So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13:13
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with brotherly affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality.
Romans 12:9-13
Today we will finish reflecting on Romans 12:9-13, twelve succinct pieces of advice on love and service from St. Paul.
Serve the Lord. We serve the Lord through worship and private devotion, by serving others and by doing things to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The mission statement utilized by the parish where I serve is: Love God. Serve Others. Share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To serve the Lord includes all three.
Rejoice in your hope. There should be an overarching theme of hope in every life. Our hope is in the Lord, and in the promise of eternal life. Many of us don’t think about eternal life often, or as often as we should. It is hard to rejoice when the stresses of life bring us down. This is why St. Paul encourages us to rejoice in the hope of eternal life, not just in the blessings of this life. Every life is hard, some more than others, at least it would appear that way. However, no one’s life is free from hardship. Hope is what keeps us going.
Be patient in tribulation. Tribulation works against hope, faith and love and lots of important things in life. Tribulation becomes a distraction, which creates a doubt, which zaps hope. As we work expressing love that is genuine, holding fast to what is good, and loving one another with brotherly affection, tribulation, and with it, temptation, will creep in and try to steal our hope. This is why St. Paul writes in I Corinthians 13, that the first characteristic of love is patience. And nowhere is patience more tested than in times of tribulation.
Be constant in prayer. While not every moment of life is filled with tribulation, every day brings its own challenges and stresses. In order to keep our focus on God, and maintain loving relationships, constant prayer is essential. It is vital that we pray every day. Prayer not only connects us with God, but it slows us down. To sit quietly and be with God stands in stark, and needed, contrast to the fast-paced, overstimulated existence that many of us are living. To be constant in prayer does not mean we sit quietly all day. It means that we have moments (yes, several moments) where we slow down and connect with God, even it is only for a minute or two. And by going to God frequently in prayer, it gives us a consciousness of God and of Christianity in all of our interactions.
Contribute to the needs of the saints. This sentence is a little more difficult to understand. The word for saint in Greek is “agios” which means “set apart.” The Saints of the Church, like St. Demetrios and St. Katherine, as individuals who are recognized as “set apart” because of the way they lived and died (in these two instances both were martyrs, they were killed for their faith). In the Divine Liturgy, the priest says “The Holy Gifts are for the Holy People of God.” This literally means “the set apart Gifts (the bread and wine that have now become the Body and Blood of Christ) are for the set apart people” (the people who are striving for holiness, who seek to set their lives apart from the way the world calls us to live and instead to live the way that God calls us to live). The Church is the place from which we partake of the Holy Gifts and where we are taught and encouraged to pursue holiness. To contribute to the needs of the saints, or holy ones, in one way, is to contribute to the Church, the place where holiness is encouraged. As Christians, we lovingly offer time, talent and financial resources (together these are what constitute stewardship) so that the Church has what it needs in order to encourage us and teach us how to live holy and saintly lives. To contribute to the needs of the saints means to contribute to the needs of the church, the place our future saints will come from.
Practice hospitality. It is interesting that St. Paul uses the word “hospitality” in this sequence. In studying church growth, more than the service or the sermon, it is the hospitality and welcome of the people that creates an environment where people want to return. In spreading love, whether in a church community or any other kind of community, hospitality and welcoming are a necessary first step.
Lord, thank You for the gift of Scripture and the powerful and practical points in the Bible that can lead me to be a better Christian, a better friend, and to better embody what love is. Help me to find opportunities to serve, to find hope and rejoice in it, to be patient in difficult circumstances, to make the time to be in prayer, to be a good steward of the Church and to offer hospitality to friends and strangers alike. Amen.
St. Paul makes twelve great points in only five verses of Scripture!
