Tag Archives: Romans 12

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2024 Bible Study — The Authorities That Exist Have Been Established by God.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 11-14.

My title for today’s blog highlights what strikes me as a needed reminder for Christians today and I will discuss its implications.  But first there are a few other important points I want to touch on.  Chapter eleven explains why one cannot be a faithful follower of Jesus while harboring hate against the Jewish people.  In fact, we should pray that they come to salvation and, in the meantime, lovingly engage with them.  Paul tells us that we have been blessed because of their rejection of Christ, but that we will be doubly blessed when they turn to Him.  In chapter twelve Paul tells us not to conform to the patterns of this world.  We must strive to avoid allowing the world around us to shape the way we think about people and issues.  We must not allow the world around us to shape our thinking.  Instead we should seek the transformation of our minds which the Holy Spirit is constantly implementing.  We can recognize the transformation inspired by the Holy Spirit by the way it encourages us to humbly value others above our own desires.  This will lead us to resist the efforts of the world to cause us to lump individuals into groups where we stop viewing the worth of the individual, only valuing them as a member of whichever groups they are a part.

Which brings me to what Paul writes in chapter thirteen.  He tells us that we should submit to the governing authorities because they have been established by God, that no one holds the authority of government unless God gave it to them.  Ultimately those who wield the levers of power do so only because God has chosen for them to do so.  Despite the fact that some leaders are chosen by the election of the people and some leaders are chosen by military might, all of them serve at the pleasure and will of God.  So, those who were worried during this recent election that the wrong people would end up governing us, their worries were in vain.  Those who are governing us, and those who will be governing us, have that authority because it was given to them by God.

I am not going to write about chapter fourteen, but I humbly ask that you read it for yourself and think about what it means for you.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2021 Bible Study — Do Not Conform To This World

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 11-14.

In today’s passage, Paul destroys the primary argument used by those who claim to follow Christ to hate Jews.  First, Paul starts by pointing out that God used the rejection of Christ by Jews to open the door for Gentiles to come to Him.  However, Paul points out that if God cut off those Jews who rejected Christ, He can also cut off those Gentiles who fail to remain faithful.  God desires to bring the Jewish people fully back into a relationship with Him.  There is more to what Paul writes on this than I can put into my own words.  Every year I read this passage and try to make the point I see in it and every year it feels like I fail to clearly state it.

That being said, I want to put my main focus on chapter 12 (and perhaps some of what comes after in today’s passage).  Actually as I try to compose my thoughts I realize that in this passage Paul’s wording makes his meaning crystal clear.  There is no real need to  spend much time rewording it to make it more clear.  First, we should offer our bodies up to God as a sacrifice.  If doing His will means pain, suffering, or even death, we should embrace that as an opportunity to return to Him a little bit of what He has given us.  That should lead us to allow the Holy Spirit to transform our minds and thoughts into those which imitate God and refuse to allow the world to mold us into its image.  Part of that transformation means looking for ways to bless those who persecute us, those who desire to see our faith broken.  Another part of that means not viewing ourselves us superior to others.  Let us not look down on others and be willing to do “menial labor”.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2020 Bible Study Allowing God’s Spirit to Transform Us Into His Image

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Romans 11-14

The beginning of today’s passage contains a great explanation of why Christians who hate Jews are not true Believers.  Paul’s basic point is that the Jews are still God’s Chosen people.  God has used the rejection by many of the Jews to call Gentiles to Himself, but in due time He will reclaim the Jewish people as His own.  I think a careful examination of what Paul writes here reveals a lot about God’s plan for Jew and Gentile alike.  He cut those Jews who rejected His salvation through Christ off from Him in order to make room for Gentiles.  Yet, if they turn once more to Him, He will make room for them.  Ultimately, it seems to me that Paul is saying that we need to be careful not to make the same mistake towards the Jews which some of them made towards the Gentiles: the mistake of thinking that they (or we) were better than others on account of God’s mercy towards them (or us).  God wished to use the Jews to show His love to all people, but they (but not all of them) chose to attempt to hoard God’s love for themselves.  They chose to look at others as rejected by God.  Let us not make the same mistake.  The mistake of thinking that God does not still love His prodigal sons and daughters.

