We’re looking at the Book of Romans, Paul’s great work addressed to the center of the known world’s power and influence, Rome. His purpose is to outline the core elements of Christian teaching.
He does so in a systematic fashion, beginning by asking the question “Who needs the gospel?” The early church was dealing with tensions between those believers that had come from a Jewish background and those that came from amongst the Jews and Paul is anxious to say that in terms of need, it didn’t matter what your roots were, everybody needed the gospel message.
He then outlines how the gospel message was to be received. It was a matter of faith being placed in the grace of God, and belief that God had decisively acted in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to reconcile the world to Himself. He uses the term ‘Justification’ to describe the process of being ‘put right’ with God. He gives examples from the Old Testament that reveal that God’s way of putting people right with himself hadn’t changed… it had always been on the basis of faith.
In Chapter 5 he suggest what the results of receiving the gospel should be, talking firstly about peace, secondly about the sense of forgiveness in Christ that sets a person free. Through chapters 6-8 he explains whilst it is God who takes the initiative, we are to cooperate with God in the work of salvation by allowing God’s Spirit to change us from within. Without God’s action, through the Spirit, he sees no hope for change, but by God’s Spirit, he expects to see lives being changed.
In chapters 9-11 he asks the question ‘Can we be sure?” He returns to the matter of his own nation, the Jewish people and the role they had played in salvation history. He points out that though they were often unfaithful, God’s plans could not be thwarted, and God always had the last word. God had not rejected His people, the troubles in the world were ‘growing pains’ and he encourages us to look beyond present sufferings and trust that God is always in control.
Which just about brings us up to speed to approach chapter 12! For the rest of the book of Roman Paul starts to say, “Look, I’ve told you what the gospel is, in the light of that knowledge, how then should we live our lives?”. Chapter 12 touches particularly on how we should live in relationship with other believers. (Chapter 13 considers relationships with the state. Chapter 14 bids us think about love.) But for now we are in Chapter 12.
Romans 12:1-21 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,1 by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual2 worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world,1 but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God -- what is good and acceptable and perfect.2
One of the buzz words in church circles these days is the word ‘transformation’. It is a biblical word that has merit. Paul here places ‘transformation’ in a particular context. He suggests that transformation begins by changing the way that we think so that in every situation it is the will of God that takes first priority. That in every circumstance we consider what God desires in terms of what is good, acceptable and perfect.
The only way for that to take place Paul suggests is that we unreservedly offer our lives for God to use as God sees best. He uses here dramatic phrases to describe what that looks like. Our lives are to be ‘a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God’. That he tells is what constitutes true and spiritual worship.
Eugene Petersen in the Message Bible transliterates the first verse so well; “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.”
Such an attitude is not the way our world usually thinks things need to be done. In fact the world we live in is as equally persuasive as was the world that Paul lived in suggesting that to really get somewhere loyalties other than loyalty to God should be pursued.
Fame and fortune were as equally attractive to the peoples of Rome as they are to people today. There were numerous philosophies and paths to follow that claimed to be able to lead a person to success. There were political and religious viewpoints in abundance that one could embrace. And whether you were at the bottom of the pile or head of the food-chain there was always on offer opportunities to better your situation. For some that meant a scheme to be released from slavery, for others schemes to obtain another territory!
Every time we turn on our TV sets we are bombarded with messages. Every product on sale claims to be able to make our life better. Every politician would have us believe that electing them will result in a better life for all of us. Every preacher would have us believe that they proclaim the true God and offer the true path towards contentment.
“Do not be conformed to this world’, refuse to let this world squeeze you into its way of thinking and doing, suggests Paul. He knew what he was talking about. He had been one of the movers and shakers. He’d been to the best schools, had been on intimate terms with many of the ‘in-crowd’. As we read in the book of Acts his case and claims intrigued those high up in government and government service.
But such did not impress him in the least compared to the knowledge of God and the life he had found in the service of Jesus Christ. All the world’s philosophy and wealth seemed empty and powerless in comparison to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Such was a belief that both empowered him and humbled him. He recognized it all as a work of the Grace of God that had transformed his own life and continued to transform others.
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
We are cautioned here not to have a sense of misplaced pride, not to have too great an opinion of ourselves or place too high a value on our own judgments, abilities and capabilities, not consider ourselves to be something that others knew we were not! As Matthew Henry, the great commentator of old writes; “There is such a thing as a knowledge that puffs up, which reaches after forbidden fruit. We must take heed of this, and labor after that knowledge which tends to the rectifying of the heart and the reforming of life.”
Paul is convinced that all that we have and all that we are is by the grace of God. That whatever blessings we have received, they have come not as a right, but as a gift. Even our faith is something given to us and enabled by the love of God. We should certainly be thankful for the grace God freely gives us, but never feel that somehow we earned it or deserved it.
And the best way to show thankfulness was to use the gifts we have been given in the service of the gospel. Jesus spoke about how if we have a light to shine, only a fool would put it underneath a bucket and expect it to light up the world. He told a parable about an unfaithful servant who was judged by His Master because he buried the talents he had freely been given.
Now when Paul is suggesting that we don’t think of ourselves more highly than we should, he is not saying that we take on that kind of whining humility that says, “Well, I can’t do anything, I don’t have anything” but rather fully embrace through faith what God is gifting our lives with and use those things for the service of others and the work of Christ’s Kingdom.
