‏ Romans 12

Summary for Rom 12:1-15:7: 12:1–15:13  ^a This section of Romans sets out the moral and ethical demands of the Good News. God’s gift of salvation in Christ requires a response. God is not satisfied simply with forgiving our sin; he wants to transform our lives. Most of what Paul teaches concerning the moral duties of believers is paralleled in other letters. However, it also seems clear that he has chosen issues pertinent to the situation in Rome—most notably, the dispute between people who are weak in faith and people who are strong in faith (14:1–15:13  ^b). 12:1  ^c Your bodies refers to the whole person in contact with the world, not just the physical body.

• because of all he has done for you: As described in chs 1–11  ^d.

• This is truly the way to worship him (or This is your spiritual worship; or This is your reasonable service): This phrase has at least three possible meanings: (1) Our sacrifice is reasonable in light of all God’s mercies; (2) our sacrifice is spiritual, not the offering of an animal but of ourselves in spiritual service; or (3) our sacrifice is intelligent, offered with complete awareness of God’s goodness to us.
12:2  ^e this world (literally this age): The division of history into two ages was typical of the Jewish worldview. Early Christians adapted this point of view, identifying the coming of Christ as the time when the new age of salvation began. Unexpectedly, however, the new age did not bring an end to the old age. The old way of thinking and living continues, and it is a source of temptation even to Christians who seek to conform their lives to the values of the new age.
12:3  ^f by the faith God has given us: Or by the faith God has given you; or by the standard of our God-given faith. Whether Paul is referring to the amount of faith each of us has been given or to the Christian faith that we all hold in common, we need to assess ourselves accurately by this measure and not be vain about the abilities God has given us.
Summary for Rom 12:4-5: 12:4-5  ^g so it is with Christ’s body: The parallel between the human body and the church—the body of Christ—is also found in 1 Cor 12  ^h. This metaphor provides an effective picture of unity and diversity in the church (cp. Livy, History 2.32; Epictetus, Discourses 2.10.4–5).
12:6  ⁱ The ability to prophesy was one of the most important of the New Testament gifts (see also 1 Cor 12:28  ^j; Eph 4:11  ^k). Although prophets are mentioned in several passages in Acts as predicting the future (see Acts 11:28  ^l; 21:10-12  ^m), the prophet’s most fundamental responsibility is to communicate God’s message to the community of believers (1 Cor 12:3  ⁿ, 24-25  ^o, 29-30  ^p; see also 1 Cor 14:1-40  ^q).

• as much faith as God has given you (literally in proportion to the faith): Proportion (Greek analogia) is a word drawn from mathematics and logic, where it refers to the correct proportions in a relationship among things, quantities, or ideas. Paul uses the phrase to remind prophets to make sure that their utterances are in right proportion to faith, whether the amount of individual faith the prophet has been given, or the Christian faith in general (see study note on Rom 12:3). This passage has given theology the phrase the analogy of faith, which refers to the importance of bringing the interpretation of any particular passage into line with the teaching of all of Scripture.
12:7  ^r teacher: The gift of teaching comes third in the list of gifts in 1 Cor 12:28  ^s and fifth in Eph 4:11  ^t. While prophets communicate to the community a message received directly from God, teachers address the church on the basis of studying the word of God.
12:8  ^u give generously: See also 2 Cor 8:2  ^v; 9:11  ^w, 13  ^x.
Summary for Rom 12:9-21: 12:9-21  ^y The many injunctions in these verses do not follow a neat logical arrangement. The overall topic, stated at the beginning, is sincere love. Paul shows how we are to love both those inside the church (12:10  ^z, 13  ^aa, 15-16  ^ab) and those outside the church (12:14  ^ac, 17-21  ^ad).
12:10  ^ae genuine affection: Literally brotherly love. Christians are to love each other with the mutual love and commitment that are found within a healthy family.
12:11  ^af but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically: As Christians, we are to be passionate about our faith and eager to fulfill our ministry to others within the church.
12:12  ^ag The three commands in this verse are related. By rejoicing in confident hope, we can be patient in trouble. Continually praying is essential if we desire to have this attitude toward the difficulties of life (see also 8:24-27  ^ah).
12:13  ^ai be ready to help them: The verb Paul uses is related to the familiar Greek word koinōnia (“fellowship”). When needs arise among our Christian brothers and sisters, we are not just to meet their needs; we should also enter into fellowship with these fellow Christians in ways that extend beyond material gifts.
12:14  ^aj The exhortations in this verse closely resemble two sayings of Jesus (Matt 5:44  ^ak; Luke 6:27-28  ^al). Although Paul does not introduce the commands as a quotation, he is almost certainly alluding to these sayings of Christ. Perhaps the words were so well known that he did not need to specify the source. The teaching of Rom 12–13  ^am has many parallels with the teaching of Jesus.
12:16  ^an All three exhortations in this verse use the Greek word phroneō (think). Paul addresses the need for right Christian thinking when it comes to our relationships with other Christians.