In order to avoid that mistake, we must allow God’s Spirit to transform us into a new person by changing the way we think.  We need to avoid letting ourselves copy the thoughts and behaviors of our society.  Part of that transformations is to not think of ourselves as more than we are.  I am no better than anyone else, and they are no better than I.  As Believers, each of us are part of the Body of Christ.  Each of us has been given different gifts by God in order to fulfill His purpose.  Whatever gift God has given us, let us use to the fullest of our ability.  One gift that we each have is the ability to love others.  So let us truly love others, even those who persecute us. Let us pray for them and ask God to bless them.  When people do wrong to us, we should not attempt to repay them in kind.  Instead, we should remember that Jesus’ rule was, “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.”  Not, “Do unto others as they have done to you.”

There are two more things in this passage I would like to cover, but I think I am only going to get to one of them.  Paul tells us that we should submit to the governing authorities.  Those who have positions of authority have been placed there by God, even those who may have broken laws to get there.  So, we should accept their authority.  Of course, we must temper that submission to those authorities with what Peter and the other Apostles told the Sanhedrin, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”  So, while we should obey the governing authorities, we must remember the limits to their authority.  And Paul gives us guidance in determining how to identify those limits.  Let us act with true love towards everyone, any command from the governing authorities which would lead us to act outside of love for others is outside of the bonds to which we are bound to submit.

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2019 Bible Study — God Loved Us Even Though We Did Not Deserve It, So We Should Love Those We Think Don’t Deserve It

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Romans 11-14

Paul continues his discussion of the paradox between our free will and God’s providence.  Our salvation is not the result of any action we have taken and therefore not something which we deserve.  Rather we were saved by God’s grace and mercy because He chose us.  Yet, we must be careful because if we stop having faith, and acting accordingly, God will reject us as He has rejected those who refused His free gift.  Even the fact that God has chosen us does not make us better than others.  Paul’s entire point here is to address a very human tendency: the desire to elevate ourselves above others, to find some way to claim that we are better than other people.  Sometimes, we do that by claiming to be worse than they, to be a better sinner than those others.  This even forms the basis for the problem Paul addresses when he tells us not to condemn others.  If our purpose in telling others that what they do is to tell them, “I am better than you because I do not do THAT,” (whatever THAT is) then we are failing to truly love our neighbor.

In chapter 12 Paul brings all of this together.  I have already touched on his instructions that we should not think more of ourselves than we really are.  We should love each other with genuine affection, not just going through the motions of how we think we should treat others, but actually caring about them.  As an aside I want to note that you cannot truly care about those whom you have never encountered.  In order to follow Paul’s instruction to truly care for others we need to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us.  Otherwise we will find ourselves conforming to behaviors and norms which our society claims are correct.  Those behaviors and norms are those of people who choose to think of themselves as better than others, who choose to think that only some people are deserving of love.  When we should know full well that none of us are deserving of love, but God loved us anyway.  Which is why we should love others, especially those we are tempted to believe are not deserving of love.

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2018 Bible Study — Do Not Conform, Be Transformed

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Romans 11-14.

    Paul discusses his desire for all Jews to accept Jesus as their Savior. Today, we often speak of trying to convert Jews to Christianity. Paul did not see that as something to be attempted because he believed that putting faith in Jesus was a natural result of faithfully following Judaism. Paul tells us that at all points in history there will be a number of Jews who faithfully follow God and accept Jesus as Lord. He also prophecies that at some point all Jews will come to the Lord. However, my biggest takeaway from Paul’s writing here on Jews is that you cannot be a faithful follower of Jesus and hate Jews.

