Introduction

Speaking of all the graces of Romans 12:9-13, we have tried to label the whole like giving a name to a picture (serving Christ, work, Christian busy-ness). More than one option is available to us because we have a collage, a picture with pictures in it. The picture contains many exhortations (13 in four verses). The inside pictures are clustered arrangements of those exhortations, so many are clustered here and so many are clustered there.

When we read the text we look at the picture as a whole and we see all the objects it contains. They quickly pass before our eyes. Then when we outline the material into sections we identify the clusters. Last week we looked at the path in the picture and the graces clustered around it. It's the good path. The exhortation is to persist on the good path and in doing so you are to be at least three things: industrious, fervent, and passionate. This comes from verses 11 and 9bc.

Industry comes from the word zeal that is literally effort, painstaking effort that is not to be slothful but energetic and focused on the right things. We should express "much ado" about something instead of nothing. We should have much ado about the right things by proper prioritizing our busy-ness. Like the virtuous woman of Proverbs (31) we should not eat the bread of idleness but see to the affairs of our lives with wisdom (wisdom being synonymous with godly conduct).

We are to boil within (fervent in spirit) until we "spill our guts" in service to Christ. Thus we are to have not only industry on the good road we trod but passion hating one thing and embracing another. We are to hate evil and cling to the good. This is fervency within expressing itself in passionate action without. Like Joseph (Gen. 39), when we get the stench of sin in our nostrils, we will identify it as the stench of death. And we will turn our heads away in repugnance; where we have to, we will literally run away from it calling it what it is: evil, wrong, corruption, leprosy, and death.

That is one cluster in the set of pictures. Now let's move our vision over to another part of the collage to see a clustered heap, a bunch of virtues piled on top of one another (piled up in a heap). These exhortations center on love; it’s a love heap, a heap of love. My title for this cluster is "Compounding Love" (love is a compound). This is a message on love but in a particular way. It is a message about compounding love that I want to treat in the following ways: 1) the duty of compounding love, 2) its expression, and 3) its motivation.

1A. The duty of compounding love

Let's consider some things that help us fix our attention on the character of this duty, that it has this compound quality.

1) First, its compound nature is seen in the whole passage in the move from the inward to the outward. Paul begins with love (v. 9a). Then he returns to it in verse 10. Finally, he commends specific acts of love in the middle (v. 10b) and at the end of this section (vs. 12c, 13).

Thus we have the call to love without dissimulation. This directs us to the idea of sincerity. It means that the inward of love matches the outward with no dissimilarity. There should be no disparity between what we do and the heart from which it is done. And the reverse is also true that what is felt deeply in the heart is to come to concrete action. It is a balance that is called for where love is seen in not just thought or word but in deed (James 2:8-13, love….speak and act). And behind the deed is affection or benevolence. Perhaps a good way to think of this is in the rich term lovingkindness (looking from love to the act). Love is thus seen as a compound.

2) Second, we have the call to show brotherly, one anothering, family love (v. 10). This is definitely oriented to the Christian family (God's people, v. 13). It identifies the objects of our love (especially the household of faith). In verse 10a he presents the duty in a heap, a heap in half a verse. It is like a heaping tablespoon of sugar. What is that? A tablespoon is cut off flat at the rim; a heaping tablespoon is when you heap up as much as the spoon will hold above the rim. Paul has the concept of love in front of him and he does not simply fill it up to the rim. He piles it on adding one love phrase on top on another.

Note the rich compounding of three phrases: Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love. You know the Greek word for "brotherly love." It is Philadelphia, a combination of a distinct word for love with the word for brother (cf. the city of brotherly love). The move from love (v. 9a) to brotherly love is quite natural in the NT. But it is a whole heap of duty: here is how we know what love is: "Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers (1 Jn. 3:16).

Paul adds the notion of mutuality in Romans 12:10a: "to one another." This is illustrated in the "give and take" mentioned in Romans 1:12. It is a peculiar way of sharing where we share each other's (one another's) burdens. By one anothering we fulfill the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2; remarkable: it is His law we fulfill by this kind of love) and recall that in Romans 12:11 it is Christ that we serve; He is the one we work for in all our work.

Then he calls it family love. This is another word for love. The NKJ puts it well: Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love. The NIV has "be devoted to." This is a term reflecting the love of family members toward one another, of father, mother, children, sibling love.

Remember who is mother, sister, and brother to Christ (Matt. 12:46-50); it is "whoever does the will of my Father." This shows the unique relation of Christ to the Father (my Father). It shows the relation into which we are brought (family of brothers, mothers, sisters of Christ). It shows the fundamental importance of God's preceptive will, His law, and commandments (cf. Rom.12:1-2, on the perfect will of God). In the painting we are viewing we have exhortations from our Brother through His servant and apostle, Paul (1:1, 5, where we are called to the obedience of faith).

Peter has similar compounding language to reflect love as a compound: so that you have sincere love for your brothers; see that you have this and if you do you will love one another earnestly from the heart (1 Pet. 1:22 ).

It is all rooted by Peter in the purification of yourself that came by obeying the truth (by the obedience of faith) that is rooted in the work of Christ giving faith (v. 21). The work of Christ in turn is rooted in His precious blood being ordained (known) before the world was created (i.e., an eternal plan came to fruition in Christ and it concerned you –God's elect set apart for obedience/faith in Christ by the sanctifying work of the Spirit).

