Romans 12
In all of his letters, Paul concluded with a list of
practical duties that were based on the doctrines he discussed. In the
Christian life, doctrine and duty always go together. What we believe helps to
determine how we behave. It is not enough for us to understand Paul's doctrinal
explanations. We must translate our learning into living and show by our daily lives
that we trust God's Word. The key idea in this lesson is relationships. The
term "relational theology" is a relatively new one, but the idea is
not new. If we have a right relationship to God, we will have a right
relationship to the people who are a part of our lives. "If a man say, I
love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar" (1 John 4:20).
Our Relationship to God (Romans 12:1-2)
This is the
fourth "therefore" in the letter. Romans 3:20 is the
"therefore" of condemnation, declaring that the whole world is guilty
before God. Romans 5:1 is the "therefore" of justification, and
Romans 8:1 the "therefore" of assurance. In Romans 12:1, we have the
"therefore" of dedication, and it is this dedication that is the
basis for the other relationships that Paul discussed in this section. What is true
dedication? As Paul described it here, Christian dedication involves three
steps:
1)You give God your body
(verse 1). Before we trusted Christ, we used our body for sinful pleasures and
purposes, but now that we belong to Him, we want to use our body for His glory.
The Christian's body is God's temple (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) because the Spirit
of God dwells within him (Romans 8:9). It is our privilege to glorify Christ in
our body and magnify Christ in our body (Philippians 1:20-21). Just as Jesus Christ
had to take on Himself a body in order to accomplish God's will on earth, so we
must yield our bodies to Christ that He might continue God's work through us.
We must yield the members of the body as "instruments of
righteousness" (Romans 6:13) for the Holy Spirit to use in the doing of
God's work. The Old Testament sacrifices were dead sacrifices, but we are to be
living sacrifices.
There are two "living sacrifices" in the Bible and
they help us understand what this really means. The first is Isaac (Genesis 22);
the second is our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaac willingly put himself on the altar
and would have died in obedience to God's will, but the Lord sent a ram to take
his place. Isaac "died" just the same—he died to self and willingly
yielded himself to the will of God. When he got off that altar, Isaac was a
"living sacrifice" to the glory of God.
Of course, our Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect illustration
of a "living sacrifice," because He actually died as a sacrifice, in
obedience to His Father's will. But He arose again. And today He is in heaven
as a "living sacrifice," bearing in His body the wounds of Calvary.
He is our High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16) and our Advocate (1 John 2:1) before
the throne of God. The verb "present" in this verse means
"present once and for all." It commands a definite commitment of the
body to the Lord, just as a bride and groom in their wedding service commit
themselves to each other. It is this once-for-all commitment that determines
what they do with their bodies. Paul gives us two reasons for this commitment:
(1) it is the right response to all that God has done for us—"I beseech
you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God"; and (2)
this commitment is "our reasonable service" or "our spiritual
worship." This means that every day is a worship experience when your body
is yielded to the Lord.
2)You give Him your mind
(verse 2a). The world wants to control your mind, but God wants to transform
your mind (Ephesians 4:17-24; Colossians 3:1-11). This word transform is
the same as transfigure in Matthew 17:2. It has come into our English language
as the word "metamorphosis." It describes a change from within. The
world wants to change your mind, so it exerts pressure from without. But the
Holy Spirit changes your mind by releasing power from within. If the world
controls your thinking, you are a conformer; if God controls your thinking, you
are a transformer. God transforms our minds and makes us spiritually minded by
using His Word. As you spend time meditating on God's Word, memorizing it, and
making it a part of your inner man, God will gradually make your mind more spiritual
(2 Corinthians 3:18).
3)You give Him your will
(verse 2b). Your mind controls your body, and your will controls your mind.
Many people think they can control their will by "willpower," but
usually they fail. (This was Paul's experience as recorded in Romans 7:15-21).
It is only when we yield the will to God that His power can take over and give
us the willpower (and the won't power!) that we need to be victorious
Christians. We surrender our wills to God through disciplined prayer. As
we spend time in prayer, we surrender our will to God and pray, with the Lord,
"Not my will, but Thy will be done." We must pray about everything,
and let God have His way in everything. To have a right relationship with God, we must start the day by
yielding to Him our bodies, minds, and wills.
Relationship to Other Believers (Romans 12:3-16)
Paul was
writing to Christians who were members of local churches in Rome. He described
their relationship to each other in terms of the members of a body. (He used
this same picture in 1 Corinthians 2; Ephesians 4:7-16.) The basic idea is that
each believer is a living part of Christ's body, and each one has a spiritual
function to perform. Each believer has a gift (or gifts) to be used for the
building up of the body and the perfecting of the other members of the body. In short, we
belong to each other, we minister to each other, and we need each other. What
are the essentials for spiritual ministry and growth in the body of Christ?
