Living in a Hostile World: 12:14-21

Recap and Background

Welcome to Episode 3 of Series 4. Thanks for joining us again as we continue on our remarkable journey through the book of Romans. We have gone through three whole series talking about the gospel in Series One - what the gospel is, how it works, why it is necessary. In Series Two we looked at the resources to live the Christian life, as Paul explained how the Holy Spirit comes to be the dynamic power who helps us live the Christian life. Then in Series 3, Paul took a different line, and looked very closely at the question of the place of the Jewish people in the Church and God’s purposes now that the new covenant had come; and he came to the remarkable conclusion at the end of Romans 11 that God still had an important place for the Jewish people and there was an expectation in Paul that sometime in the future there would be a tremendous turning to Christ amongst Jewish people.

Now we are in Series 4 and we started in Episode 1 with Paul’s wonderful words about giving our lives to God as a living sacrifice. In the last episode Paul, who is now focussing on the life of the church in Rome, is thinking about the people there – the different ethnic groups, the different views, the different situations, and some of the tensions in the church.

In Episode 2, Paul spoke about how we build up the church - the importance of love and of helping each other in different ways. We know that one of his main concerns was the potential for division in the church in Rome, especially between the Jewish believers and the non-Jewish, or Gentile, believers. This has been in the back of his mind all the way through the letter to the Romans and it becomes more important now in Series 4 when he begins to talk about the practical ways that the church needs to function as one community in the city of Rome, right there in the capital of the Roman Empire.

In this episode, we move on to another difficult topic. Paul begins to focus the church community on how to live in a hostile environment, where people are often against the gospel, where there is genuine risk of persecution, misunderstanding, and hostility in the community. That was a real threat to the church in Rome. The Christian community, as far as we know, started in the Jewish residential area in Rome which is near the centre of the city - very close to the authorities’ headquarters and the places where soldiers would be stationed. They could be watched and they were under the eye of the Roman authorities who did not recognize Christianity as a legal religion at this stage, it had no status in the law. Paul is now speaking to the Christians in Rome who are vulnerable to opposition of all kinds, and this is an important passage because many of us, as we listen from different countries around the world, will know the challenges that we face in our own country.

Response to Opposition

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”

Romans 12:14-16, NIV

He starts by dealing with opponents. “Those who persecute you,” says Paul. “Bless them.” That is a remarkable thing to say. To ‘curse’ someone is to speak words of hostility against them, probably in the public place in the market or in the streets - to abuse people verbally. To ‘bless’ people is to ask God to do good for them. We remember that Jesus had said similar words in Luke 6 verses 27 - 28.

“But I tell you who hear me: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who misuse you.”

Luke 6:27-28, NIV

It is a very great temptation when people say hostile things to us to rise up in self-defence, and Paul was warning against the risk of that and encouraging people to have a very gracious attitude to their opponents. Paul himself had been in many situations where he was severely provoked by the opposition that he faced. Paul is speaking from experience; this isn’t just a religious principle for people in other places this is something that he lived out himself. Here is an example, in Acts 16 we find Paul in the city of Philippi, and an argument about Paul takes place in the public square in the market area because of a challenge to Paul from a lady who is a slave girl in the crowd. It is like a spiritual conflict, and Paul speaks back. The crowd turn against Paul; he gets beaten with his friend Silas and he is cursed by the whole crowd. The whole community is turning against him and that very evening he ends up in jail. He has been cursed by this community in Philippi in exactly the same way that he is describing here. But how does he respond? We find out, as the story goes on, that during the night he and his friend Silas are singing, praising God and no doubt praying for those people who had beaten them. They were in physical pain because of what had happened.

Paul follows Jesus in telling the Christians to take an approach to their opponents which goes against all our instincts, our emotions and our feelings. We put our trust in God to deal with opponents. Maybe you have had this experience. I certainly have had people confronting me directly, angrily, in a hostile way. I remember once it happened with someone who was opposed to my work in my own street, outside my house, and immediately these words came to mind,

Rejoicing and Mourning

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn.”

