Romans 1:28–32 (NKJV)
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
This morning we continue studying Paul’s catalogue of the bitter fruits produced by those of debased mind, those whom God in His justice has handed over to their sin for their rebellion. Today, we consider Paul’s assertion that people of debased mind “are unloving.”
What is love? Is love a fancy or a feeling? Or is it an ever-fixed mark? Is love an inclination of the heart? Or perhaps a tolerant disposition? Because we are made in the image of God and because we Americans still retain vestiges of our previous Christian culture, most of us know that being unloving is bad. We want to be called loving. Yet, because we are in rebellion against God, we have striven to redefine love; consequently, the most unloving things are cloaked in the language of love. It is now “loving” to refuse to discipline one’s children; “loving” to divorce one’s spouse unjustly; “loving” to pursue illicit sexual relationships; “loving” to shack up before married; “loving” to indulge same-sex attractions; “loving” to use the power of the state to confiscate others’ hard earned property; “loving” to coddle those who are “gender fluid.”
But none of these things are loving though we call them so. You see love requires a standard of assessment. If we say something is “loving” we must have a definition that enables us to put said action in that category. After all, most still recognize that the man who claims to “love” a woman and uses that love as justification to violently abuse her, actually hates her; the mother who claims to “love” her son and indulges his drug habit, actually hates him. Even we progressive Americans don’t permit these unloving actions to be classified as “loving.” Love assumes; no, more: love demands a standard.
So what is that standard? Paul summarizes in Romans 13:10, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” To love another is to treat them lawfully from the heart; it is to practice toward them willingly the moral law of God. The last six of God’s commandments “are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Rom 13:9). To love my neighbor, in other words, is to honor my parents, to preserve the lives of the innocent, to keep the marriage bed undefiled, to respect others’ property, to speak truth to and about my neighbor, and to do all these things willingly from the heart. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet – and though many are trying to classify these things as “unloving,” they are the fulfillment of love.
So reminded that God’s law defines love, that our culture has become increasingly unloving, and that we Christians have too often gone along with our culture’s increasing animosity to God’s law and to love, true love, let us confess that we are becoming an unloving, lawless people. And as we confess, let us kneel before the Lord as we are able. We will have a time of silent confession followed by the corporate confession found in your order of service.