We have been studying from Romans 12 where in verse 1 we are told that because of the mercies of God we are live our lives as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to the Lord. We are moving through Romans 12 which is teaching us what life on the altar looks like. In Romans 12:2 we learned that being a living sacrifice means not being conformed to this world but being transformed by the renewing of our minds so as to discern the will of the Lord. In Romans 12:3-8 we learned that life on the altar means thinking properly about ourselves and others. We have gifts and we must use those gifts. In Romans 12:9-10 we learned that life on the altar means loving others without hypocrisy. Now we are going to turn our attention to Romans 12:11 where we read three more instructions regarding what our love is to look like as a people who are living sacrifices.
Not Lagging Behind In Zeal (Romans 12:11)
Paul teaches us that we cannot let zeal wane. It is a fascinating way to teach this point when you think carefully about these words. Paul is telling us to be zealous in our zeal. Do not let your zeal lag. Do not allow your zeal to be slothful. Do not let zeal be dragging behind. Be passionate about your zeal. Do not let your zeal lose its energy.
We have been spending our time in 2 Chronicles in our Sunday night lessons and we have noticed a common problem. The common problem is that there are many kings who begin by serving the Lord with great zeal only for that zeal to wane toward the end of their reigns. Their zeal fails so their faithfulness wanes. Now I want us to think about what Paul is teaching us. You will notice that Paul is teaching us that it is not enough to just merely obey the Lord. We are told that we are obey the Lord with zeal. Zeal must be maintained as a servant of Christ. Obeying the Lord means obeying the Lord zealously.
We also see this problem of lagging in zeal in the days of the prophet Malachi. In Malachi 1:10 the Lord says something that sounds absolutely shocking. The Lord declares that he wishes someone would shut the doors to his temple so that no one would continue to offer their useless sacrifices. Can you imagine if the Lord sent a message to the local church telling them that he wishes that they would lock the doors and stop the worship because it is useless to him? What was happening that the Lord will tell them to shut the doors? Look at what they were saying about their worship to the Lord in Malachi 1:12-13.
“But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the LORD of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD.” (Malachi 1:12-13 ESV)
First, the people are offering their sacrifices without regard for the holiness of God (Malachi 1:12; cf. Malachi 1:8-9). They are just giving him whatever they want. There is no interest in giving God what he deserves because he is a glorious God (cf. Malachi 1:11). They treat the worship of God like they treat everything else in life. Second, the people are declaring that it is a burden and weariness to worship him (Malachi 1:13). In short, your lack of zeal is causing sinful worship. You do not care about what you are doing. You do not care about who you are worshiping. You are just checking boxes. You are just getting through it. You are just enduring it. You just want to get it over with. You would rather be doing just about anything else than worshiping the Lord. They are passionate about other activities but they are not passionate about the Lord. The Lord does not say that he was just glad that they showed up for worship. He wanted them to not be lagging in zeal for him.
Fervent In Spirit (Romans 12:11)
God wants his people to be fervent in spirit. We are to be on fire for the Lord. Now this fire is not something that is to be manipulated. It is not to be a fake emotionalism. We could stir up everyone here into a frenzy. Churches will play music in certain ways and at certain times to try to generate an emotional response or feeling in everyone. We could try to make an emotional experience. But the scriptures never tell us to do things to force feelings. The fire is to come from our knowledge of who God is and what he has done for us. The zeal comes from the knowledge of Christ. To take us back to Romans 12:1, it is because we see the mercies of God that we are not lagging in zeal but our spirits are on fire for him.
So how are we to become fervent in spirit? How are we not to lag in zeal? How do we stay zealous and on fire in the spirit? What does this mean? I believe the point here is that we are not half-hearted in what we are doing. We really want to do this. We are genuinely excited about Jesus Christ. Our perception is critically important. Let me illustrate: if you are married and your perception is that this is an obligation that you must fulfill, you are going to have a terrible marriage. If you are only in it because you have to, then there will never be passion and you will absolutely lag in zeal. But if you are invested in the marriage and you love who you are with, then you will have passion. But that passion does not come by accident. There must be communication. There must be a significant amount of time together. It is important that we think about what it takes to have wonderful marriage because the scriptures describe our relationship with Christ as a marriage (cf. Ephesians 5:22-33). To have a passion for Christ requires a significant amount of time together. Passion means we will invest our time and energy into the relationship. We will never have the passion that God is telling us to have until we go far beyond an hour or two a week. But passion for Christ is not an option. Please think about the meaning of the greatest commandment.
Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12:29-30 ESV)
What else does it mean to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength except that we do not lag in zeal and are fervent in spirit? Jesus himself declared this to be the problem to the church in Laodecia.
“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:15-17 ESV)
Yet again we are noticing the lack of passion and enthusiasm for the Lord. Why did they lack passion? Jesus says it is because they think they need nothing. They were doing well in this world. They had wealth. They had prosperity. They were satisfied with their families, jobs, and lives. But this caused them to not see their spiritual condition. One of the greatest reasons we lose our fire is because we get comfortable in this world and get distracted by the cares and concerns of this life (cf. Mark 4:18-19; Luke 8:14). We love this present world rather than the world to come (cf. 2 Timothy 4:10). We quench the fire for the Lord because we become so consumed with the emptiness of this life. There are very few things in this life that will matter in the life to come. Yet we will invest so much time in these things that not only do not have meaning in the world to come, but often at the end of the day do not even matter in this world. We must strip away the competing passions so that we can invest in our relationship with Christ.
Serve the Lord (Romans 12:11)
The apostle Paul concludes this section with the simple declaration: “serve the Lord.” Our enthusiasm must be bound by God’s directions. You might remember that Paul was saddened regarding the physical people of Israel because they had zeal, but not according to knowledge (cf. Romans 10:1-3). Our fire is to lead us to serve God in the way that he says. Just because a person is zealous does not mean that they are truly a Christian, following what God says to do. Just because a church is zealous does not mean they are following what Christ has told them to do. We are to serve the Lord with passion. These two points are not mutually exclusive. It is not either passion or serve the Lord correctly. We are to passionately serve the Lord the way he tells us serve him.
Burning Love
Paul is giving us a strong warning against spiritual coasting. It is easy to do nothing more than showing up. It is easy to turn serving the Lord into just going to a church building every once in awhile. I really want to challenge us that if our spiritual journey consists of nothing more than just coming to a building, then we are just spiritually coasting. Ask yourself what happened to the fire you had at the first. Relight the fire for the Lord. Do not let discouragement and disappointment in life kill your zeal for the Lord. Do not let the weariness of life destroy your hope in the Lord and our eternity with him. Christ did not die for us so that we would begrudgingly do as little as we think is possible to avoid the fires of hell. Christ died so that we would love and obey the Lord with passion and zeal. Spend time with the Lord. Do not just sit in a pew. Engage your heart in worship. Engage your heart by picking up your copy of God’s word and read it thoughtfully and carefully every day. Give your attention to the things of God. Passion only comes from giving our time, our attention, and our heart to any given activity. God wants passionate service. We will end with the words of the writer of Hebrews regarding his concern to be on fire for the Lord.
Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Hebrews 6:9-12 ESV)
God’s desire is remain diligent and passionate because of the hope we have. Do not be sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherited the promises of God.