• Live in harmony: Literally Think the same things.

• Don’t be too proud: Literally Don’t think arrogant things.
12:18  ^ao Do all that you can: Paul recognizes that our efforts to live at peace with others will sometimes be frustrated by our own moral constraints or by other people’s unwillingness to be reconciled to us.
Summary for Rom 12:20-21: 12:20-21  ^ap A simple act of Christian kindness can often bring a hostile person to repentance before God and restore fellowship between people.

‏ Romans 13

Summary for Rom 13:1-2: 13:1-2  ^aq The basic command of 13:1-7  ^ar is to submit to governing authorities. In God’s ordering of the world, we answer to those in positions of authority. Our submission to them will usually take the form of obedience. However, because God stands over all governments, our submission to governing authorities must always be in terms of our ultimate submission to God (see Acts 4:19-20  ^as). The Roman Christians might have been resisting government (see study note on Rom 13:6) based on a false understanding of the Good News, as if no longer copying “the behavior and customs of this world” (12:2  ^at) meant that they could ignore earthly institutions.

• placed there by God: Scripture consistently teaches that God is actively involved in raising up and casting down human governments and leaders (1 Sam 2:6-10  ^au; 12:8  ^av; Prov 8:15-16  ^aw; Isa 41:2-4  ^ax; 45:1-7  ^ay; Jer 21:7  ^az, 10  ^ba; 27:5-6  ^bb; Dan 2:21  ^bc, 37-38  ^bd; 4:17  ^be). God instituted governing authorities, so rebelling against them is rebelling against God, who will respond with judgment (Rom 13:2  ^bf).
13:3  ^bg the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right: Paul presents a positive picture of the governing authorities, describing them in terms of what God has appointed them to do. He does not touch on situations where leaders punish those who do good and reward those who do evil, although he was certainly aware of such situations from Old Testament and Jewish history, from the experience of Jesus and the other apostles, and from Greco-Roman affairs. Here, Paul confines himself to discussing the appropriate response to governing authorities who live according to their calling.
13:4  ^bh servants (Greek diakonos): The New Testament usually reserves this word to describe Christians who serve God in various capacities. However, it was also used in secular Greek to refer to a civic official. Whether they know it or not, governing authorities are serving God when they administer justice.

• they have the power to punish you (literally they do not bear the sword in vain): The sword might simply be a metaphor for punishment of any kind, but some interpreters believe it suggests that human governments, under God’s authority, have the right to carry out capital punishment.
13:5  ^bi The two reasons for submission sum up the argument of 13:1-4  ^bj in reverse order: to avoid punishment relates to 13:3-4  ^bk, while to keep a clear conscience refers to 13:1-2  ^bl.

• The word conscience (Greek suneidēsis) refers to the painful knowledge of wrongdoing. Christians know about their duty to submit to governing authorities, and their failure to do so would bring the pain of a guilty conscience.
13:6  ^bm Pay your taxes: Jesus referred to paying taxes in his famous pronouncement about the disciples’ relationship to government (Matt 22:21  ^bn). A tax revolt occurred in Rome at about the time that Paul was writing, so Paul’s whole discussion of the Christian’s responsibility to government might have been sparked by his knowledge that Roman Christians were participating in this tax revolt (see Tacitus, Annals 13).
Summary for Rom 13:8-10: 13:8-10  ^bo These verses discuss how believers relate to other people. If we truly love others, our actions will reflect all the commandments in the law that concern our relationships with other people. 13:8  ^bp The idea of obligation is the hinge that connects 13:1-7  ^bq and 13:8-10  ^br. Christians are to “give to everyone what [they] owe them” (13:7  ^bs), and Christians always owe love to their neighbors.

• Owe nothing to anyone: Debts are not sinful but should be avoided and, if incurred, should be promptly repaid so that the believer is free to serve in love (see Prov 22:7  ^bt).

• love one another: Believers are called to love all those they encounter (Rom 12:14-21  ^bu; Luke 10:25-37  ^bv), but the phrase especially emphasizes the love that each believer owes to other believers.

