“Where Romans Lands” Summer Intensive with N.T. Wright was organized by Admirato.org.
Romans 12:3-16
3 Through the grace which was given to me, I have this to say to each one of you: don’t think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think. Rather, think soberly, in line with faith, the true standard which God has marked out for each of you. 4 As in one body we have many limbs and organs, you see, and all the parts have different functions, 5 so we, many as we are, are one body in the Messiah, and individually we belong to one another.
Living together in the Messiah
6 Well then, we have gifts that differ in accordance with the grace that has been given to us, and we must use them appropriately. If it is prophecy, we must prophesy according to the pattern of the faith. 7 If it is serving, we must work at our serving; if teaching, at our teaching; 8 if exhortation, at our exhortation; if giving, with generosity; if leading, with energy; if doing acts of kindness, with cheerfulness.
9 Love must be real. Hate what is evil, stick fast to what is good. 10 Be truly affectionate in showing love for one another; compete with each other in giving mutual respect. 11 Don’t get tired of working hard. Be on fire with the spirit. Work as slaves for the Lord. 12 Celebrate your hope; be patient in suffering; give constant energy to prayer; 13 contribute to the needs of God’s people; make sure you are hospitable to strangers.
Living alongside the world
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless them, don’t curse them. 15 Celebrate with the joyful, mourn with the mourners. 16 Come to the same mind with one another. Don’t give yourselves airs, but associate with the humble. Don’t get too clever for yourselves.
The Church is to be a blueprint into what it means to be truly human to our broken and dark world.
We think of our culture as having Judeo Christian values, but we are flattering ourselves. We have drifted back into normal pagan life.
Paul has a more beautiful vision with a remarkable ambition! We are One Body in the Messiah!
The Greeks saw the “polis” as a body with the magistrates being the head and the others being the limbs. Paul has a different idea in mind. There is no hierarchy at all. The Messiah is the Head and the rest of us are valuable part of the Body.
Paul changes up his metaphors to suit the point he is making. This shouldn’t concern us that the Body metaphor may be different in 1 Corinthians as it is in Ephesians just as we shouldn’t mind that the list of spiritual gifts changes from letter to letter.
Paul’s vision was genuinely revolutionary! He cast vision for a differentiated unity of the Church. We read it and see it as obvious, but when it was written, no one had envisioned life like this prior to this!
Grace cascades. God gives grace to one so that it cascades to others (12:3, 6).
If you worship that which is not God then you will contribute to the world’s brokenness.
If you worship the One True God then you will contribute towards the putting back to rights of all things.
Sacrificial living is the proper status for us before a holy, loving, and just God.
What Paul knows about the Messiah is why he has such high ambitions for the Church!
Messiah-people will change the world!
The Church needs prophetic leadership in the pattern of Gospel faith. Teaching was especially necessary as many Gentiles had not idea about the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus was their focus and reason for existence. They knew His presence personally and when they were together. 150 years after Paul, some of the stories of Jesus began to drift away from the real story so teaching was especially important. Many of the early church began to learn how to read to be able to connect with God through the Hebrew Scriptures.
The early church didn’t look like religion as we might think of it. They were gathering to celebrate that Jesus was alive and now reigning over a new Kingdom.
Exhortation overlaps with teaching and may be thought of today as a sort of encouragement. It has more to do with helping people live out the truths of Scripture.
The other gifts represent different tasks to be accomplished. Serving the needs of others was important followed by giving. Then comes leadership which is further down the list than you might think. Mercy is included in this list as well.
The normal Roman world was all about the display of wealth and competing against others.
Paul focused on the relationships within the believing community in Romans 12:9-13. He then addresses the relationships we have with the pagan world outside of the Church.
How do you love someone when you do feel like it?
Begin by behaving as if you did really love them. (C.S. Lewis)
Paul wanted our motivation to come from an awareness of the love of God.
“Hate the evil and hold to the good” implies that within us we know good from bad through our conscience.
“Loving affectionate and mutual delight” and “compete with each other in honoring each other” rather than knocking others down which was the Roman way.
Learn how to celebrate, be patient in suffering, always in prayer, generous with others, and eager to welcome strangers (the opposite of xenophobia).
Jesus taught us what to do when we are persecuted, and Paul continues that way of living. Cursing someone was the expected norm for responding to adversity. The Maccabees cursed their enemies. Instead, followers of Jesus are to leave at peace and bless those who oppose us.
Followers of Jesus aren’t supposed to remain aloof but join in the celebrations and the funerals of our neighbors.
There was very little privacy in the ancient world. There were small homes and tiny streets. Everyone knew everyone around them.
The Epicureans would tell you to detach from all the petty things around them.
The Stoics would tell you to be indifferent to all human emotions.
The Platonists would have focused more on their own cultivation of virtues and cared less about this world.
Paul wanted followers of Jesus to be engaged with their community just as we see Jesus celebrating at a wedding and weeping with those mourning the death of Lazarus.
We are to choose a new way of thinking with humility and consideration of others who are also image-bearing humans (Romans 12:3, 16). This is a radical difference than the rest of society.
We are to think differently! When we worship the One True God (Romans 12:1-2) means denouncing all self-aggrandisement and choosing humility just as Jesus did.
Love without expecting a return was new! Charity was transactional. This is not a private pursuit (like the Platoists) but a community-approach to living. The grace flows through the community to those around them.
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
– G.K. Chesterton
Paul knew that living this new way would attract new members. Christianity is a team sport!
Use Romans 12 as a checklist for the way to live as a Gospel community!
Failure in worship leads to the failure of justice. Worshiping right leads to treating others right!
The new age has begun with the resurrection of Jesus! The new age way of life seems impossible; therefore, it requires full surrender to Jesus in all areas of our lives!