Romans 12:15, NIV

He is speaking again into the strength and the quality of the Christian community which is stronger if we identify with a range of human experiences that people are having in that community. It builds the bonds of community if we share the feelings of joy and sorrow.

‘Rejoice with those who rejoice’. This reminds me of an occasion that happened to me many years ago. I was travelling in the country of Romania staying with a pastor of a church and he said to me “You can preach on Sunday but on Saturday, there is a wedding I want you to go to.” So we went to the wedding, hundreds of people present, a big event which took place throughout the whole day. I knew nobody and I didn’t speak the language. It was a day of joy, the young couple were getting married. In order to consolidate the experience of church together, we enter into the experiences of other people. Then, to my great surprise, they said, ‘We would like you to speak at this wedding.’ That was a great surprise! Not knowing anybody there except the pastor and his wife, not knowing the language! “Rejoice with those who rejoice”.

Equally we are to “mourn with those who mourn”. Jesus exemplified this in a magnificent way when Lazarus died. He was some distance away from the town of Bethany where his friend Lazarus and Lazarus’ two sisters Mary and Martha, also Jesus’ friends lived. A message came to him to come to be with them and it took several days for him to arrive. When he arrived, the mourners were there in the house with Mary and Martha, in the street and by the tomb. They were in the community. As we know in many of our communities people mourn together in community, in villages and towns. Jesus, although he was busy working elsewhere, had to travel a long way, and he came and entered into the emotion of sadness deeply. It says, in John’s Gospel 11, that he wept tears for the suffering that he saw around him.

Harmony in Community

“Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”

Romans 12:16, NIV

Paul encourages us to keep peace with one another in the church, and not to distinguish between people because of their social status. This is another very important issue as we build our church communities in different places. People join churches who are rich in our communities, people join churches who are poor; people join churches who have lived in our communities for a long time and people join our churches who come from other places. Paul encourages us not to judge people by their status or their wealth.

He is not the only apostle to give this message to the Church. James says something very similar,

“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet’, have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”

James 2:1-4, NIV

The strength of the church is its ability to draw in rich and poor into a single community, and that applied in Rome as much as it applies in my church where I live in the UK, and your church wherever you are in the world.

Hostility from Outside the Church

The second half of this passage which is tremendously important in terms of us trusting God when dealing with hostility from outsiders.

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written ‘It is mine to avenge and I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Romans 12:17-21, NIV

This important passage tells us that revenge is not an option for Christians. When people take actions against us, we are not permitted according to Paul as private individuals to take revenge. This is very difficult in cultures where honour and shame are important values; where the honour of a family is affected by an action against the family. But Paul makes it clear that we have to trust God for vindication when we have been dishonoured, or attacked, or abused, or cursed by our enemies. He is speaking here of enemies of Christians. The primary reference here is people attacking us because of our faith; and many of you studying this will know from your own experience the painful circumstances of being dishonoured or attacked because of your faith.

Paul’s encouragement all the way through this passage is one of exercising faith in God to vindicate us. He is the judge. How does God resolve these issues? There are two ways. One is, he can resolve this issue through other people in the community who stand up for you, or the state that stands up for you, maybe the police force. Humans can stand up for you through God’s grace. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t happen and won’t happen in your situation. The second way in which we have to trust God is that he ultimately judges those who oppose his people, and that judgment comes finally at the last judgement at the end of history, where Christ himself is appointed as judge, and all such actions will be judged and taken into consideration, and all believers who have been persecuted or abused in their communities will be vindicated. This is an incredibly challenging message. It goes against everything that we naturally feel about defending ourselves. In our human situations we can certainly call on the civic authorities and the police to defend us if we are attacked for our faith, sometimes they will and that is good, sometimes they won’t, and we know that to be the case in many parts of the world.

What should we do when we are insulted or persecuted? “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he’s thirsty, give him something to drink and doing this you heap burning coals on his head.” Christians have wondered what this passage actually means. First of all it teaches us to do acts of kindness when other people are unkind. This principle didn’t start with Paul or even with Jesus, it actually started in the Old Testament. Even in the Law of Moses we see examples of this, for example Exodus 23: 4 - 5 says this,

“If you come across your enemy’s ox, or donkey wandering off be sure to return it. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load do not leave it there. Be sure you help them with it.”

