Category Archives: Romans

Romans 13:1-7 – under the authority under God

Context

Romans 1:16-17 Know the gospel. Paul is so impressed by the gospel of God – the good news that is the all God’s work to save us. We are saved by faith and credited the righteousness of Jesus. How incredible is that!

Romans 12:1-2 The gospel is life changing. So, the knowledge of God’s mercy and grace will affect our lives. You can’t embrace the gospel without seeing how transforming it is on us. God has shown us such great love and we are now devoted to him because of it.

Romans 12:9-21 The change is a reflection of who God is. Our lives will be defined by love – sincere, genuine, true blue love – the kind of love that comes from the Father.

Romans 12:19-21 Our knowledge of God allows us to love others and let God avenge evil. God is the ultimate authority in the whole universe. The logic behind loving our enemies is that God will bring justice when the time is right – leave it to him. With the ultimate almighty God on the side that we are now on, where does that leave us in relation to the authorities in this world – how should we relate to governments?

Also, if we are to live at peace with all and to love our enemies, how can God maintain justice in this age?

Observation

Verses 1-2 – notice how often the word ‘authority’ appears in these to verses. The authority in view here are the rulers of your culture and city and country etc. it refers to those who, mostly, are elected by the people to be in charge. But notice who is ultimately in authority over all of this process. God is always in charge and no matter who is in power at any time, they are in power because God has allowed it, he has ordained it and he has, to some degree, orchestrated it. These verses tell me that the people in authority are hands and legs for God. They are established by God and instituted by Him.

So living out of sync with the government is to live out of sync with God. You can’t rebel against the government without making the statement that you do not trust God.
Question

It won’t surprise me if every Growth Group will have somebody ask something like: what if the government is evil or communist or unfair or money hungry or….? There’s no doubt that there will be examples that we can either invent or recount that would make this instruction difficult. What do the words say though? They tell us that it is God who has instituted and established these authorities. God does not make mistakes. The promise is not for godly governments but for God ordained authority. We diminish God’s sovereignty if we claim that some governments are in power that God would not have put there. So, governments serve God in bringing order and justice (with a little ‘j’ to this world).

The Christian is just as subject to the land’s authority as the next person but even more so when they learn here that doing so is to be obedient to God.

Verses 3-4 – The rulers of this age serve God to protect those who follow the law and to judge those who break it. Even though we Christians have direct access to speak with God and request his help in all things, we are also subject to the laws of the land. God is not the God of disorder but of order. He will use even an ungodly government to serve his purposes.

Verse 5 – here is the sum of it all. Two reasons for submitting to government: a) they have the power and right to punish us if we do not submit and b) God has put them there and rebelling against them is to rebel against God.

Verses 6-7 – the words here are straight forward. Notice though that we are told here that we owe the government! We pay taxes because we owe them for the work that they do. They are God’s servants but they are also ours. Without them, we have anarchy or strife or mayhem or…I don’t know. It is God’s plan that we operate under the authority of others.

Don’t bad mouth the government. Don’t skimp on taxes or whinge that we have them. But go beyond paying taxes by paying the government respect and honour. Even in our Australian culture of cutting down the tall poppies, we Christians have a call from God to pay respect and honour to those who govern us.

Meaning

What we have here is an insight into how God governs from above. He orders the affairs of people to accomplish his will.

The bible has many examples of how this all works. Daniel was a man of God who worked in close relationship with the kings of Babylon. He respected the kings in everything that he did. He showed respect and honour and served the king more impressively than any of the other men in the king’s court. Only when a law was made that directly offended God did Daniel choose to obey God over the King. Daniel’s reputation was not of a man who rebelled against authority, but of a man who was always God’s man first.

Joseph has a similar story to Daniel. He always did his best to serve whoever he was a servant to. It didn’t matter that he came from the chosen people of God. He found himself, under God’s will, to be subject to Pharoah. And he obeyed.
Even Moses showed respect to Pharoah while following the commands of God to request that the people of Israel be set free.

