Daily Christian Living with Purpose & Power – Romans 12:11–12

PRAY

As review to set us up for vv. 11&12 of Romans 12, I’ll read verses 1&2, summarize 3-8, and pick up reading again at v. 9.

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

¹ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Then (in vv. 3-8) Paul calls on each one to view ourselves with humble realism so that we will also proactively serve in our area of spiritual gifting for the collective good of Christ’s people. [repeat]

Paul then begins a long, rapid-fire list of moral instructions for living out the distinctly Christian life, one of full devotion to sacrificial living to please God. The head of the virtue list is genuine love and its implications.

Romans 12:9–10 ESV

⁹ Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. ¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

The second motif is fervent service, which is our focus for today.

Romans 12:11–12 ESV

¹¹ Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

What if you could wake up every single day, no matter what that day holds, with total clarity of purpose, and with confidence that such a purpose is attainable? What if I gave myself diligently to serve the Lord Jesus in every task set before me, and knew that when I purpose to do so, the Holy Spirit works in power to achieve that aim?

I’m convinced that Paul gives us that kind of clarity in these verses.

Daily strive to serve the Lord in the Spirit’s power.

The 6 things listed in these two verses follow a similar pattern (each with a noun and a participle). They also share a motif of fervent service that is focused and sustainable. Paul says not to be complacent, yes, but then he gives clarity about the provision and direction for our service: be boiling in the Spirit to serve the Lord. That’s all in v. 11. Then the three things in v. 12 support the injunction to zealous service with how we may sustain this vigorous service for the Lord: rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, persisting in prayer.

Again the intersection of these items in Paul’s virtue list teaches us that we should daily strive to serve the Lord in the Spirit’s power. That gives us clarity of purpose for each day, and gives us comfort and courage that God provides the means to accomplish it. And with this same clarity of purpose and power Paul tells us how we may sustain such fervent service of daily sacrifice.

It’s important to note something here before going further. Just like loving the way God loves is the supreme virtue and ethic of every Christian life, so this life of fervent service to the Lord is for every follower of Jesus. Paul is not describing something that only a select few saints can do and experience. No, this is the intended way of life for each one of us saved by grace. We can and we must daily strive to serve the Lord in the Spirit’s power.

This gives clarity and conviction for how to focus our investment, and it infuses purpose into those duties and responsibilities which can quickly begin to feel mundane and repetitive and draining. I want you to consider today whether you are sitting on the sidelines in complacency when you should be boiling in the Spirit to serve the Lord. And I want you to think of the chores and tasks and ways of serving others again and again that can begin to feel like a drain or a bore. It is precisely in such circumstances that we benefit so much from clarity of purpose and where our helping is coming from to continue sustaining such sacrifice. In everything we are doing daily to respond to God’s love for us, we strive to serve the Lord in the Spirit’s power. 

So first Paul kicks us in the pants to get us off the couch or off the bench.

Do not be complacent but be eagerly diligent in Christian living.

“Do not be slack in eager diligence.” (verse 11a)

The Christian life must not be complacent. Apparently Paul’s experience had already taught him that Christians face a very real danger of lethargy.

Paul says that we should not be hesitant or holding back (idle or lazy), but eagerly diligent, which means to do quickly and do one’s best. Eager diligence means to get after it quickly and to give it your best. The fact is, we are enthusiastically diligent for the things that we are presently excited about, whether that’s the new book, the new video game, the new hobby, or the new crush. But that kind of enthusiasm is fickle and fleeting. We need a fervency and diligence for something meaningful and lasting, which Paul says is to love and serve others in service to Master, out of love and obedience and respect for our Lord.

Now, half-heartedness and lack of motivation, even laziness, can be influenced by various factors: the devil and our sin, distraction and entertainment, our temperament and health, trials and stress and discouragement. In sin we tend to care most about ourselves and our own comfort. The devil wants us distracted by other things, even focused on self-entertainment. Perhaps our temperament is less social and more steady than fiery, but God wants us to serve him in the way he has made us, not to use it as an excuse. Difficulties with health, and stress and other trials can leave us feeling discouraged and defeated.

But it is precisely in all of these circumstances that Paul instructs us to not be complacent but eagerly diligent. And thankfully, Paul also indicates that we do not have to conjure this up with no motivation and no power.  To deal with the problem of being slack (unmotivated, uncaring, halfhearted), we will need to remember who we serve for the Spirit of God to stir us. We will also have to accept that motivated focus can be hard work, and sometimes much harder than other times.

