How to Bless

...contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. (Romans 12:13)

When I looked up the words for this first phrase, contributing to the needs of the saints, I found it to mean pretty close to how it reads in English. Other than confusion over what the word saints means on the part of some, it is telling us that we must make ourselves open and available to supply the needs of others in the body that we have ability to help. These needs not only involve physical things they may lack that we can supply, but just as importantly emotional and spiritual support. Remember, this is still very clearly in the context of a description of the gifts given to the various members of the body for the purpose of building up, strengthening and encouraging the body.

I believe one of our greatest problems, I know it has been mine for many years, is our penchant to segregate the spiritual aspects and activities of our lives from what we think is secular. We must learn to live in reference to the way heaven views reality and life instead of the artificial distinctions that cause so much confusion and dysfunction and keep us distracted from what is really true. While we must be aware of the difference between what is holy and what is common, we must also have a much better awareness that every moment of our life belongs to God and everything we think belongs to us, whether possessions or talents or gifts, all are God-gifted to us. Everything we have and enjoy are only loans, are entrusted to us for investment to see how we will use them to develop character in our hearts. The only thing we really own at all is our character and that is the only thing we can take with us to heaven. Everything else are just tools loaned to us to use in shaping and growing our character. This passage is describing how we should use the temporary gifts entrusted to us correctly to form a character that will be safe for Jesus to trust after transferring us to the next stage of development at the Second Coming.

All of these instructions are descriptions of what an unselfish life will look like in community with other believers. When we come into proper alignment at the heart level with the God who is the ultimate example of selfless love, we will naturally be looking out for any way possible that we can bless or assist others who are being hampered by inadequacies in their lives. It will not be something we have to force ourselves to do. And if we are forcing ourselves to be generous and unselfish (which is really an oxymoron), then we must go back to examine our deeper motivations and reconnect our hearts even closer to the heart of our Creator from which all unselfishness emanates. Working on managing our outward symptoms is a terrible waste of time and effort and does nothing to develop real character in us that fits us for eternity. It only tends to produce hypocrisy and self-deception.

I realize that examining this passage in the form of verses is an artificial way to look at it. Verse partitions were added much later by translators to make research and internal addressing easier. But verses and chapters also introduced a lot of confusion at times by breaking apart the flow of thoughts and concepts the author originally intended. But we still use them as a means for study though we must be careful to keep our minds alert that the surrounding words and ideas must not be divorced or disconnected in any way without danger of causing undue loss from the richness of the message.

These two phrases are both positive injunctions and are really similar in nature. I notice something about this whole passage that becomes more distinct in this verse. It seems that this passage is focused almost exclusively on how we are to relate to others in the body without referring to others outside the body. That is not to say we are not to treat others who are not yet part of Christ's body in the ways described here. But this passage has some specific descriptions of how we need to relate to those who are also choosing to follow Jesus and trust in His saving, transformational power in their lives. It seems clear here that there is a difference in the way we are to relate to those in the body from how we may relate to those outside the body.

One of the biggest dangers that I have noticed over the years is not just the fact that we don't follow these instructions in our internal relationships within “the church”, but that our sharply narrow definitions of who constitutes the body precludes us from relating properly with many who, in God's eyes may be much more a part of the body than many we assume are in it simply because they belong to our particular denomination or congregation. Our human, artificial discriminations are usually so far off base from how God views things that we conveniently exclude everyone that doesn't fit our narrow biases quite like the Pharisees and religious leaders did in Christ's day.

While I don't completely understand the implications of why we are instructed here to apparently treat those within the body somewhat differently than those outside the body, I believe there is a very good reason and it is likely quite different than the reasons we often assume. Between our largely false artificial distinctions that cause us to mis-identify who is part of the same body as us and then our neglect to take these instructions seriously, we are severely hampering the bonding and healthy growth of the body of Christ. If we want to really grow spiritually and come into serious intimacy with God we will have to realign many of our attitudes and practices that are not in harmony with this passage and allow the Spirit to convict and transform our live to reflect what is spelled out here as a description of what the true body should look like.