It’s Isaiah 46:11 that captures the interaction between God’s plans and man’s plans. In that verse, a man of prey is summoned from the east to fulfill God’s purposes. This was an enemy of Israel that God called upon to conquer Israel for their rebellion. The army that defeated Israel would not feel like they were accomplishing God’s will – they just feel how powerful they are in their ignorance of the almighty. But God knows that they are doing exactly what God has designed for them to do. This is the sovereignty of God.
Finally, The Lord Jesus Christ stood before governor Pilate and submitted to the punishment that Pilate ordered to occur. Jesus respectfully informed Pilate that He was not jus ‘a’ king but the one with all authority. He said this calmly and Pilate concluded that there is no guilt in Jesus. Read John 19:11, 35-37 at least to see some interaction between Jesus and Pilate as the one in authority being questioned by the one who was placed in authority by Jesus.

We live in a world where people are n charge. The Christian faith celebrates this and recognises it as a gift from God.

Application

Our governments are really great. We have plenty of avenues to question them, request change from them, disagree with them and vote against them. These can all be done in a perfectly legal way that doesn’t involve assassination or civil war. Praise God for the order that we have in this country.

Pray for our government that they will be fair, wise and just. That they will care for the vulnerable and only ask from their country what they need to ask.

Speak well of all the politicians. Agree or disagree but do it with great respect and honour.

Know that God has got everything under control. This really is the underlying point of the seven verses. Nothing is above God.

Prayer for the week

Sovereign Lord, we pray for your guidance over those who are in authority in this land. We thank you for the peace that we enjoy and ask that this will continue. Please help our governments to be wise and thoughtful in their decision making. Help us too, Father, to respect, honour and care for our governments by the words we use of them, the way we interact with them and the taxes that we owe to them. Amen.

Romans 12:9-21 – Keep to the left of evil!

Context

Romans 1:17 told us that ‘the righteous will live by faith.’ Paul took us through the content of that faith in chapters 1-11 to say that we must devote our trust in God fully for our righteousness. Chapter 12:1-2 began the new phase of Paul’s teaching on how to take this faith into the rest of your life. We are to offer God our bodies and our minds. The way that we use both of these parts of us: what we DO and what we THINK are to be given to God and moulded by the truth of faith. God is God and we are his creatures that needed rescuing.

This next section of Romans continues the theme of how to live out our faith around other people. Although God is in the business of saving and forming his church (the body of Christ, verses 3-8) we also need to live in a world which still hates God.

Observations

The NIV breaks these verses up into 3 paragraphs plus an indented quote. The ESV divides the passage into 2 paragraphs only (9-13 + 14-21). It’s interesting to work out where the paragraph breaks should go, if anywhere! Do you see any clear reasons for breaks?

Verse 9 opens with the charge to love and not to take part in evil. Verse 21 wraps up the whole section with a similar sentiment: don’t be swallowed by evil but kill it with the energy of good. So, the whole section seems to lean toward embracing the light side and staying away from the dark! There is a vibe of combating evil with good instead of with evil. As if two wrongs don’t make a right. If evil comes barging up behind you, huffing and puffing and blowing out smoke from its ears, keep to the left and let evil pass!

The section seems to offer a list of examples and areas of life where love is put into practice and evil is left for God to take care of. The message is: don’t take part in it.

So, let’s go through the verses and see what we see.

Verse 9. Remember the binary use of the words love and hate back in Rom 9:13. Love doesn’t refer only to those things that you are passionate about and hate only those things that you are passionate against. You are either for something or against it. Often when reading the scriptures we need to look into the way that the bible writers use words and not rely on our contemporary use of them.

Having said that, we are told that love needs to be more than just ‘an act of your will.’ Verse 9 tells us that love must be sincere. The ESV uses the word, ‘genuine.’ Not faked or pretend but something that you earnestly want to portray and practice. We can’t pretend to be Christians and we can’t pretend to love others. If this is a struggle with you and somebody else, then pray about that. Ask for God’s help as you put your trust in Him to sanctify your relationships.