    I want to write about chapter twelve because I think it contains some of the most important advice for Christians there is. However, I am unsure what to write because this is one place where what Paul writes is so clear and concise. All too often, we as Christians fail to listen to what he says here and allow ourselves to blend in. One of the most effective ways to reach unbelievers is to live our lives in a way which causes them to ask us, “Why are you different?” Paul is really quite clear. If we do not allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds, and thus transform us, we will conform to the patterns of those around us. Paul does not leave us to guess what that transformation would look like and he tells us how we can invite that transformation. The first step is to have an honest, accurate view of ourselves, not thinking ourselves better than others and recognizing that God has made us valuable to Him where and how we are. Whatever gifts He has given us we must put into use to the best of our ability, not spending our time attempting to do things which require gifts which God has not given us. Those who have been transformed bless those who persecute them and repay evil with good.

    I considered passing over the end of today’s passage partly because I am running out of time and partly because it is difficult to reconcile with the need to hold our brothers and sisters in Christ accountable to His word. Paul here tells us not to argue over “disputable” matters. He gives as examples of such matters, the issue of what is appropriate to eat or drink and celebrating holy days. On the issue of food and drink, I believe that Paul is referring both to Jewish kosher law and dealing with the issue of food sacrificed to idols (which he discusses in more details in his letters to the Corinthians). The important point about what he teaches here is that we should not attempt to force those who feel the need for more strict rules to abandon those rules just because we believe they are unnecessary. The key here is that those of us with a stronger faith should accommodate the beliefs of those with a weaker faith. In other words, if what you are arguing for is not fundamental to being a follower of Christ, you should drop the argument. Failing to drop the argument is a tacit admission that your faith is weaker than the person you are arguing with.

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2017 Bible Study — Do Not Conform To The World, Instead Be Transformed By The Holy Spirit

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Romans 11-14.

    Paul tells us that many of the Jews of his day had failed to accept God’s grace because they wished to attain salvation by their own good works. Many people today make the same mistake, both among those who call themselves Christian and in the world in general. However, salvation can only be obtained by accepting God’s free, and undeserved, grace. We can never do enough good works to earn our salvation, and trying to do so is a rejection of God’s freely offered grace. Those Jews who insisted on trying to earn salvation, and thus rejected God’s grace, were broken off from the vine which is God’s family and those Gentiles who accepted God’s freely offered gift were grafted on to that vine in their place. Fortunately, this is where that metaphor breaks down, there is room enough that should they, or any others, realize their mistake and accept God’s freely offered gift of salvation there is room for them to be grafted on to the vine, no matter how many have previously accepted God’s gift.

    The beginning of chapter twelve contains some of the best summations of how the followers of Christ should behave. We must not allow the thinking, habits, and practices of the world around us to shape the way that we think and act. Instead, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and transform us so that our thoughts and actions make our bodies into a living sacrifice to God. As part of that process we need to think of ourselves with sober judgment. God has given each and every person unique gifts. Each of these gifts are valuable and necessary to the Body of Christ. The gifts I have been given do not make me better, or more important, than you, and vice versa. As an aside I want to note that while Paul tells us not to think of ourselves more highly that we ought, he does tell us to think of ourselves with sober judgment. The implication being to not underrate ourselves either.

    Whatever gift we have been given we should exercise it to the fullest extent of that gift and not whine and refuse to use it because we have not been given some other gift which we consider more prestigious. If we truly love others, and Paul tells us that we ought to do so, we will use whatever gifts we have been given and not spend our time selfishly pining after gifts we have not been given. It is not enough to go through the motions of loving others, we must truly seek what is best for them. Paul instructs us not to be so proud that we are unwilling to associate with those who are “beneath us”, because the very idea that some people are beneath us is contrary to Christ’s teaching.

    I would really like to spend more time on chapter fourteen than I can because of what Paul says there about who is truly the strong in faith. If we demand that the Church change its doctrines and teachings according to our tastes we are declaring that our faith is too weak to survive if those of stronger faith continue to hold to their beliefs. Paul instructs those of stronger faith to temper their behavior so as to not damage the faith of those with a weaker faith. If another believer thinks that some action which you consider acceptable is a sin, you must not flaunt your belief in front of them. For example, I know Christians who believe that as followers of Christ we should abstain from all alcoholic beverages. I do not share that belief, but I do not try to convince them that they should drink (I may occasionally attempt to convince them that it is not wrong for others to consume alcohol) and I refrain from drinking or discussing alcoholic beverages which I enjoy in front of them.