Exodus 23:4-5, NIV

Your enemy in the community has lost their animals and you find them, you need to return them even to your enemy - acts of kindness to those who oppose you. This is incredibly challenging.

A well-known example in Africa in the 20th century took place in Uganda, in the time of the ruler dictator Idi Amin, who ruled there through most of the 1970s. He attacked and murdered many opponents including Christian leaders when they started challenging his rule. On one occasion the senior Bishops of the Anglican Church were summoned to meet the president Amin. The Archbishop Janani Luwum was there leading the group who had personally written to the president challenging some of the things that he had done. All these men were threatened but Janani Luwum was retained by the authorities while the other church leaders were let go. He was very shortly after that shot and murdered. One of those present was a well-known Bishop an evangelist by the name of Festo Kivengere who had to flee the country to save his life. He subsequently wrote a book and it was called, amazingly “I love Idi Amin”, and he spoke of the fact that he had forgiven him for all the things that he had done. This became well known as an example of kindness and forgiveness in the face of terrible opposition. There are countless examples of such astonishing grace amongst Christians towards their opponents all the way through our world as they have sought to follow the teaching of Paul, radical and difficult though it is.

What does it mean here in saying that if we help our enemy we will ‘heap burning coals on his head’? Some have interpreted this to mean that will make them feel guilty, but the most likely interpretation of this passage is that the burning coals on his head is a reference to future judgement. God’s judgement is often spoken of in the Old Testament as burning coals, and so it is likely that as we give grace and kindness to those who are enemies, if they maintain their position all that is happening is that they are waiting judgement for those actions and we have to just trust God. He is the judge and he will judge them in his own time and in his own way.

Undoubtedly the teaching of this passage is extraordinarily challenging for all of us, wherever we live whatever our circumstances are, but especially for us if we live and have our faith in a culture that is hostile to Christianity. But there is tremendous hope here because God so often intervenes miraculously to help us, and he also promises us that even if that doesn’t happen he will ultimately vindicate us and our suffering at the hands of those who oppose us will not be in vain. To serve God wholeheartedly in those circumstances is always the right thing to do.

Not only do we have the teaching of Paul but we have the example of Jesus himself. This is the greatest motivation for us to deal graciously with opposition. Jesus’ attitudes and approach to his own suffering is a remarkable story in itself and I have told the story very fully in ‘The Life of Jesus’ collection on Word Online. He was humiliated, he suffered, he was in tremendous pain physically, spiritually and emotionally and yet he said that although he could call down the power of God and legions of angels against his enemies, he said in the Garden of Gethsemane that he was not going to do that. He was going to trust himself to his heavenly father at his point of suffering, and as he was stretched out on the cross he forgave “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”Jesus’ own death and the manner of his death is a tremendous inspiration for us as we consider this challenging theme that Paul brings out in this passage here.

Reflections

Some final reflections as we bring this episode to a conclusion. Underlying everything that Paul is teaching there is a strong understanding that forgiveness is part of this approach to people, in being kind to them we do need to forgive those deep and painful wounds of people who have misused and abused us and said things against us that are untrue and hostile. Forgiveness is the pathway to this lifestyle of grace and openness.

Another reflection would be that we need to really think through how to live out this lifestyle, especially in cultures where other people and/ or even our own families see it as our responsibility to take revenge if anything is done against our family. We have to accept that suffering is a part of the Christian life. This is told all the way through the New Testament but it is very clearly implied in what Paul teaches here.

We also have to remember, in conclusion, what Paul said in Romans 8 when he was thinking about our present sufferings and comparing it to the future. I am going to end with these words from Paul as an encouragement to us. Romans 8: 18 (the very same book, the very same writer, in the very same context) Paul said this,

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Romans 8:18, NIV

He always focused people on future rewards and that is where we need to have our focus when we face difficulties and suffering and opposition in this life.