Think of it like running outdoors, not running on a track. There will be days or seasons where spiritual fervor and motivation has shifted from smooth and even to being uphill hard work with obstacles. - Or motivated focus can be like splitting wood when you get to the logs with have stubborn knots in them that just refuse to split easily.

Again, Paul isn’t saying that you have to come up with this zeal all by yourself. The Spirit will be your help, although you will have to be diligently invested in the direction he offers you. That’s where Paul goes next in this verse. His first concern is for a lack of zeal—for idleness and laziness. But then significantly Paul provides clarity about the source of zeal and the motive or direction of zeal.

The Spirit provides vigor when we resolve to serve the Lord.

“Be boiling hot in the Spirit. Serve the Lord.” (verse 11b)

Now it is possible to translate this with a small “s” instead of a capital S, referring to the human spirit which needs to become invigorated. If that were the case, we’d say that our spirits are invigorated when we resolve to serve the Lord. That then still leads to same conclusion that this fervency comes for the Spirit of God who indwells his people. So what is consistent with Pauline theology and an even more likely translation here is the clear reference to the fact that it is the Spirit who provides vigor when we resolve to serve the Lord.

Most literally the text says to be boiling or inflamed in the Spirit, serving the Lord. This is spiritual fervor by the Spirit of God. But the direction or aim or goal of this fervency is critical to the Spirit’s work. Serve the Lord. As his slave/bondservant, we serve the Lord who is master, owner, and ruler. Paul speaks of the direction of our fervency in a similar way in Colossians 3:23-24.

Colossians 3:23–24 ESV

²³ Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, ²⁴ knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

Zeal without such grounded motivation and direction is dangerous. It is not an enthusiasm for being the center of attention, but a burning the Spirit produces when we humbly desire to do the will of our Master. And we are not helpful or doing good if we are excited and enthusiastic without clear purpose, like lighting a stick of dynamite before having drilled the hole for the precise location of where to stick the stick of dynamite. We must be grounded in sincere love for and service to Christ, and led by the Spirit.

We could also tie this zeal and this resolve even more closely to things being taught in Romans 12. We are to be boiling hot in the Spirit to be a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God as our rational worship (v 1). We should be zealous for discerning and doing the will of God, what is good and well-pleasing and perfect (v 2). We should be zealous to think of ourselves with humble sobriety and zealous to serve the Christian community in the way God is uniquely gifting us as members of that body (vv 3-8). Jesus was consumed with zeal for his Father’s house. The saints are now the “house.” Are you consumed with the progress and purity of the people of God?

Again, our zeal is to be for serving the Lord… with the genuine love of God. We are to be boiling in fervency of hating what is evil and holding fast to what is good (v. 9). We are to not be slack in eager diligence to love each other as siblings and to go first in honoring others above ourselves. (v. 10)

You can see how this is not tied to working up ecstatic enthusiasm but to a boil sustained by the Spirit and directed in service to Christ. How does one emphasize and maintain an enthusiasm and diligence that is not mere emotionalism and hype without depth and stability? The Spirit provides and sustains vigor when we resolve to serve the Lord, and serving the Lord means that we must honor him and obey him.

- And speaking of sustained this sacrificial zeal in service to our Lord, as we proceed to verse 12, is there not a direct connection to serving the Lord, and even to doing so in a way that allows us to endure in this eager diligence?

With such purpose and power we rejoice in hope, persevere in distress, and persist in prayer.

“Rejoice in hope. Persevere in affliction. Persist devotedly in prayer.” (verse 12)

I like to say that hope is the future-facing aspect of faith with eager confidence in our final inheritance. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” (Col 3:23-24) Hope is a confident expectation of what is coming because we know Christ has saved us from our sin and made us his own. Hope is like the confident assurance that there is a definite finish line at the end of this endurance race.

But hope is based upon the past and present work of our Savior, our Lord. He has accomplished our salvation, and the perfect and all-powerful Son stands as mediator, interceding for me as God’s adopted son who is growing up to be like Jesus. Hope is tethered to knowing the Savior has gone before us and now acts as our Captain and guiding star. If we picture ourselves on a journey to sail around the world, or halfway around the world, we will not sink in the storms and swells, or even when we mess up and lose the way forward. We confidently hope in Christ. We seek our Captain’s forgiveness and we fix our gaze and our hearts back on Him as the guiding star for our direction.