Daily Bible Study

July 29, 2015 Bible Study — Do Not Conform To the Pattern of This World

For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

DSCN8958

Proverbs 20:8-10

    Cheating others, no matter how we sell it to ourselves is wrong. I don’t think what I am about to write next is something the writer of this proverb would have said he meant, but I think he would have been pleased that someone took this lesson from what he wrote. God is unhappy when we treat different people differently in the marketplace. If your price is one thing for Joe, then it should be the same price for Judy, and vice versa. Do business with everyone fairly and honestly.

DSCN8959

Psalm 22:19-31

    In the first half of this psalm, which we read yesterday, the psalmist expresses his deep despair. He was calling on God for rescue and wondering when God would answer his cry. Yet here in the second half, he states what he will do as if God had already relieved him of his burden. The psalmist made his plans based on the assumption that God would rescue him. In the midst of his despair, he praised God for rescuing him. Let us follow his example.

DSCN8967

Romans 12

    This passage has so much in it that I feel like I ought to to talk about that I am not going to get to all of it. It starts with something which the Mennonite Church has always emphasized. Paul warns us against conforming to this world. This is a constant battle for Christians because it is not enough not to get caught up in the dominant culture. I know Christians who have gotten caught up with the liberal culture around us, and others who have gotten caught up in the conservative culture (and these are just two examples of secular subcultures to which we can find ourselves conforming). Instead, of that, our minds should be transformed by the Holy Spirit as it renews us day in and day out. The key to understanding how to do this is when Paul refers to renewing our minds. We experience renewal when we go on a retreat, or take part in some other event which changes how we perceive everything in the world around us. We should take every opportunity for spiritual renewal which presents itself to us, but there are two opportunities which we can take every day: reading the scripture and spending disciplined time in prayer.
    Paul continues by warning us against arrogance. We are not to judge ourselves as more important than we are. However, Paul does not just warn against arrogance, he is also warning against false humility, against thinking we are inferior to others. Each and every person has an important place in the Kingdom of God, in the Body of Christ. When people choose to not exercise the gifts which God has given them we are all diminished. It is important to both be aware of our own importance to the Body of Christ and of the importance of those around us. Whatever gifts God has given us we should exert ourselves to use them to the fullest of our ability, not spend our time bemoaning the fact that we do not have some other gift. It is important that we recognize that our gift does not make us more important than others, nor does our lack of some particular gift make us less important.
    In the final section of today’s passage (Oh look, three parts, not just two) Paul talks about love. He calls us to sincerely love others and not just our fellow Christians (although he points out that that is where the loving should start). We are to bless those who persecute us and refuse to repay evil with evil. When we are wronged we are not to seek revenge. If we have indeed been wronged God will pay back those who have done so. Rather than seek revenge on those who have wronged us we should desire to see them transformed in the same way in which the Holy Spirit is transforming ourselves. As part of this Paul says something very important. We are to seek to live at peace with everyone, but he recognizes that it is not always within out ability to do so. There are people who will refuse to live in peace with us. We are not called to compromise our beliefs in order to live at peace.

DSCN8965

2 Chronicles 24-25

    Joash was saved from the attempt by his grandmother, Athaliah, to wipe out the House of David. He was raised by the high priest, Jehoida, who put him on the throne when he was seven years old. Joash enthusiastically served God for as long as Jehoida lived. However, as soon as Jehoida died, Joash came under the influence of other men who sought to use their influence for their own advancement, not to better Joash or the kingdom. We see this happen over and over throughout history, a young man, or woman, strives to better themselves and those around them under the influence of a strong mentor. That mentor dies and the young man, or woman, comes under the influence of unsavory characters who encourage them down a path which wastes all of their youthful promise, or worse, encourages them to become actively evil. I am not sure how you avoid this, but if you are mentoring someone it is important to encourage them to stand up on their own two feet and not shelter them from the evil in this world.