Honest evaluation
(verse 3). Each Christian must know what his or her spiritual gifts are and what
ministry (or ministries) he or she is to have in the local church. It is not wrong for
a Christian to recognize gifts in their own life and in the lives of others. What
is wrong is the tendency to have a false evaluation of ourselves. Nothing
causes more damage in a local church than a believer who overrates their self, and tries to perform a ministry that he or she cannot do. (Sometimes
the opposite is true, and people undervalue themselves. Both attitudes are
wrong.)
The gifts that we have come because of God's grace. They
must be accepted and exercised by faith. We were saved "by grace, through
faith" (Ephesians 2:8-9), and we must live and serve "by grace
through faith." Since our gifts are from God, we cannot take the credit
for them. All we can do is accept them and use them to honor His name (1
Corinthians 15:10).
Faithful cooperation
(verses 4-8). Each believer has a different gift, and God has bestowed these
gifts so the local body can grow in a balanced way. But each Christian must
exercise his or her gift by faith. We may not see the result of our ministry,
but the Lord sees it and He blesses. Note that "exhortation"
(encouragement) is just as much a spiritual ministry as preaching or teaching.
Giving and showing mercy are also important gifts. To some people, God has
given the ability to rule, or to administer the various functions of the
church. Whatever gift we have must be dedicated to God and used for the good of
the whole church. It is tragic when any one gift is emphasized in a local
church beyond all the other gifts. "Are all apostles? are all prophets?
are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? have all the gifts of healing?
do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?" (1 Corinthians 12:29-30) The
answer to all these questions is no! And for a Christian to minimize the other
gifts while he or she emphasizes their own gift is to deny the very purpose for which
gifts are given: the benefit of the whole body of Christ. "Now to each man the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good" (1 Corinthians
12:7).
Spiritual gifts are tools to build with, not toys to play
with or weapons to fight with. In the church at Corinth, the believers were
tearing down the ministry because they were abusing spiritual gifts. They were
using their gifts as ends in themselves and not as a means toward the end of
building up the church. They so emphasized their spiritual gifts that they lost
their spiritual graces! They had the gifts of the Spirit but were lacking in
the fruit of the spirit - love, joy, peace, etc. (Galatians 5:22-23).
Loving participation
(verses 9-16). Here the emphasis is on the attitudes of those who exercise the
spiritual gifts. It is possible to use a spiritual gift in an unspiritual way.
Paul makes this same point in 1 Corinthians 13, the great "love
chapter" of the New Testament. Love is the circulatory system of the
spiritual body, which enables all lie members to function in a healthy,
harmonious way. This must, be an honest love, not a hypocritical love
(Romans 11:9); and it must be humble, not proud (Romans 11:10).
"Preferring one another" means treating others as more important than
ourselves (Philippians 2:1-4).
Serving Christ usually means Satanic opposition and days of
discouragement. Paul admonished his readers to maintain their spiritual zeal
because they were serving the Lord and not men. When life becomes difficult,
the Christian cannot permit his zeal to grow cold. "Be joyful in hope,
patient in affliction, faithful in prayer" (Romans 12:12).
Christian fellowship is much more than a pat on the back
and a handshake. It means sharing the burdens and the blessings of others so
that we all grow together and glorify the Lord. If Christians cannot get along
with one another, how can they ever face their enemies? A humble attitude and a
willingness to share are the marks of a Christian who truly ministers to the
body. Our Lord ministered to the common people, and they heard Him gladly (Mark
12:37). When a local church decides it wants only a certain "high
class" of people, it departs from the ideal of true ministry.
Our Relationship to Our Enemies
(Romans 2:17-21)
The believer who seeks to obey God is going to have enemies. When our Lord was ministering on earth, He had enemies. No matter
where Paul and the other apostles traveled, there were enemies who opposed
their work. Jesus warned His disciples that their worst enemies might be those
of their own household (Matthew 10:36). Unfortunately, some believers have
enemies because they lack love and patience, and not because they are faithful
in their witness. There is a difference between sharing in "the offense of
the cross" (Galatians 5:11;
6:12-15) and being an offensive Christian!
The Christian must not play God and try to avenge their self.
Returning evil for evil, or good for good, is the way most people live. But the
Christian must live on a higher level and return good for evil. Of course, this
requires love, because our first inclination is to fight back. It also requires
faith, believing that God can work and accomplish His will in our lives and in
the lives of those who hurt us. We must give place to "the wrath"—the
wrath of God (Deuteronomy 2:35).
The admonition in Romans 12:20 reminds us of Christ's words
in Matthew 5:44-48. These words are easy to read but difficult to practice.
Surely we need to pray and ask God for love as we try to show kindness to our
enemies. Will they take advantage of us? Will they hate us more? Only the Lord
knows. Our task is not to protect ourselves but to obey the Lord and leave the
results with Him. Paul referred to Proverbs 25:21-22 as he urged us to return
good for evil in the name of the Lord. The "coals of fire" refer to the feeling of shame our enemies will experience when we return good
for evil. As children of God, we must live on the highest
level—returning good for evil. Anyone can return good for good and evil for
evil. The only way to overcome evil is with good. If we return evil for evil, we only add fuel to the fire. And
even if our enemy is not converted, we have still experienced the love of God
in our own hearts and have grown in grace.