So we are rejoicing in hope. Hope in Christ and hope in our inheritance with him. You cannot always find pleasure in the circumstances, but you can always find full and solid joy in the confident knowledge that your Savior holds you and is bringing you home. Hope in God is a fountain where you can come for refreshing and sustaining joy in Him again and again.

Such then is also how we will persevere in tribulation. Notice that Paul anticipates, as is taught by Jesus and so many other places in the NT, that Christians will endure trouble, affliction, distress (including persecution and being oppressed).

John 16:33 ESV

³³ I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Paul knows full well that at times we will be persevering in distress. The word persevere here in Rom 12:12 means a patient endurance that waits expectantly, which is tied directly back to our rejoicing in hope. Because we have a sure hope, we persevere expectantly in affliction knowing God’s present care and final deliverance, if not a more near-term deliverance.

But in order to persevere, we must be wise to learn a pace for sustained sacrifice over the long term. This is another reason to rely on not just the power but also the wisdom of the Spirit of God at work through our merely human frames. - In Zeal Without Burnout, Christopher Ash emphasizes the following biblical concept: Sustained sacrifice without burnout means giving your time and energy to a high calling in a way that is sustainable day after day, grounded in the truth that humans are creatures of dust, not unlimited gods. So too David Murray has written a book called Reset, in which he argues for, and charts a course for, learning to live grace-paced lives to avoid burnout by prioritizing daily and seasonal rest, and by saying no to over-commitment.

To persevere in sustained sacrifice, we need the energy of the Spirit and also the wisdom of the Spirit to humbly remember our human frames. We must wisely learn a pace that is sustainable for the way that God has made us. I think of the sloth and the fact that we should not have named the sloth after the sin of slothfulness. A sloth is not sinning. He is diligent at the pace that he must go based on the way that God designed him. We must do the same.

But we have greater clarity on our purpose and the power available to us, causing us to rejoice in hope, persevere in distress, and persist in prayer.

The privilege of prayer is a life-changing means of God’s help. To pray is to address God directly for his assistance, because he is listening and he cares. Just consider the privilege of prayer as the God of the universe listens to you with caring concern. So we do well to be persistently devoted in dependent prayer. 

We persist devotedly in prayer because we know we are parched ground apart of the wellspring of the Spirit. Many of you have heard me say that we pray exactly as much as we are convinced that we need God. I don’t pray when I think I can do it in my power, and I am therefore perilous to myself and those around me when I am not prayerful. To quote Peter Deyneka, the Russian-American missionary who founded the Slavic Gospel Association: “Much prayer, much power. Little prayer, little power. No prayer, no power.”

There is also a personal closeness and devotion in this persistence. The Spirit of God is a person of the Triune Godhead, and he is present with and in God’s people. But I can squelch his power in two ways: by lack of prayer and by lack of obedience to his Word.

If I should take a road trip in an EV, I would charge frequently because it is needed. And I enjoy the fellowship and companionship of Him who is with me and guides me on the journey. - I’ve watched a few documentaries of international motorcycle road trips with Ewan McGregor and his friend Charley Boorman. On one of those road trips they decided to try electric bikes, and they became keenly aware of the frequent need for recharging and of the lack of infrastructure for doing so. We do not have to worry that God is not available to be our constant help, and that he is with us to fellowship with us and teach us along the way.

So we have great reason and superior confidence to persist devotedly in prayer. Be faithful and constant in it because of your devotion to God and because you are fully aware of your dependence on God. In practicing this prayer, we should have both concentrated prayer times and frequent or constant communication. In fact, your frequent communication in prayer is far more likely if you also have concentrated prayer times. But in both cases, concentrated prayer and constant communication, will be in proportion to recognition of your need and of the privilege of communion with God. 

Again, these helps for sustained fervency for a life of sacrifice are tied directly back into the theme of verse 11, that we must…

Daily strive to serve the Lord in the Spirit’s power.

As you walk away from this text today with this main point on your mind, think carefully about practical ways to apply this to your daily perspective and activity. 

Get real and specific with yourself about where you are being complacent and why you are lacking in eager diligence.

If you are lacking in motivation because you are hurting and disheartened, rehearse to yourself the gospel of God’s mercies and the hope in which you rejoice. And remind yourself as frequently as you need to throughout each day that it is the Lord Christ whom you are serving, whatever the duties or circumstances.

Also, let a focus on serving Christ help you to filter out some extraneous things that occupy your energy and time.

Finally, take steps to learn to persist devotedly in dependent prayer, knowing that it is the Holy Spirit who will empower you to persevere through difficulty and distress. 

PRAY

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