Chapter # 12 Paragraph # 4 Study # 8
June 14, 2020
Humble, Texas
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Thesis:   Once we are "past" the desire to curse our persecutors, Paul insists that we "join together" with other believers and enter into one another's emotional reactions to "life".

Introduction:   As we move along in our considerations of "the sacrificed life" (Romans 12:1) and its attendant developments, including our responses to the ways our lives are developing, we come to Paul's insistence that we exercise "an unhypocritical love" toward others. The absence of hypocrisy is defined in terms of a strong inner antagonism toward "the evil" within ourselves and an inner status of "being welded to The Good" (12:9). As this insistence moves into the area of others who intend harm toward us because our faith will not allow us to be used by them to accomplish evil goals, we are told the "bless those who persecute us and curse not".

This evening we turn to the next verse in Paul's instructions: rejoice with those who are rejoicing and weep with those who are weeping.

• I. There is a Certain Clarity in These Words: Enter into the Emotional Lives of Those Around You.
• II. But, There is Also a Certain Ambiguity.
  • A. This ambiguity stems from the "distance" the two verses appear to have from each other.
    • 1. Blessing those who persecute us and entering into each other's emotional lives seem to be somewhat unconnected.
    • 2. What does "blessing" others who are hurtful toward us have to do with "rejoicing"?
  • B. Romans 12:15-16 superficially appears to depart from the main exhortation of 12:14, but 12:17-21 has a rather clear unity with 12:14.
• III. The Instructions.
  • A. Rejoice with those who are rejoicing.
    • 1. At issue: being "under the gun".
    • 2. Previous instruction: 5:1-5.
      • a. Paul declares that "believers" exult in their troubles.
      • b. This apparently weird reaction to difficulties is actually deeply rooted in some very fundamental promises which are given so that we may "believe" them.
        • 1) Paul's "logic" in 5:1-5.
        • 2) Paul's unambiguous, though not easily "believed", promise in 8:28.
        • 3) Other Pauline promises such as 8:18 and 2 Timothy 2:12.
    • 3. Dominant attitude.
      • a. The book of Philippians is one of Paul's "The Basics" epistles, and its focus is "The Basic Attitude of The Believer": Rejoicing.
      • b. In Philippians Paul leaves nothing out of his insistence that we "rejoice in the Lord always."
      • c. In Philippians we also learn what Paul means regarding "rejoicing".
        • 1) It means "seeing a legitimate basis for rejoicing" rather than some other attitude: 1:18.
        • 2) It means "sharing one's joy" with others (2:17-18).
        • 3) It means "taking the promises seriously so that 'joy' is the outcome of faith" (3:1) in that "rejoicing" is a "safeguard" to one's spiritual health.
        • 4) It means "living in the peace of God which guards our hearts and minds" (4:5-7).
  • B. Weep with those who are weeping.
    • 1. Weeping is not a strongly encouraged response to one's experiences except when one's wealth has too much of our confidence (James 4:9 and 5:1).
    • 2. Weeping is, to some degree, often an evidence of "loss of focus" because the painful experience of the present looms larger then the divine promises and Presence.
    • 3. But, the instruction is not to "correct" those who weep except by weeping with them.
      • a. Deuteronomy 15:4 compared to 15:11 is instructive here: rebuking the failing is not the instructed way of dealing with them.
      • b. There is a limit to this instruction, but it is not given in Paul's context.

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This is article #054.
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