August 30, 2026 Sermon
Guest Minister: Rev. Drakar Druella
Sermon title: “Overcome with Love”
Scripture: Romans 12:9-21
Romans 12:9-21
Marks of the True Christian
9Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. 14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20No, “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.” 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
So, today I would like to talk about love and what it means to us as a spiritual community and also as individuals, but before I do this, I would like to read about what it means to some children. A group of professional people posed this question to a group of four- to eight-year-olds: “What does love mean?” The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.
“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So, my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.” Rebecca - age 8
“When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.” Billy - age 4
“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.” Karl - age 5
“Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.” Chrissy - age 6
“Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.” Terri - age 4
“Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him to make sure the taste is OK.” Danny - age 7
“Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together, and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that.” Emily - age 8
“Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” Bobby - age 7
“If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend whom you hate.” Nikka - age 6
“Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, and he then wears it every day.” Noelle - age 7
“Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.” Tommy - age 6
“During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.” Cindy - age 8
“My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.” Clare - age 6
“Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.” Elaine - age 5
“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.” Chris - age 7
“Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.” Mary Ann - age 4
“I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.” Lauren - age 4
“When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.” Karen - age 7
“You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.” Jessica - age 8
And the final one: Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old child whose next-door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Nothing, I just helped him cry.”
So, let’s explore what Paul has to say about love and you may even hear a few themes the children said repeated. Just as Paul cannot help but break out into poetic tribute to love in his famous love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, after beginning the subject of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, he also does the same in Romans 12. After talking about how God has gifted various church members with faith appropriate for different roles in the church, Paul offers a poetic composition on how love reaches for the common good in the church. The section begins with the heading, “Let love be genuine.” Paul was inviting people to love each other authentically and genuinely – not just through empty actions in an effort to “look good,” but from a place of genuine love. The next verse, Romans 12:10, begins by telling people to love each other with mutual affection, suggesting more of a relationship with one another rooted in affection, as opposed to empty actions that are merely “transactional.” Many of the specific commands Paul gives are practical, detailed ways for loving others. Verse 13 ends with the phrase pursuing hospitality, but Paul’s word for hospitality is literally about love of strangers, something that I find particularly significant. The reason I find this significant is because I have learned that loving people who are “strange” to us is more challenging than people who feel comfortable or familiar to us. For example, extending hospitality and friendliness at a party to somebody who has a physical handicap or is from a different culture requires us to step out of our comfort zone, as opposed to being friendly with somebody we already know who is “like us.”
Of course, our greatest example for how to love is Jesus, and it is clear that Jesus was Paul’s greatest example through the things he emphasized. Paul’s words to bless those who persecute you, to bless and do not curse in verse 14, sound a lot like what Jesus says in Matthew 5:44, when he says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, or when he says in Luke 6:28 to bless those who curse you and pray for those who abuse you. There are other allusions to sayings of Jesus in the rest of chapter 13, and Jesus’ love for others at the cross is stressed in Romans 15:1-3. So, Paul is hinting that to love genuinely is to love as Jesus loved.
And if you think about it, he doesn’t just say to “love others more,” for it describes very specific behaviors for loving others. As I’ve said in the past, the Bible is probably the oldest self-help book around that contains practical wisdom on how to do things. Paul gives practical guidance and examples on how to love as Jesus did. This is important because we are all unique in our perspectives on life. Naturally, each of us is different and we’ve all had different experiences that inform our perspectives. Given this, Paul offers practical examples on what to do as compassionate people who are following Jesus’ example: bless people who curse you, pray for those who are abusive to you, and essentially love your enemies. It is easy to do these things for others who love you and treat you well, but it is more challenging to do for those who are unkind. And it is the most impactful to your well-being to extend this kind of compassion to others who are unkind, but I will get to that later.
It is the same with Paul’s ideas for genuine Christ-like love in Romans 12:9-21. He is giving us very specific ideas for authentic love. For instance, in verse 15 he says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep,” an example of empathy. In verse 18, he goes on to say, “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Another very specific idea for love is found in the quotation from Proverbs 25:21-22 to feed and give something to drink to hungry and thirsty enemies. Of course, this does not endorse playing along with abusive strategies that arise in some dysfunctional relationships. It means to think about and to help meet others’ genuine needs, including the needs of people who do not like us.