I think this verse is beginning to unpack what it looks like to bless others. The previous verse started us out with the attitudes that we need to cherish in our hearts while doing these things and now the external demonstrations are being described. The next verse instructs us to bless others. But what does that really mean and what does it look like in practical, everyday terms? Our notions of blessings are often so vague and usually economically oriented that we have very limited ideas of what real blessing might be.

I also wonder if this verse is an instruction of what to focus our minds on whenever we find ourselves faced with troubles. Instead of focusing on our problems and our discouragement we should turn our mental focus toward making life better for those who can benefit from our gifts to the body. This is a deliberate choice that, while not usually a natural reaction to tribulation, can make a huge difference in how those trials effect us. Because our hearts are like mirrors, it is far more growth-producing to focus our hearts on listening to God's directions as to how we can bless others even in the midst of our own problems rather than in focusing constantly on our own problems and becoming fixated with them. When we focus on problems directly we tend to absorb the flavor of those problems and take on the characteristics of those who are causing them rather than the characteristics of God.

This verse comes on the heels of instructions for fervency and diligence. It is also tied to the admonition for devotion to one another – the saints – in agape and brotherly love, giving preference to others. And again, this passage is focused primarily on helping those in the body without discussing so much how to relate to those outside the body. There seems to be a reason that we should direct our best efforts for relief toward those in the body of Christ.

...contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. (Romans 12:13-14)

Something very fascinating that I discovered when I looked at the original Greek for these verses was the fact that the very same Greek word is behind both practicing and persecute. This word conveys the idea of pursuing and implies an intentional state of mind toward others. In the first verse it is an instruction as to how to do hospitality; in the second verse it stands alone as a description of what others may be doing towards us. The original word means to pursue. Whenever we are on the receiving end of someone's attitude of pursuit, whether that aggressive attitude is full of good or bad intent toward us, we are to practice a response of blessing toward them and never cursing.

The word translated blessing here literally means to eulogize. I think that is a very good reference point to begin understanding the real nature of the word blessing. Most people know the internal feelings elicited about someone whenever they are eulogized at a funeral or memorial service. We invariably tend to dwell on their good characteristics and gloss over their faults and problems. We usually seek very hard to remember all the good things they did, their positive attributes, all the ways that they helped others, their cheerfulness or their quiet determination to just get through life successfully.

I am sometimes amazed at how creative people can be at digging up positive, encouraging memories and anecdotes about people who have just died to share at a memorial service. But what God is asking us to do is to literally and just as intentionally do that very same kind of thing while they are still very much alive and may even be making life a trial for us at the moment. This is a radical kind of Christianity that can only be lived through the means of internal transformation that implants the characteristics of heaven into our souls at a very deep level. It is reflecting the light of heaven into other darkened lives instead of reflecting their own darkness back onto them.

This is what I am seeing in these verses. I cannot claim that I practice these things very well. My flesh recoils at the radical nature of these revelations and I realize that it is impossible for me to fulfill them from the heart in my flesh. Like the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai, I am faced with descriptions of holiness that are far beyond the reach of my own abilities, but I do not want to make the mistake that they made and blithely respond by saying, “All that the Lord has said we will do!” Instead I have to admit my inability to live at this level of unselfishness unless God works a miracle of radical transformation within my heart. Only with an internal incarnation of the Son of God living within me can these descriptions ever become a viable reality for my life.

Father, I need to have Jesus born again, incarnated into my own heart. I need a renewed mind and a transformed spirit to empower me to feel and do what I see described in this chapter. I like what I see but it is far out of my own reach or sheer force of willpower. But Jesus demonstrated perfectly a human life that is just like this and He is eager to demonstrate it again through me. So I give You unlimited permission to do whatever it takes, whatever is needed to transform me into Your image and into Your likeness. Re-form me, cleanse me of all unrighteousness, of selfishness, of pride, of false ideas about You. Fill me with Your Spirit and surround me with the atmosphere of Your presence today so that my life will become a fiber-optic channel of Your light for others today.

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