‘Hate what is evil.’ This shouldn’t be misunderstood as ‘hate those who are evil’ since later (v14) we are instructed to ‘bless those who persecute you.’ But verse 9 must be talking about the practice of evil. Hate and abhor it. The positive reaction to evil is to ‘cling to what is good.’ Paul says elsewhere to focus on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy (Phil 4:8). Don’t gaze at the negative and try to hate it, but set your eyes on the good things in life – the things that God blesses. Distract evil with good.

Verse 10. I like the way the ESV puts this verse: ‘Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honour.’ It’s great to see family members getting along peacefully and enjoying one another. This may happen too rarley (!) but when it happens, it’s beautiful. We’re not being told to just love your brother though, we’re told to love one another. The way you do that is to put the other person first. Compete to see who can elevate the other higher! Encouraging one another like verse 7 said is a great way to promote honour and respect. How can we put that challenge into action?

Verse 11. Being fervent is to show passionate intensity – hot, burning or glowing! What a description of how to be spiritual! The question is, have you ever been this? We all display emotions and passions differently, so this really is a question for you to ask of yourself: am I passionate about the gospel? Am I 100% for King Jesus. Verse 11 defines zeal and spiritual fervour as ‘serving the Lord.’ Is this a priority to you? At home and at work and on the beach and in the city – do you do all things out of a clear understanding and dedication of your faith. Jesus said to ‘seek first the kingdom of God’ (Matt 6:33). Do you remember the zeal you had when you first became a Christian? Do you remember the passion you had for God when/if you were a teenage or young adult Christian? Has life and responsibility squashed that? The warning of the parable of the four soils will tell us that zeal for the gospel is important, or else the business of life will push it out of our minds and lower on our priority list.

How can you fan the flame of your passion and zeal for God? I listened to a good sermon today online and it reminded me of something I had not thought of for a while – it put a smile back into my faith.

Verse 12. ‘Be joyful in hope.’ I could write pages on these four words! It is hope that ought to give us joy! To think that we would not be joyful in hope is odd but then Paul thinks that this needs to be spelled out. There is no reason why we should think of all the promises of God that we look forward to in the resurrection and not produce joy in us. But, it’s one thing to know the content of the gospel and quite another to know that the gospel is for you! It’s one thing to know that Jesus died on the cross for sins – quite another to know that Jesus died on the cross for YOUR sins. It’s one thing to know that heaven will be a great place (I suppose) quite another to know that Jesus has gone away to prepare a place for YOU and he prayed for YOU while he thought about going to the cross (John 17). Like a child who can’t stop smiling on Christmas eve, our faith, when we meditate on it, when we talk about it, when we hear encouragement from one another about it, our faith is a prepaid eternity of rest and play. There might be a long time to wait for it, but the thought of it should warm our hearts and make us smile.

When afflicted: be patient like a person who knows there is relief coming.

Your prayers: constant, unshaken, trusting in the one who is listening.

Verse 13. Two more aspects of love is to share and to welcome. Both of these things we are simply told to do.

Verses 14-16. I’d like to make a broad statement about these 3 verses. They seem to tell us to embrace everyone. If someone is attacking you: embrace them. If someone is celebrating: cheer on their team. If someone is crying out: give them your shoulder. If someone seems different to you: be a chameleon and become like them. Don’t distinguish yourself from everybody else but sing with them.

Verses 17-20. The sentences on their own here are fairly straight forward and clear – it’s the principle that might be hard to understand. The principle comes down to who the Judge of this earth is – and it is God. Deuteronomy 32:35 is quoted in verse 19 as well as Proverbs 25:21,22. Our job is to be God’s holy people who were called out of darkness to live in the light and be a light to the world. It is God’s business to avenge and he will do it very well. When we show compassion and love and kindness and care in the face of hostility and anger and hate, then, if that person doesn’t repent and turn to Christ, it will be like adding heat to the fire on judgement day. When Jesus told the crowd to love their enemy, he didn’t intend for the enemy to get away with everything. He just meant to leave the justice to God.