But the importance of love, empathy, and peaceful actions go beyond just “being good.” It goes more deeply into a place that is practical in a sense that we don’t always consider: we impact one another deeply through the actions we take and our understood relationships with one another. Consider the love of a mother for her children. When her children are struggling or hurting, she often hurts, as well. Another way to approach this understanding is to think about how when there is a car accident, traffic becomes congested as a result. While driving on the freeway, you may not have been involved in the actual accident, but you are still impacted by it as you wait in traffic while the police and ambulance arrive. Then there is the emotional impact you may experience while witnessing the accident and its aftermath. As people, we impact one another directly and indirectly through our actions and experiences in ways we often don’t acknowledge consciously. Paul understood this through Jesus’s example and teachings, and as such, emphasized the importance of love, empathy, and peaceful actions. In treating others kindly, we pave the pathway for peace and compassion in our own lives because we are all connected somehow, whether we realize it or not.
Have you ever heard the expression “there is no private good?” In some spiritual circles, this refers to the fact that when we help somebody, we are not only supporting that person, but also ourselves and those around us. There is a ripple effect that occurs when we engage in acts of kindness. I’ve noticed that when somebody stops to give somebody a dollar who is standing on a corner with a sign asking for help, the person driving behind them is more likely to stop and help, as well. It has been scientifically proven that engaging in acts of kindness and/or helping others leads to improved health. When we help others or give to others, it literally can cause the release of endorphins, our “feel-good” hormones, which in turn increases our immune system. Now, consider this: doing the opposite can actually negatively impact our health, too. When we engage in unkind actions or even think back on them, it causes tension in our bodies, raises our cortisol levels, which in turn causes inflammation in the body, and lowers our immune system. We are all together through our connection with God and this is how it directly expresses itself through our bodies. We are not as separate as we often think, and how we treat others directly impacts us.
So, I’d like to do a simple exercise. I would like you to close your eyes and imagine an experience where you treated somebody or handled a situation with another person in a way that you regret – one of those situations where you wish you could go back and do it over again. Really take the time to remember it and notice how you’re feeling. Now, I would like you to remember a situation where you helped somebody out or did something kind for another person. Again, take the time to notice how you feel while thinking about this. Now, open your eyes. How did you feel when you thought about the situation you regret? My guess is that you may have felt some tension in your body or some unpleasant emotions. How did you feel while you were thinking about helping or doing something kind for somebody? My guess is you may have felt lighter and more relaxed after this – even happy. This is the truth of Paul’s words about the importance of loving one another being felt through your body. What we do unto others impacts us so deeply that even when we just think about it, we have a physical experience that can be either healing or cause us stress.
Given what I just said, that leaves us wondering what Paul meant when he said, “By doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads,” in verse 20. There are two differing perspectives on this as to whether it means that by doing good to an enemy you will increase God’s judgment on the person or whether it means that by doing good you will help the person repent. It seems that the latter is much more likely, since it fits with the profound theme in what Paul said considering that we are not to have any part in repaying evil in our personal relationships. It also fits with the overarching theme that love is to be genuine. My love for an enemy isn’t genuine if I am motivated by the idea that any kindness shown increases God’s punishment on the person!
Genuine love is by far the deepest theme in this section of Romans. At a more surface level, there is a theme of good and evil that operates throughout this text, too. However, it is important to notice how “hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good” follows immediately after the opening title of “Let love be genuine.” The good and evil theme is also explicitly mentioned at the end of the text in verse 21 when Paul says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” This helps us see that genuine love is not just being nice to people. Genuine love has a moral orientation toward the good, because when we show love toward someone, we are moving them toward God’s goodness. To love someone is not simply to cater to specific likes and dislikes of that person. It’s not just about being “nice.” It is rather to act toward them in ways that help them experience more of God’s goodness. For Paul, we see that the Christian life for him is all about faith working through love, so if you think about it, we do not need to overcome or fight evil. All we need is to be overcome with love, then we can overcome anything, so let love be genuine. Let it be your beacon of light in this world.
Rev. Drak Druella
Source of children’s quotes: http://www.powwows.com/gathering/jokes-humor/25447-what-kids-say-about-love-etc.html
