Love Without Hypocrisy

In one paragraph

Pastor Nate preached through Romans 12:9-21 on a Sunday that fell on September 11, walking the congregation through a dense cluster of commands about what genuine, unhypocritical love looks like in practice. He moved from the plain English reading of the passage into a closer look at the Greek, showing which verbs are direct commands and which carry a different weight. The sermon closed at the...

Read together

1. Acts 2:24 opening: it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Jesus
2. Romans 12:1 presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice, referenced as covered previously
3. Romans 12:9 love must be sincere, titled as the section heading by commentators
4. Romans 12:9-21 main passage of the sermon, imperatives about love, blessing enemies, overcoming evil with good
5. Romans 2:4 the kindness of God leads to repentance, cited while discussing heaping coals on an enemy's head
6. 1 Corinthians 13 love is patient, love is kind, heard so often at weddings we may stop paying attention
7. Romans 5:8 written on the front of Ironside's sandwich board in the story about humility
8. John 3:16 written on the back of Ironside's sandwich board in the story about humility
9. 1 Corinthians 15:57-58 closing benediction: God gives victory over sin and death, be strong and immovable, nothing done for the Lord is useless

Talk about it

1. Pastor Nate pointed out that Paul layers theology before commands throughout his letters, arguing that 'doing follows being.' How has understanding what God has done for you actually changed the way you behave, rather than just trying harder to follow rules?
2. The sermon drew a distinction between imperatives and participles in Romans 12, suggesting that many of the verses describe what love looks like in action rather than issuing direct orders. Does it change anything for you to read 'people abhorring evil and clinging to good' as a description of love rather than a checklist of commands?
3. Pastor Nate talked about mourning with those who mourn and how we often try to cheer people up instead of simply sitting with them in their pain. When have you experienced someone genuinely weeping with you, and what did that do for you?
4. The sermon told the story of the seminary professor in Pakistan who refused to press charges after being beaten, and how that decision opened doors in his community that years of ministry had not. Where do you find it hardest to leave room for God's wrath rather than seeking your own justice?
5. Pastor Nate closed with the Ironsides story, where a deliberate act of humility ended with Ironsides privately thinking he was probably the only man in Chicago who would have done it. What does that story reveal about how subtle pride is, and where do you see that pattern in your own life?