Verse 21. It will harm us when we get into battle to fight against evil to try and overpower it. We will be swept up in the same evils. The best tool against evil is to embrace righteousness. Replace evil with good.

Meaning

  • Love, in all it’s forms, is the best weapon we have.
  • Love and hate; light and dark; good and evil; our choice is not to convert the latter but to be the former.
  • Don’t focus on what HATE and EVIL isn’t – focus on what LOVE IS!

Application

  • There are many applications here. The trick is to move beyond the general principle and to put some real examples into place.
  • Cling to what is good. Keep passionate about serving the Lord. Show love to those around you. Practice being good.
    • How do you practice being good in the church and in Growth Group?
    • How do you practice being good in the workplace?
    • How do you practice being good while commuting?
    • How do you practice being good in the shopping centre?
    • How do you practice being good in your own home?

Prayer for the week

Dear Father God, we praise you for the example of the Lord Jesus Christ who succeeded in all the challenges that Paul lists for us this week. We ask for your Spirit to guide us, to teach us and to provoke us toward love and good deeds. Because of the mercy that we have received and learned from you, help us to show love and mercy to everybody we meet. Thank you for the hope you have placed in our hearts. Help us to cling to that hope with all the joy that it brings. Amen.

 

Romans 12:3-8 – thinking highly of God’s grace on the church

Context:

The blog has been at rest for a few weeks due to school holidays. Although the schools across NSW have been back for a week now, many groups have chosen to use this first week back as a social time where we get to know one another better and just have some laughs. If that is not the case for you, then I hope you enjoyed Romans 12:1-2 together without the blog behind you.

We have been reading through all of Romans this year and have reached chapter 12. I’m sure that any commentary you picked up on the book of Romans would describe how chapters 12 and onwards (minus some personal greetings in chapter 16) are focused on the outworkings of the first eleven chapters. That is, given how huge and generous God’s mercy is, this is now how you are to act. You could describe chapters 12-16 as the practical part of Romans. You could, but don’t be mislead to thinking that there is no more theology in them, nor that there was a desert of application in chapters 1-11!

Given the abundance of God’s mercy, 12:1-2 tells us to present ourselves willingly to the Lord with all we’ve got. True spiritual worship is to know the mind of God and mould our minds to his. True spiritual worship is to reflect and feed on the word of God, learning of his mercies and give him everything we’ve got. So what does THAT look like? Welcome to verse 3…

Observation:

Verse 3: Paul has something to teach us now and his credentials are simple...’by the grace given him.’ In verse 7 he will exhort all who are given the gift of teaching to teach! He is exercising this gift at verse 3. His gift, by grace, is to teach – and so that is what he will do. It’s not by some authority that he has to lord it over others. He doesn’t think of himself as more important than his readers. He’s not their priest or father – remember how he longed to be with them in Rome back in chapter one so that they could mutually feed on one another’s faith. He has been given the gift to teach. But more on that later.

He teaches us to ‘not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment.’ The context makes this clear – God has shown us great mercy – don’t pretend that you are a champion all on your own. Our sinful nature will try to convince you that you are something great and someday the world will stop and wonder why they never noticed such an amazing person like you sooner. You’ll be on the front cover of TIME magazine and interviewed every time public opinion is needed. The reality is though, that even the things that you are good at, are gifts given to you by God. We are told by Paul to ‘think of yourself with sober judgment.’ Give yourself a reality check. Your time here on earth is short, it is unlikely that you will do anything of huge earthly significance and even if you do (like invent the hover-board before 2015) you won’t be remembered for all that long and who cares if you are! You’ll not be around to enjoy the benefits. But God has given us this time on earth to listen to His Son, to receive Him as Lord and Saviour and to influence the small crowd that you interact with in your life so that they too will hear and receive the mercies of God. That’s sober-minded. And what an amazingly important and crucial thing you will be doing by working for the Lord for eternal treasures!

