Romans 12:10

                “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another”

                Am I to be truly kind and affectionate with brotherly love? Oh how the Devil loves to lead me on top of a pedestal where I try to awe the crowd who I secretly think are below me. Oh how unnoticeable it sometimes is, I even deceive myself sometimes why my showmanship. Yes, I look kind, and I do kind things, but is it truly from a heart of brotherly love? Yah, I might be smarter, more morally adept than most people; and yes, I might appear to be kind and a young man rich in Christian character; but who am I in the eyes of God? Do I truly love my brother, or do I talk down at him like a car salesman/ Where is my motive, and how may I change it to truly be humble and not just appear to be in my flesh.

                “In honor given preference to one another” Oh so easy to do in behavior, yet so difficult to perform in the heart. Why do I exalt myself in my heart when I do such an act and tell myself how “humble” or “kind” I’m appearing which ends up puffing me up in pride. Why can’t I truly let others go before me not for the purpose of show, but for the glory of God letting Christ sine through me?

                Application: I fail at these two commands in my heart all the time, and I need to daily—no, hourly confess the sins and ask my Lord to change my heart and motives. I’m going to continue to read Scripture to find how to truly love and serve people so that I might have my mind thinking about His Word rather than how “Christian” or “holy” I’m appearing to people. Just because my heart might not be fully conformed to this exhortation, it still gives me no excuse not to do kind and loving thins towards people, though my heart might not be following. Once my heart is transformed and conformed to the image of the Word of God, not only will my brotherly love be pure, but it will become more prevalent with my behavior. May Christ’s body be edified in brotherly love through me.

Romans 12:9

                “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.”

                “Let love be without hypocrisy.” It’s not enough to have a mask of love on my face and secretly despise the one whom I’m pretending to love towards. Nor does this mean that I should love so that I would get recognized and complemented for my “love” towards people. This verse pierces my heart to examine my motives and intentions for loving people. Is it for me and my glory, or is for Christ?

                “Abhor what is evil” for love “does not rejoice in iniquity” (1 Cor. 13:6) The only way to truly love without hypocrisy is hating sin that not only is out there in the world among other people, but also hate the sin that is secretly harboring in my own heart. If I let this sin reign in my heart even a little bit, I’m going to become hypocritical in my love towards others. Whether it’s greed, lust, pride, or hate; it’s going to pollute my love and poison those who I attempt to minister to.

                “Cling to what is good” so if I should love without hypocrisy and truly abhor evil; I would be truly following this exhortation in the fullest. It is not enough to just know what is good, or meditate what is good, or even simply love what is good, but Paul says I must “cling”; saturate myself in the abundance of good that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

                It is so simple an instruction: “Let love be without hypocrisy.” How? -- “Abhor what is evil” and “cling to what is good.” So simple, yet so tricky when trying to apply it to my life. Even when I muster enough encouragement to dive myself into obedience to this verse, I cannot help the sin lurking in my heart that dumps pollution in the stream of my love. I must cling to my heavenly Father in prayer who will be able to light up the dark hideouts within my heart, for in Him there is no darkness.

                Application: When God reveals the dark folds within my heart, I should open it up to God and repent, I then can abhor my sin and cling to what is opposite of that sin so that my fellow brothers and sisters can drink the pure love that isn’t tainted with hypocrisy, but is fresh from the cistern that is Christ Jesus.

Mark 8:38

                “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

                This is not something that just the liberals do, but sometimes is something that we, as conservative evangelicals, do. We try to hide it by using lofty theological terms and technicalities to extract ourselves from certain commands that came out of the mouth of Jesus. Take for example how we deal with unbelievers, we like to separate ourselves completely from them and avoid them like the Jews avoided Gentiles like the plague. Yet if we look at Jesus, He touched the leper, He lifted the chin of adulteress, He approached that filthy Samaritan woman at the well.

                As Jesus ate and ministered to the broken, corrupted, flagrant sinners; we should also likewise welcome the homosexual into our church, minister and talk to the drugged out homeless person, we should love the liberals who have been corrupted by the ways of this world. Some might make the excuse that Jesus was perfect, and so He could be around them, but we shouldn’t since we are not perfect. They may believe that, but they have to deal with 1 John 2:6: “He who says he abides in Him (Christ) ought himself also walk just as He walked.”

                Application: Though I’m not ashamed of what Jesus says, I know I don’t always follow Jesus’ example in my walk with the Lord. But just the fact that my heart is contrary to Jesus’ example shows that I’m partly ashamed of Him? Unfortunately I can’t change my heart, but by the power of the cross which ripped the veil of the temple, the veil in my heart may be ripped open so that my heart plays harmoniously with my mind in the adoration and worship of Jesus Christ.

Mark 8:37

                “Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

                Though this is a rhetorical, we could probably answer this question. What will a man gain for exchange of his soul? Money, ambition, career, business, trophies, medals, family, prizes, cars, idealism, religion, revenge, plans, glory, the list goes on. All these things a person may have, yet will lose their souls to them.

                But now what will a man give up to gain back his soul? This is even a more interesting question, for we know both in theory and experience that we can give up almost anything to gain our souls, but would we give up everything? Oh yes, I accept that I shouldn’t murder my brother, but do I accept that I should even deny any type of hate within my mind. I mean my brother has done so many things against me, why should I even go beyond abstaining myself from responding in vengeance. Yet God demands that I give up such hate or I will be judged as if I have murdered my bother. Yes, I agree that I should do good things to my enemies, but love them? I don’t think I can. Sure I can give up being popular and renowned among society, but am I also content on being hated and ostracized for my faith in Jesus Christ? Why is it so easy for my mind to intellectually agree to the radical commands of Christ, yet let my heart not be reformed to those commands so that they may apply to my life?

                Application: Though I’m firmly secure in the grace and love of God through faith in Jesus Christ, there are still things in my heart that I need to let go so that I might grasp the full blessings, joys, and wonders of Christ fully shinning through me. I also need to compare my life to the perfect mirror of the Word of God and not nominal- or even radical Christians, for they even fall short to the standards. Will I exchange everything so that I might find my soul in the vast riches of Christ Jesus?

Mark 8:35

                “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

                Here’s the great dichotomy that partners with Christ’s popular truth: “But many who are first shall be last, and the last first.” It’s a theme of Scripture that those who give up their possessions and lives in this life for Jesus, will end up not losing treasure but gaining “a hundred fold in heaven.” But whoever tries to preserve their current life will find that the earthly blessings will be the only blessing they will end up having, receiving nothing in heaven.

                This reminds me of a sermon from Francis Chan where he basically says that Christians never really sacrifice anything, because when they give up anything for their lives they end up storing treasures in heaven for themselves. How empty are the earthly treasures in which “moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.”(Matthew 6:19) This not only refers to our earthly possessions, but our earthly lives where time, weariness, stress, and sickness wear our flesh down to the point where we eventually lose it “whoever desires to save his life will lose it.”

Application: My life, ambitions, desires, whether tangible or impossible, good or sinful; will all burn to the point where only the eternal, everlasting Triune Jehovah stands in glory. If I allow my “self” life to be crucified and let my life be lost in the purpose and Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will truly find life.

                “But whoever loses His life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it”

                “Oh the wonderful cross, Oh the wonderful cross, bids me come and die, and find that I may truly live.”- Chris Tomlin’s “Wonderful Cross”

                “I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss for all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:8)