“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” -Romans 12:9 Paul moves from encouraging believers to use their spiritual gifts for the benefit of others to a general statement about the attitude that should motive the believers’ use of gifts, genuine love. In the next verse, he will hone […]
Gifts That Differ
“Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one […]
Many Members, One Body
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” -Romans 12:4–5 Paul will expound on this idea of the church being a body more thoroughly in 1 Corinthians 12. But […]
Think with Sober Judgment
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” -Romans 12:3 Even in his ministry of instructing believers in the grace of […]
Be Transformed
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” -Romans 12:2 The reasonable service or spiritual worship begins with avoiding the temptation to conform to—be molded to—this world, which […]
Do Not Be Conformed to This World
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” -Romans 12:2 The first step in our reasonable service, our spiritual worship, is to refrain from conforming ourselves to the […]
Our Spiritual Worship
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” -Romans 12:1 This is a good place to recall that Paul’s letter to the Romans follows a chiastic structure that reaches its highest and most important […]
Unsearchable!
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through […]
All Consigned to Disobedience
“For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on […]
The Effectual Call
“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” -Romans 11:29 Paul affirms the validity of the covenant promise to (remnant or believing) Israel by use of a merism, a kind of trope called a synecdoche. A merism is a rhetorical device (or figure of speech) in which a combination of two (usually contrasting) […]