9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:9-21 NRS)
Friend, did you go to school with one or more "politicians"? By that I mean a fellow student who always asked how you were doing and walked away before you could answer? The kind where it gets so bad other students would say, "Let's change the expected "I'm fine" answer and say something is terribly wrong with us and see if that impacts them in any way. And of course, it never did. "Glad to hear it!" would be the response to "I'm having a terrible day and there seems to be no remedy!" Now, don't get me wrong, there are some, albeit a few, true policiians who truly do care about us. Okay, maybe two or three. Paul would have disliked going to school with the psuedo policiians because he uses this passage to encourage all believers in Jesus Christ to truly love one another in genuine ways. This passage will help us have a checklist of what that truly means.
Paul opens this section with a phrase that could double as a life motto if you stitched it on a pillow: let love be genuine. Or, as some translations put it, let love be without hypocrisy. Which tells you something important right up front — apparently fake love was common enough in the early church that Paul felt the need to specify. Some things never change. We've all met people who love you like a used car salesman loves you right up until the papers are signed.
But then Paul does something interesting. He doesn't just say "love genuinely" and leave it floating up in the clouds as a nice sentiment. He gets startlingly practical, almost like he's handing you a checklist. Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with mutual affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Don't lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, extend hospitality to strangers.
It reads almost breathless, like Paul is firing off wisdom faster than he can slow down to explain it — which, honestly, feels true to how real love actually operates. It's not one grand gesture. It's a hundred small, unglamorous choices strung together: showing up, sharing what you have, opening your door to people who might be strangers today and family by dinner.
Then Paul pivots to something that gets significantly harder: how we treat people who've wronged us. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Live in harmony with one another. Don't be haughty, associate with the lowly. Don't repay evil for evil. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
That little qualifier — "so far as it depends on you" — is one of the most quietly gracious phrases in all of Paul's writing. He's not naive. He knows peace takes two, and sometimes the other person isn't interested. He's not asking you to control what you can't control. He's asking you to make sure that if the peace fails, it isn't because you were the one who slammed the door.
And then comes the verse that tends to make everyone shift a little in their seat: never avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.
I love the honesty buried in that image, because it admits something we don't often say out loud in church: even our kindness to enemies can carry a little edge to it. There's something almost satisfying about the coals metaphor — like Paul is saying, "yes, fine, if you want your enemy to feel something, try relentless generosity. It'll do more damage to their conscience than your anger ever could." Kindness as a strategy, not just a virtue. Paul's not asking you to pretend you don't notice the wrong done to you. He's asking you to respond to it with a weapon evil doesn't know how to defend against.
The chapter closes with the line that ties the whole thing together: do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
That's really the argument of this whole passage, isn't it. Evil is contagious — it wants to multiply itself, turn your anger into their excuse, turn one wrong into two. Paul's entire strategy here is refusing to let that chain reaction happen through you. Somebody has to break the cycle, and Paul says: let it be you, let it be love, let it be genuine enough that it doesn't run out when it gets inconvenient.None of this is easy. Paul isn't describing a personality type some people are lucky enough to have. He's describing a way of living that has to be chosen, often daily, sometimes through gritted teeth, especially with the people who make it least convenient. But that's exactly why it matters — a love that only shows up when it's easy was never really the love Paul was describing in the first place.
PRAYER: Lord, teach us to love without pretending, to bless instead of curse, and to overcome evil with good even when it costs us something, in Jesus' strong name we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! OUR CALL TO ACTION: Pick one person today who's difficult to love, and do one concrete, practical kindness for them before the day ends.
I love you and I thank God for you! You matter to God, and you matter to me!
Let's win the world for Jesus by showing genuine love to all people in real ways.
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
