There is actually a web-site called GoEnglish.com It is even hard for me to believe. Nevertheless, the site provides an index of English idioms, one of which is the basis of today’s blog title: “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
If you visit the explanation page for this idiom you will find the following:
When in Rome, do as the Romans do means that when you are visiting a new place, you should try to do as the people do who are from the place. Example: “I can’t eat that.” Reply: “Oh, give it a try. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
That is helpful advice. “But,” you say, “that is not the title of your blog!” True, my friends. True.
I haven’t been in Rome but I have been in Romans. I was reading chapters 12 and 13 last week and just couldn’t help but be overwhelmed again by the clarity and simplicity of Paul’s application. Since I was in Romans I thought it beneficial to blog a bit about what Paul expected the Romans believers to do.
He starts with the basics in verse nine:
Romans 12:9 Let love be genuine — abhorring what is evil; holding fast to what is good.
We know (or think we know) what love is. Love for others is singled out by our Lord Himself as the essence of the OT Law (Mark 12:28-34) and love is the central demand of the NT Christian (John 13:31-35).
In verse nine Paul commands the Romans (and so all believers) to love, but not just any kind of love. Paul commands us to love in a discriminating way, that is, to love in a way that identifies differences between right and wrong; good and evil. He is commanding us to have a love that distinguishes between distinctive things. The command is to “Let love [be] without hypocrisy” or stated positively, “have genuine love.”
All of us know people who are externally kind and nice, and yet lack genuine, sincere, undivided affection for others. Just one word in Greek, “without hypocrisy” is the idea of “without show.” In extra-biblical Greek writings this word referred to a “play actor” who projected an image and hid his true identity behind a mask. Paul is warning us about love being mere pretense or a superficial display.
But Paul himself explains in the final two phrases of the verse what un-hypocritical love looks like: “abhorring what is evil; clinging to what is good.” In Greek these verbs are participles and modify the primary command, explaining in greater detail how to avoid hypocritical love.
The first element is negative, and communicates the idea “to hate exceedingly.” True virtue is not passive about evil but discriminates against it. True love has an intense revulsion of it. One commentator said, “Where there is love, evil is abhorred, not merely lamented, much less covered up, but hated.”
On the other hand, true love is actively clinging to what is good. This verb is equally strong to “abhorring” and is “to join closely together, unite.” It is fanatically “glued to” the good no matter what the cost.
Let me give a few examples of this discriminating love. Here’s one: it is not genuine love — no matter what extremes of emotion are present — to commit adultery or pursue any kind of immoral relationship. Adultery is wicked, and no amount of “love” makes it right. That is hypocritical love.
Another example might be refusing to address and confront wickedness in a brother. Silence in this situation is wicked — not good — and therefore muteness in the name of love is a case of hypocritical love. Love does not blindly offer affirmation or encouragement when rebuke and correction is necessary. Genuine love discriminates between good and evil even when it’s tough.
Bona fide Christian love is like a battery which requires two opposing poles for the current to flow. Love is not genuine when it holds onto the negative current. Love is not right when it motivates a person to do something evil or to avoid doing right — always defined by God’s Word. Real love leads the Christian to do the “good” will of God (Romans 12:2), never to excuse defiance to Scripture or to pat the disobedient on the back.
