These two chapters are full of practical wisdom for the people of the Roman church; instructions for godly conduct, the treatment of others, relationship to the government, and other sage advice. It is all wonderfully relevant to us today as well, and extremely practical.
Living Sacrifices
In light of the incredible redemptive work that God has done in our lives, Paul says that our spiritual act of worship is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice.
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. 2 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.If we think about it, the new life that we have been given should really permeate every aspect of our being; it is not just who we are part of the time, or something that takes effect when we die. The most reasonable response to the grace of God is to give our lives to His purposes with reckless abandon and complete surrender.
Members of One Body
It can be very easy to think of ourselves in a false manner; one error is to see ourselves as more valuable or important than our peers. We can also err on the other side and perceive ourselves as worthless and unimportant compared to others.
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. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.Just like the body, all of us have different roles and abilities in the family of Christ; it is not any more feasible to have a church made up of one type of person than to have a person made up of all elbows. We are not to misrepresent the value of ourselves based on our function either. The foot should not be jealous of the eye for its prominent role in front of everyone, and the eye should not be so arrogant as to think that it could be in front of everyone without relying on the support of the foot.
Christian Conduct
At the end of chapter 12, Paul delivers an impressive collection of wise instructions for Christian living. I couldn't possibly add anything to them, so instead I will list exactly what he said for your reading pleasure.
- Let love be genuine.
- Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
- Love one another with brotherly affection.
- Outdo one another in showing honor.
- Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
- Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
- Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
- Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
- Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
- Live in harmony with one another.
- Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.
- Never be wise in your own sight.
- Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
- If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
- Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God...
- Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
If we dwelt on these instructions every day and made an effort to act on them, I do believe we would make glorious the name of God.
Governing Authorities
Paul spoke to the Romans about their relationship to their government as well, which was often a point of great contention amongst believers:
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.This was undeniably blunt - he didn't preface or qualify his statement...he simply said "let every person be subject to the governing authorities." There are a variety of ways that people try to escape from this incredibly simple and unmistakable command; one might say that the mention of authorities instituted by God implies that he was referring to a theocracy or a divinely guided government, which doesn't apply to us. This is hopelessly inaccurate, as the government he was telling them to submit to had at times done things like serve Christians to raging lions as a form of free entertainment. Rome was anything but a theocracy. One might try to interpret Paul's statement as relevant only in the case of a just government, and that the duty to submit is dissolved once the government is corrupt. This again is a terrible case of rationalization - the government at the time of Paul's writing was full of injustice and persecution. Furthermore, every government is considered corrupt by at least some portion of the population - which portion is to be freed of their obligation?
The point that Paul is making is that God is sovereign - His kingdom will not fall due to the tyranny of an emperor or the legalization of gay marriage. We are to be subject to the governing authorities over us, as they are instruments of God's rule. They are made up of sinful people and do stupid things, but they are in a position of authority over us. The chain of command above us has God at the pinnacle, but the government is above us and performs God's purposes of enacting justice on evil and other functions.
Obviously Paul's instructions are not to be interpreted as "do everything the government tells you to do, even if it is against what God tells you to do." We are not to obey a government's command to commit genocide or to worship a political idol; that command would be null and void in light of the commands from God Himself.
We must be careful though to not let that obviously fallacious logic disguise itself in a more subtle form of rebellion in which we reject all of a government's authority based on a part of it being misaligned with God's nature. One example in our current climate would be the idea that we can cheat on our taxes because of our government's allowance of abortion. While abortion is indeed morally wrong, the fact that our government allows it does not give us justification to not pay our taxes.
Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.Bring it Together
After all of this specific wisdom, Paul brings it all together for us and summarizes all of the law in one easy to remember do-it-all saying:
[all of the commandments] are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.""But what about...well, how about...um..." No really, it does cover a lot of ground! Now where did Paul get such a wise phrase? Well, there was a guy from Nazareth that gained quite a following in his day...
All of the wisdom contained in this reading is not something that we can read once and immediately master; but if we are diligent to revisit it, to pray over it, and to dwell on it as we live our lives, we will surely live a life more worthy of the gospel.
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