Bear in mind Paul is writing to a church community. Sometimes people say “Do I have to go to Church to be a Christian?” Paul simply would not understand the question. As he understood it faith was all about being a community. If a person did not want to use their gifts and talents in service of the faith community, if they wanted their life in God to somehow be separate from everybody else’s life in God, Paul would be absolutely convinced that they really had not yet got a handle on the truth, nor even remotely understood the gospel.
Why do I say that? Because one of Paul’s favorite images of the church was that the believing community was the body of Christ. That when God saved a person it was for the purpose of bringing them into the body, grafting them into the vine, that people were saved for service and the place where that service was to be refined and expressed was within the context of a church community.
He laughed at the concept of lone ranger Christianity and in a passage in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 ridicules those who behave like they were a little eye out there on their own that says to the rest of the body “Oh, I don’t want to be part of the same person as you are!”
One of the reasons why he suggests we are not to think too highly of ourselves is that he knows human nature. He knows that we are sinners who fall short of the glory of God. He knows how we can argue over anything and everything and pursue any course other than the obvious! The church is like God’s workshop. God places us in relationship with others so that the friction can shape us and transform us.
Another image that Paul uses is that we are ‘living stones’. If ever you have walked along a shore line you don’t see jagged stones. You see that the stones are smooth and rounded because they have been shaped by the friction they have experienced in being close to one another as the waves have moved them towards the shore. As God moves God’s people forward in mission there is always friction, but if they remain faithful, they come though such times in better shape and lose some of their jagged edges!
However, Paul’s not using the stone imagery, but the body imagery here, so let us get back on track:
4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
There is no room in church communities for folk who claim to be able to do everything. In fact, when you get folk in church who try to be everything and do everything it can really mess things up. Not only do they end up stretched beyond their own abilities, but they end up preventing others from using their God given gifts, and in the process prevent them from growing in the grace of God as they should. “Doitalls’ and ‘Beitalls’ prevent community growth just as much as those who refuse to ever be involved.
We are all different and we all have different areas where God is calling us to exercise the gifts God freely given us. Or as Paul puts it: 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us”. He then talks about some of those gifts. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list. He is giving examples and suggesting how to use those gifts in a God-glorifying way. Again, I like the way ‘The Message’ transliterates this passage;
“If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.”
As I said near the start of this study this chapter is all about how we should live in relation to other believers; in the context of being a church community. Paul has given us specific examples of areas of service. He now further elaborates upon the sort of attitude we should have underlying all that we seek to do for the kingdom of God.
9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.1 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Paul uses the word ‘love’ twice. Let love be the real deal. The kind of love that won’t tolerate evil but makes us stick to pursuing what is best. The kind of live that is expressed through genuine concern and the RSV uses a lovely phrase when it talks about practicing ‘mutual affection’.
‘Outdo one another in showing honor’, the Greek word used here for honor is ‘proegeomai’ (prohge,omai) meaning ‘to go before and show the way’. In other words, if you see somebody else going through a hard time, don’t get down on them, try and find a way to help them through it. A way of expressing the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.’
Paul encourages us. “Don’t give up”, don’t ‘lag in zeal’. Be ardent; a Greek word zeo (ze,w) meaning ‘BE HOT’ (It is used of water or of boiling anger, love or zeal, for what is good or bad)., To add a couple more words beginning in “H”; don’t just be Hot, be Happy and be Hopeful. And when the going gets tough, as surely it will for suffering is part and parcel of the deal life throws our way, when the going gets tough let your tough side get going.
How so? Well above all things, urges Paul, be ‘proskartereo’ (proskartere,w) in prayer. ‘Proskartereo’ is a Greek word with a number of meanings. What is he telling us about prayer? “To adhere to, to be devoted or constant to, to be steadfastly attentive unto, to give unremitting care to, to continue all the time with, to persevere and not to give up, to show one's self courageous in prayer”. To put it plainly; “Pray like your whole life depended upon it”.
Spiritual life is life that takes us beyond the natural. Spiritual life is a life that dares to suggest that the way of the world is messed up and that there is a higher way and a better way to live. The greatest sermon ever preached, the manifesto of the kingdom of God, is that of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Chapter 5. Amongst the things that Jesus proclaims we read;
Matthew 5:43-48 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.' 44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you 45 in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? 47 "And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
There are echoes of this passage and others of that mountain top sermon in the last part of the 12th chapter of Romans as we read;-
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly;1 do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18 If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God;1 for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." 20 No, "if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Paul sums up the whole chapter with allusions to the Sermon on the Mount, and to the gospel events themselves, namely Jesus’ death and resurrection. Yes, there is evil “out there” in the world. But God’s people are to meet evil in same way that God met evil: with overcoming love.
When God came to defeat evil, it was not achieved by using an even greater evil, but by using the opposite; the surprising and initially counterintuitive weapons of the Cross and the Resurrection. To be consumed with vengeful thoughts, or to be led into putting such thoughts into practice, is to keep evil in circulation, whereas the way to overthrow evil, rather than perpetuating it, is to take its force and turn it around for good.
That is the sort of thing only God can do, and it is God who calls us to be part of the process and offers to grace our life with His Holy Spirit that we may be empowered for the process. Yes… it is quite beyond us. But that is Paul’s point throughout this whole letter to the Roman Church. What we can not do for ourselves God has done in Jesus Christ. It is a matter of grace. It is a matter of love. And for us it is a call to put our faith and trust in God.