Added to this, Paul says, ‘in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.’ This could mean that different people are given different measures of faith and some are called to do greater things than others. This isn’t the way that faith is described in the bible, however, as it is not to do with the size of our faith but with the object that our faith is directed toward. I believe it means, on the other hand, that we are to have a sober mind with the amount of understand faith God has given you! That is, cast your eyes over the view of God’s mercies – they are plenty and they are wonderful. As you look at that view, be sober minded. Your faith is in the unmeasurable depths of God’s grace and mercy. That’s how sober minded you ought to be. Do you understand God’s mercy? Then by the faith you have put in these mercies, consider how level headed you ought to be about your own priority. Everybody in the church around you has received the same amount of grace and mercy if they have turned to Christ. Don’t think you are any better than anybody you worship alongside. We do have various degrees of maturity in the church, however – those who have considered the mercies of God longer and those who are weakened by the pull, the hardship and the temptations of this world. This leads us to the metaphor of the church.

Verse 4: This verse is the first half of a metaphor and describes the image of the metaphor. The church of Christ is a body – think of your own body – we are not blobs made up of identical cells but we are a complex creature with many different limbs and organs and functions and purposes. Paul has used this metaphor in his other letters: 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 and Ephesians 4:16.

Verse 5: The metaphor of the body refers to the church. The qualification for being part of the church is that you be ‘in Christ.’ That is, of the same faith that Paul has been describing since chapter one. If you depend on Christ Jesus for your salvation and your relationship with God for eternity then you are part of the church. If you declare with your lips that Jesus is Lord and if you believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you have been grafted into the body of Christ. Do you have to go to church in order to be part of it? No and YES! How can you be a healthy part of the body unless you are interacting with the body. If I leave my foot behind and let it fend for itself, unattached to my leg  – it will die! Each member of the church belongs to all the others! Think on that! If you are in Christ, then you belong to the other members of the church!

Verses 6-8: Several gifts are mentioned in this section but all are introduced with the simple lesson that gifts are gifted from God – by grace. Merited to those who don’t deserve them!

Prophesying: this is not to be understood as someone who can predict the future. It should be understood as someone who is able to speak the words of God into the culture and times that they are in. See the explanation of Aaron as a prophet to Moses in Exodus 7:1-2. The focus of prophecy in Numbers 12:6-8 is not the method of prophecy (visions and dreams) but that God speaks to them and they are God’s mouthpiece. See Deuteronomy 18:15-22 on the purpose of a prophet – to speak only what the Lord has told them to say. Lastly, know that God has spoken now through his Son (Hebrews 1:1-4). The Word of God has come and the Holy Scriptures have been written down (2 Tim 3:15-17). What we need now is not people who can give us new dreams and visions but those who can correctly handle the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15)! We call them preachers.

‘In proportion to his faith.’ This is tricky. It seems to reflect the similar phrase in verse 3. This can be understood to mean that those who speak the words of God are to reflect the understanding of faith that they have received. A young prophet or preacher will be less informed by wisdom than an older preacher. Young preachers ought to have a sober mind about how much they know. (NB: I will be doing some more commentary work on this phrase later this week for myself to try and be more confident in this understanding).

Serving: a servant is someone who assists and cares for the needs of their master. The idea of service ought to be as common in the church as pews. On the night of the last supper, Jesus washed his disciples feet and told them to do likewise – not to become feet washers but to serve one another. Don’t treat yourself as more highly than anyone else. Ultimately, we are called to love our neighbour as ourselves – this is the act of service through love (Gal 5:13-14). Paul describes himself as a servant of God (Rom 1:9; 2 Tim 1:3) and describes those who preach the word in the church as servants (1 Cor 9:13-14), and Peter describes those who oversee the things done in the church as servants (1 Peter 5:2). All of us in the church are called on to serve – in fact, whatever gift you have been given by God must be used to serve others (1 Peter 4:10).