We ought to be hit hard by the duty to compound love. Love is a compound. It is not simple or singular. It is to be heaped up and overflowing. When you look at this part of the picture you are confronted directly, squarely, and unavoidably by the duty of compounding love. This is what you are to do. Pile it up serving the Savior.

2A. The expression of compounding love

What will you do if you have this kind of heaped up love? It will affect the busy-ness all along the path of the good. All our doings are to be love doings. If you go about doing good, you will go about showing love. Thus: abound in love (hear the full exhortation in a cluster of love exhortations, Rom. 12:9-10). Based on this love you will do four things at least in relation to your brothers and sisters: show honor to them, pray faithfully, and share in needs, practice hospitality.

This translates to benevolence or good will toward the Christian family. Benevolence is that disposition which leads us to have a desire for, or delight in, the good of another. But it goes a step further it is to delight in and seek the good of those who are the objects of this love. This is the main thing in Christian love and it most imitates the love of God.

How do you know if you sincerely love? That's good question in light of a common pitfall, namely, to not do good to others because we are mixed in our emotions and think it is just hypocrisy. The proof of sincere love is loving in deed (1 Jn. 3:18-19). The profit to others is the evidence of your sincere love (James 2:15-16 as a proof of faith). Do you really desire that they be fed? Yes, if you do something about it. No, if you do nothing about it.

In terms of the golden rule, the expression of compounding/abounding love is not just wanting others to do for you but to use your wants as a pattern of what you in fact "do for them."

Paul cites things we are to do in expression of this heap of love.

• Prefer, honor (a mutual "no you first, no you first")
• Pray (mutually before our one Father in heaven whose name we hallow together)
• Give (share in one another's needs in concrete fashion)
• Practice hospitality (share of your possession of time at home)

These are things to pursue on the good path. Regarding these things put forth some painstaking effort, diligence, with energy, from a fervent heart, abhorring the evil (all opposites of these good things) and embracing the good (embracing these good things: preferring one another, praying for one another, giving, and practicing hospitality). Here we do good to the souls and bodies of others endeavoring to be a blessing to them for time and eternity (Edwards).

3A. The motivation of compounding love

Much depends on our family experience for how we hear this message. We may have difficulty identifying with "brotherly love" if we do not have a brother or if our experience with brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers is an unhappy one. We have to receive this word in at least two ways. a) It is based on the ideal family where biblical righteousness takes solid root. And b) it is based on the astounding fact that we have an elder brother beyond compare for Jesus is our brother in the family of God (Rom. 8:30; Heb. 2:10-18). He is of the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom. 9:5) and as the incarnate son of God He was glorified in His human nature, marked out as the son of God by His resurrection (Rom. 1:4-5). He did this to be our brother, to make us brothers and sisters as God's people (v. 13). As son of man, He became Lord of the Sabbath in a distinct sense by the resurrection (Acts 2:36). He came to be preeminent among many brethren (Rom. 8:30). We have the model family: the Father in heaven and Christ our brother par excellence.

In this light, what motivates the compounding of love in our hearts and lives? Adapting some things from J. Edwards (Charity, 96-110), there are three considerations that motivate this love.

1) Consider what an honor it is to benefit others by a compounding love.

We are instruments of God in bringing good to others. We are like the sun, moon, and stars (like the sun that warms the earth; like the moon and stars that light the path in the darkness). We are like angels who are ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation ("you're an angel" can be said of you as you serve for the good of God's elect). We are like God, the great fountain of all good who is ever pouring down his blessing on mankind.

What an honor to be like the sun, moon and stars; to be like the angels; to be like God. How do we have that honor? It is by love deeds, by loving-kindness, by benevolence, and by compounding love.

2) Consider how commendable compounding love is via the golden rule.

Consider what happens when other Christians seek your good, when they help you in need and do so freely and warmly. What do you do? You most highly approve of their conduct. And more than that, you commend it, you speak well of it and of them. "Let us, then, remember, that if this is so noble and so much to be commended in others when we are its objects, then we ought to do the same to them, and to all about us. What we thus approve we should exemplify in our own conduct" (Charity 107).

Just consider how commendable it is to pile up and heap up love when you are the recipient and you trigger the hammer that fires the shot, that enflames the soul to boiling that spills over in thoughts, words, and deeds of compounding love.

3) Consider how kind God and Christ have been to us. His mercies are new every morning (Zeph. 3:5, morning by morning he dispenses his justice, and every new day he does not fail). His love is better than life so we seek and thirst for Him (Ps. 63).

Consider Hebrews 2:10-18. Soak in His love for you like a sponge in a bucket of water such that you will drip His love when you go to your work.

What He has done for our spiritual and eternal good is beyond compare. What He has given us is greater than all the kingdoms of the earth. What can a man give in exchange for his soul? What price can be put on this? What is more valuable than the safety and well being of your entire existence body and soul? In the gift of Christ to you, you have been given eternal life.

Consider how Christ grants this good to you. It comes by means of suffering. But it is willingly, voluntarily, and freely that He gave Himself to be your elder brother and bring many sons and daughters to glory. Rich, for your sakes He became poor that you might be made rich (2 Cor. 8:9). In Him you have justification, forgiveness, adoption, priesthood, and sanctification.

Looking at Christ, we have the fundamental motivation of compounding, abounding, and overflowing love.