Reading Romans 12 this morning, these verses jumped out at me:

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:19–21, ESV)

If we take these verses seriously and put them into practice, I wonder if the reputation of the church would be greatly improved in the eyes of those who see us as judgmental hypocrites.

Jesus tells us in John 16:8 that it is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict men of their sin. But too often, we take that role on ourselves and feel that we must take a strong stand against what we think are counter Biblical activities. Do we trust God enough to work in a person’s life to bring conviction where it is necessary?

In the internet age, civility seems to be the primary casualty. It is so easy to vent our judgment and hostility to those with whom we don’t agree. Unfortunately, those in the church sometimes share in this trollish behavior. There have been times when I have read social media posts and cringed at the lack of sensitivity to those who don’t share our beliefs.

When confronted, the Christian trolls counter with an accusation of being “soft on sin” which, interestingly enough, is an accusation leveled at Jesus a time or two.

By his life and ministry, Jesus showed us that it is possible to be completely loving to all the people around you without condoning their sin.

We must engage in conversation with others who don’t share our beliefs. In those conversations we are called to stand firm on standards that are clearly taught in the Bible. But we must do this in a way that is consistent with the example of Jesus and the clear teaching of Scripture.

For example, the opening verses of Romans 2 teach me that I need to be extra careful when I confront others on their sin because I am prone to the same errors. How can I look down on someone for stealing when there is greed in my own heart? How can I condemn someone else for their priorities when mine are equally out of order (but perhaps better hidden). If I am to confront, it must not be as a judge, but as a fellow law breaker.

This prompts some questions for us:

• Can we trust God enough to let him bring conviction where it is needed?
• Can we be patient, knowing that God will bring that conviction at the right time?
• Can we err on the side of being loving, having experienced the love that overcomes our own sins?

Nobody likes trolls, Christian or otherwise.

Question 15 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “By what sin did our first parents fall from their original condition?”

The answer given is, “Our first parents’ sin was eating the forbidden fruit.”

In our fallenness, we are likely to respond, “what’s the big deal about eating fruit?” Why would God kick our first parents out of the Garden for this?

We have to find the answer in the nature of God and why he created us in the first place.

Love always demands a choice. God did not create us as automatons who can only perform the tasks we are programmed to do. We are not simply a collection of Pavlovian responses. We are not merely “dancing to our DNA.”

We (as represented by our first parents) were given a choice and we chose badly.

If you look at the story in Genesis 3, you see that Satan asked a question that lead to a misunderstanding and misrepresentation of God’s character. We believed the lie that God does not have our well being in mind. Satan implied, and we believed, that God was withholding a good thing from us for no good reason.

Honesty forces us to admit that we still choose badly much of the time. We want our own way and struggle to see how obedience to God is for our benefit.

But isn’t that so like us? We know that the large dessert will move us farther away from our goal to maintain our optimum weight but we eat it anyway. We know that 20 minutes of exercise before work will go a long way toward keeping us healthy, but it is so much easier to check our social media feeds or grab 20 minutes of extra sleep.

We accept a short term pleasure at the cost of long term health.

Morally, we fare little better. We are serial idolaters, giving our best to things that draw us away from God. We want what we want when we want it and can find any number of excuses as to why it is the right course of action, even when the small voice inside us tells us we are off track.

Thankfully, there is good news. There is the Gospel (which means good news). We rebelled, but God had a plan to fix what was broken, even before we broke it.

In Romans 4:17, Paul tells us that Abraham believed in God as the one “who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.”

As the spiritual heirs of Abraham, do we really believe that this is an accurate description of God?

I am finding that while my head acknowledges many truths about God and about how the Christian life should be lived, my actual practice shows that I do not fully believe. My agitation and hesitation when difficulties present themselves demonstrate my partial unbelief.

Progress in the Christian life is demonstrated by the closing of this gap. While I still get upset about things beyond my control (or try to control them anyway), I do this less often and am increasingly more likely to leave it to God and not stress about it. So progress is being made . . .

But in reality, if we really got our heads around the truth that Paul claims in the verse cited above, our minds should be blown.

God gives life to the dead. Paul would know something about this. As a persecutor of the church, Paul was on his way to inflict further damage on the followers of Jesus when he received a brutal summons to cease and desist. Jesus confronted him on the road to Damascus giving Paul spiritual life that he never had before.

In our church life, we can have a siege mentality thinking that we need to hunker down behind our walls and keep ourselves safe from the unbelieving world outside.

On the other hand, if we believe that God is the one who brings life to the dead, that should influence how we respond to those outside the church. If God can take a murderer and turn him into the apostle that wrote a majority of our New Testament books, he can certainly bring spiritual life to the community around our church.

The second phrase in the verse quoted above tells us that God calls into being that which does not currently exist.

Since the Fall, human existence is full of broken relationships. Estranged spouses, children, parents and friends are part of every person’s experience. We often assume that this is just how it is and nothing can be done about it.

But if this description of God is true and he can call into being that which does not currently exist, then God can restore those broken relationships. Do we trust him to do so?

God can call into being employment that is so desperately needed. God can call into being whatever is necessary for you to complete what he has called you to do.

While we can often only see the limits, we are called to see beyond them. Why? Because we worship and serve a limitless God.