Non-Reactionary Love
Session 9.12
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Introduction
Paul writes to Roman Christians about several issues, including peace with God, the fruits of suffering, and God’s love for all.
Scripture: Romans 5:1-11
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
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Nikki’s Notes
Non-Reactionary Love
There is absolutely nothing we can do that will make God love us more and there is nothing we can do that will make God love us less. God’s love for us is not a reflection of who we are, but a reflection of who God is. This, for me, is this great gift of grace in today’s passage.
If I were leading this passage, I would begin by getting by group to list all the ways we strive to earn God’s love and grace. Next I would get them to list all the things we sub-consciously think we can do to make God love us less. If you choose to do this with them, remind them that though they feel like they know the statements above, we all struggle to believe that love can coming — with no price tag attached for us.
After we have our two lists I would encourage my group to talk about what it means to be loved by God. I would encourage my group to really stay away from church language and actually be specific in their own lives about the ways God’s love has changed them and impacts them in their lives.
Finally, I would get the group to make one more list: a list of the things that we believe deep down will keep people from accessing the full love of God. After we have named those things I would remind them: if there is nothing we can do or not do to make God love us less or more, then what does that mean for the people represented on the list we just made?
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Nikki’s Video Script
Non-Reactionary Love
Today, we are looking at the book of Romans for the 3rd week in 5:1-11. You remember from past weeks that Paul was writing to the Roman Christians in the hope he would get to meet them one day and visit with them. This was not a community he established, but it was one he cared about and wanted to see resolve it’s conflict between Jewish and Gentile Christians.
In today’s passage, Paul begins by equating being in a right relationship with God or justified by faith with being at peace with God. I really love this because this is how it works with people we are in relationship with here. If there is something not quite right between a friend and I, I am not at peace. The same is true with God. When I am disconnected from God because I have not been doing what I know God has called me to do or for any other reason, I feel less peace than when I have found ways to stay more connected to God and God’s grace.
Next Paul talks about how we boast in our sufferings. Simply by the way Paul writes, we believe that he had many critics in churches and maybe the most were in this Roman church that he had no hand in establishing. One of the critiques against Paul was that he had faced to many struggles or adversities to be in a right relationship with God. Paul is the king of speaking to his critics and in this text, Paul takes the critique about his own suffering and turns it on its head. He articulates that the suffering we face is essentially a window to hope. For when we suffer we gain endurance and through that we gain character and our character helps us embrace hope.
I think of it like this. Part of living this life means that we will suffer. We all do in one way or another. The way we allow our suffering to affect us says a lot. We can let it destroy it or we can embrace our suffering as an opportunity to grow in the hope we have in God.
From here, Paul transitions to talking about God’s love for all of us even before we had chosen discipleship as the way we would live our lives. God did not die only for those who had everything figured out — and thank God for that. Rather, God died for all of us, even when we were messed up, even when we didn’t understand anything, even when we were doing nothing for God’s family, even as we are sinners who struggle to get this whole relationship with God right. And for Paul that has made all the difference. Paul knows that God loved him and died for him even when he was persecuting Christians. God loved us even when we seem to have little or no value.
And that is because God’s love is not a reaction to anything we do. God’s love flows forth from God and because of who God is. We are called to love others — all the others — regardless of the value they have for our lives because God has first loved us. This Lenten season, may the unselfish and unselfconscious love of God flow from you to all the others you meet: be they Republican or Democrat, old or young, male or female, black or white or brown, Christian or Muslim or Jewish or Hindu or Pagan, this or that or… or… or…. May you love them as God loved you.