Romans 12:9-21(part 2)

VS. 14 Bless them which persecute you bless and curse not.
Cross reference in the KJV Scofield Bible takes us to Matt 5:44, Luke 6:28 and Vs 20 here in Romans 12.

Matthew 5:44
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you

Luke 6:28
Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

Romans 12:20
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

This has a cross Ref. over to Prov 25:21-22
If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.

Since we are on the topic of our enemies and how we should treat them.
VS 19 here talks about this also.
Romans 12:19
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

What is God showing me here??
As we can see there are so many different places in Gods Word that tells us to Pray for our enemies , Care for them, don't curse them, talk bad of them, set out to hurt them as they have us. This goes against every being of our human nature.. The 1st thing we as humans want to do is get even, run to our friends and say did you hear what they did to me, talk bad about them, treat them just as poorly as they treat us..
Here in All these verses God is saying STOP!!!!
You are my children as Christians that is Not how I want you to live when someone hurts you, does you wrong treat you badly.. I want you to got out of your way to love them, care for them Pray for them.
Problem is it isn't in us to do that In us we want to yell "I will not let them get away with treating me that way"
In us we get mad and angry and think Oh I'll show them, two can play that way.
I'm sure you have heard it said God doesn't give us more then we can handle.. Or God doesn't ask of us more than we can do..
BUT IN FACT HE DOES!!!!
He does to show us our inabilities and Bring us face to face with what we can not do.. this way He can show us WHAT HE CAN DO!!!!
So while we don't have this kind of love for the people who hate us.. God Does..
As we follow and obey God in this matter He gives us what He wants us to have.
Its really hard to Hate a person you are praying for.. As we pray for them God changes us..God takes our old nature of wanting to pay them back and replaces it with His nature. And we are left with peace We are not lying awake at night thinking of what they did to us, we are not full of hurt and hate but we are full of Gods love for us and a peace the world will never understand.

Romans 12:9-21(part 1)

Romans 12:9-21
9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

The Christian Life
vs9 Let love be without dissimulation Abhor that which is evil cleave to that which is good.
The KJV Scofield Study Bible(which is the Bible I have and use) list in a footnote the word dissimulation in vs9 to hypocisy..
This goes along with what we studied in 1Corth 13 about love (this is just my extra thought for the day LOL)

vs11 is the verse I wanted to look at today.. I did today's study using an online bible which is the KJV Defender Study Bible. (they call there footnotes defender notes)

VS 11 "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;"
there are 2 defender notes for this.
1) talks about not slothful in business. " This team refers not just to making a living but to all aspects of life"
2) talks about serving the Lord part.." The service here is that required of slaves. Before conversion(spiritual change from sinfulness to righteousness) we were bond servants to sin, but Jesus has purchased us with his blood so we are now His bond servants"

Something I wanted to look at more was the idea of fervent in spirit
According to Dictionary.com Fervent means
1)having or showing great warmth of intensity of spirit , feeling enthusiasm
2) hot, burning, glowing.

What I walked away with
Here God is telling us as Christians we shouldn't be slothful, lazy inattentive, or slackers not only in making a living but in every aspect of our life. In sering Him In studying his work, In how we raise our families, in How we love our husbands, In how we treat others.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 says Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might
We should Have and should Be showing great warmth being enthusiastic being Hot and on fire for God, while we are serving the Lord as his bond servant since He bought us with His blood.

Oh to be on fire like that . What an amazing thing it would be if I could serve My Lord in every part of my life with enthusiasm with His warmth flowing though me and out of me.

Thank You Lord for bonding me to you freeing me from sin choosing me to be yours Paying my price with your blood.