Teaching: If God has given you the gift to teach then teach. Don’t keep your knowledge in and deny others of the learning that you have. This is why we have theological colleges, and this is also why we have the church, so that we can be equipped by the preachers and teachers of the church to grow in maturity of faith together (Eph 4:12 onwards). But be sure to put this test in place: do not think yourself more highly than you ought and teach others under the guidance of faith.

Encouraging: this simply means to give somebody else courage! To build them up and help others to have strength in all of life – to keep the faith and to fight the good fight. This can be done by words or by letters on a card or by an arm over someone’s shoulder. Thank God that he gives us people in the church that can encourage us when we are feeling week or low – does your Growth Group have this kind of a culture?

Contributing to the needs of others: if you are quipped to give to the needs of others, remember the generosity that God showed you in providing for your needs. The grace of God is to produce the graciousness of His people. The generosity of God is our model.

Leadership: Note two things – 1) the NT instructs us to have leadership in our churches. They are given titles like overseers  who over see everything in order to protect and guide and pastor the flock and like deacons  who are described as servants. Our greatest leader, the Lord Jesus Christ did not come to be served but to serve. So leadership is not tyrannical but there is a definite place for leaders in the church who have a proven background of faith, self-control and care for others. 2) given that there are leaders in the church, it is right for those who are not leaders to regard their leaders with respect and love. If you are to be a leader, then be a good leader. If you have someone leading you in your faith, then let them govern and support you in every way that you can. They are God’s gift to you as you are a gift to them.

Showing mercy: aren’t we all called to show mercy? The challenge is for us to do it cheerfully. Be slow to anger and abounding in love. Show mercy in view of the mercies of God.

Meaning:

The gifts listed in this passage are not exhaustive but they are also not very rare! Who of us are NOT called to serve, encourage, contribute to the needs of others and show mercy? You could also say that so many of us are given the privilege of preaching the word of God in our homes, therefore prophesying; teaching others; and leading others in our homes or ministry teams. All of these gifts and any other gift that you can imagine must be practiced with humility before God and with love to one another.

As a saved people, we ought to view one another as parts of the same body. Love one another and serve. Anything that you have to contribute ought to be done knowing that God has raised you from the dead and you are now partnering with others who have also been raised from the dead.

By the grace of God in Christ, we are the church of God in Christ, and each of us belongs to one another. (23 words – can you summarise this in less words?)

Application

The word humility comes to mind here. The word does not mean to put yourself down or to refrain from being good at anything or think of yourself as a good for nothing. It means to refrain from boasting. It means to act without seeking reward. It means being aware of your ability and deciding to put it to use for the sake of others over yourself. These are my words to define humility… Here’s what John Dickson writes, “Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status and use your influence and resources for the good of others before yourself.” Anyone in the world can practice being humble. But this passage calls us to be humble through our clear recollection of God’s grace shown on us. When we act and plan, consider what God has done for you.

The church is the place to serve. Our modern educated mind will fight this idea and try to explain that we live in a bigger world today – that because of the internet our communities can be spread right across the globe. Why then keep supporting the local church of yester-year. Life is also much more hectic these days and there is less time in our weeks to give to the local church. I can be a Christian in every little external community that I have. These thoughts confine church to being a man-made society which is becoming or has already long become out-dated. That might be exactly the way the world sees church – but God sees the church (the local gathering of believers that represent the greater universal church) as an essential nurturing place for Christians. Everyone in Christ belongs to one another. It is the place to hear the word of God, to be served by your brothers and sisters, to learn and grow in your Christian understanding, to be encouraged, to receive help when in crisis, to find guidance from wiser and maturer Christians and to be accepted even when you don’t feel you should. It is also the place to take the things that God has nurtured in you and to share those with others.