definitely does not come naturally!
Our natural instinct – the way of the worldly current – is to not only retaliate in kind…but to step it up a notch in our retaliation, right?
You poked me in one eye…well, I’m gonna poke you in both eyes!
You kicked me in the knee…well, I’m gonna kick you in both knees!
That’s human nature…and that’s why there will always be war happening on this earth until the return of our savior.
Even though we as believers are new creatures in Christ, we are still at war with our old self…the flesh that wants to retaliate against those who slight us or perform some sort of injustice against us.
Ever have someone cut you off in traffic?
…then you hear that little voice in the back of your head say…”If I only had the batmobile with a missile launcher mounted on the front of this thing, I’d blow this clown into next Tuesday!”
…It’s probably a good thing that some of us don’t have missile launchers on our vehicles!...It would be a tempting button to push…
…especially if you’re driving a shuttle bus in Milwaukee during rush hour….some of us got to experience that firsthand on Thursday.
Dewey – It is possible to mount a missile launcher on the bus? 😊
Retaliation, retribution, missile launchers – those are not the ways & weapons of the Christ follower…and that is not the battle strategy of love.
Responding to injustice with injustice never brought anyone to Jesus…and bringing people to Jesus is our primary job here on this earth.
Rather, verse 14 tells us to bless those who persecute us.
Verse 16 tells us to live in harmony with one another
Verse 17 tells us to do what is right in the eyes of everybody
Verse 19 tells us to leave room for God’s wrath
Verse 20 tells us to provide for our enemies
And verse 21 tells us to overcome evil with good.
These is the strategy of love in our battle with the evil in the world around us.
Lastly, I’d like to take a closer look at verse 18 (Romans 12:18) “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”
Paul provides an important reminder in this verse about realizing that there is only so much we can do in preserving peace with others in this fallen world.
The key is to make sure that you have done everything possible that you can do to mend the relational fence or build the bridge of reconciliation.
Many people have told me about the discord and division that can happen in families when the last parent passes away and the children begin fighting over their inheritance…
It isn’t fair…so and so was never around to help care for them during their final years…so why are they getting so much money!
or…why does my sister get mom’s cherished armoire – she knows I’ve always wanted that armoire!
Perhaps this scenario has happened in your family – or maybe someone close to you has experienced it.
It is during these moments when the lines are clearly drawn between loves battle strategy – and the strategy of the world.
The world preaches that we all ought to be out for ourselves – what’s in it for me?
Whereas, love preaches the exact opposite – the battle strategy of love is this: How can I see the needs of others be fulfilled….yes, even if that other person doesn’t ‘deserve’ mom’s cherished armoire.
Really, it comes down to our priorities, doesn’t it.
Is our priority to swim in the selfish current of the culture…
Or is your priority to swim against the current of the culture – and by so doing – attract others to the savior Jesus Christ…
for which you will one day be rewarded with far greater things than the old family armoire.
Let’s remember the big picture….
because it’s the big picture that will matter for eternity….
Let’s Pray.