베델 크리스천교회 9월 6일 (성령강림 후 제14주) 예배 영상, Sermon Summary (English)

9월 6일 주일예배 영상입니다.

메시지: 다시 사랑할 때 Love Revisited (로마서 13장 8-14절) – 김백희 목사

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Bethel Christian Church – Sunday Sermon (September 6, 2020) 

Love Revisited (Romans 13:8-14) by Baek Hee Kim

• History repeats?
  • While I was preparing this week’s sermon, I found an interesting historical document that discusses the social aspect in the 1930s. According to the material, Korean society in the 1930s was in crisis. It enumerates a political situation, economic crisis, unemployment, etc.
  • In the 1930s, even in Korea, people experienced very similar situations to ours in 2020. We also experience and suffer various crises, anxiety, conflict, confrontation, hate, etc.; and definitely COVID-19. Does, then, history repeat? I assume that every generation and every society would say that their society was in crisis.
• Understanding the present time.
  • The 1^st century Europe was the same. The Christians in Rome would experience a similar crisis. And to those, Paul says, “Do this, understanding the present time” (verse 11, NIV). Paul’s saying implied that you all know that we are going through hardships. “But make sure that you don’t get to absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligation that you lose track of the time and doze off, obvious to God.” (verse 11, Message)
  • Paul argues one core value/practice/message we need to remember and restore. Love. Love? Is that simple?
• Love and debt
  • Obviously, love is a beautiful and worth word. But sometimes, I feel like “love” is just a word or a philosophical concept that does not have any weight in it. When love lacks a practical action, a specific object, mutual relationship, it is merely a vague theological concept.
  • Love is an action word. And the word “action” connotes a specific context and relationship. Love must be desired and learned in an environment of trust, peace, justice, and reconciliation.
  • Paul says, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another” (verse 8a). In relation to love, other keywords are “one another” and “(continuing) debt.” “One another” implies that love must be practiced in real/contextual human relationships through concrete ways. “(Continuing) Debt” means that God calls to believers to live according to the principle that one obligation can never be settled: the debt of love. As Dr. Israel Kamudzandu points out, the “language of debt signals a call to live a responsible life, especially on Christians who experience the love of Jesus Christ and are called to live in love. Love, then, must be a lifestyle; we must live, move, and be molded by the desire to love.” (Working Preacher) 
  • Paul is talking about proactive love as an action word. What is the opposite concept of love? Some might say hate, envy, jealousy, or violence. But the opposite of love is a self-helped life, ignorance, and not doing love. Love is unsettled obligation and continuing responsibility for others; in Jesus’ word, it is “your neighbor.”
  • In this coming week, please reflect on your life. And find your love in your specific context with a particular person through actual practice.
  • We talked about the present time. Paul finally says, “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”