• you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law: This teaching closely follows Jesus’ teaching in Matt 22:34-40  ^bw.
13:11  ^bx The New Testament often speaks of salvation as the final victory over sin and death that believers will experience when Jesus returns in glory (see 5:9-10  ^by).
Summary for Rom 13:12-13: 13:12-13  ^bz the day of salvation: The word day reflects two sources. First, the Old Testament repeatedly predicts the day of the Lord when God’s plan culminates (see Isa 13:4-13  ^ca; Jer 3:18  ^cb; 30:8-9  ^cc; Joel 2:1-32  ^cd; Obad 1:15-18  ^ce). Second, the tradition of moral instruction in the ancient world associated light/daytime with good and darkness/nighttime with evil. The Greeks, Romans, and Jews all used this contrast. Because believers belong to the day they should be living out its values, avoiding the dark deeds that are typical of nighttime.

‏ Romans 14

Summary for Rom 14:1-15:7: 14:1–15:7  ^cf Paul moves to a specific issue that was causing conflict in the church at Rome. The church in Rome was embroiled in a dispute between people who were weak in faith and people who were strong (see 15:1  ^cg) regarding certain practices. Throughout this section, Paul instructs believers to be tolerant toward others and their practices; he is convinced that people on both sides of the issue are genuine believers, and he does not think the issues they are fighting over are essential to the faith. 14:1  ^ch Being weak in faith means having scruples against doing certain things that Christian liberty would allow. In Rome, most of the weak in faith were Jewish Christians whose consciences did not give them liberty from certain requirements of Jewish law.
14:2  ^ci The weak in faith apparently believed that they should eat only vegetables. Their conviction probably stemmed from a concern to maintain Jewish ritual purity in the midst of a pagan culture. These Jewish Christians were following the lead of Daniel and his friends, who refused to eat the rich food and wine that the king of Babylon offered them (Dan 1:3-16  ^cj). Other Jewish sources reveal that pious Jews often restricted their diets in pagan cultures because they could never be sure that meat had been slaughtered according to Jewish requirements.
Summary for Rom 14:3-4: 14:3-4  ^ck look down on ... condemn: The “strong,” those who prided themselves on their enlightened freedom in Christ, looked with disdain on those they considered to be “weak.” The weak, in turn—certain that they were following the true route to piety—condemned the strong for their laxness. These attitudes, over different issues, are mirrored throughout the history of the Christian church.

• God has accepted them: Both the weak and the strong are genuine believers, welcomed by God into his family. Therefore, they have no right to treat each other as if they do not belong (14:4  ^cl; see also 15:7  ^cm).
14:5  ^cn some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike: The reference is probably to Jewish festival days and to the Sabbath; cp. Col 2:16  ^co. With Christ’s provision of salvation, observance of the Sabbath in its original form is not required of Christians.
14:7  ^cp As the Lord’s servants (14:4  ^cq), Christians are to look to God for guidance and seek to honor him in all things (14:8  ^cr). Because we are ultimately accountable to him, our desire should always be to please him, not to live for ourselves.
14:9  ^cs Paul refers to standard early Christian teaching on the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection (e.g., 2 Cor 5:15  ^ct).

• of the living and of the dead (literally of the dead and of the living): The original word order matches the sequence of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the redemptive events that make Jesus our Lord.
14:10  ^cu we will all stand before the judgment seat of God: Paul reminds the Roman Christians that it is the Lord, not other Christians, who will ultimately judge all of us (cp. 2 Cor 5:10  ^cv).
14:11  ^cw This quotation is from Isa 49:18  ^cx; 45:23  ^cy. In its original context, Isa 45:23  ^cz is surrounded by assertions of God’s sovereignty (Isa 45:22  ^da, 24  ^db). Only the sovereign God has the right to stand in judgment (Rom 14:10  ^dc, 12  ^dd).
14:13  ^de This verse acts as a bridge. Let’s stop condemning each other summarizes 14:1-12  ^df, while the concern about causing another believer to stumble and fall becomes the major emphasis of 14:14-23  ^dg.

• stumble and fall: This phrase originally applied to obstacles that could trip people as they walked, or to traps into which a person might fall. It is used metaphorically throughout the New Testament for behavior that might bring spiritual harm to another person (see 1 Cor 8:9  ^dh, 13  ^di; 1 Jn 2:10  ^dj; cp. Matt 21:42-44  ^dk; Luke 20:17-18  ^dl; Rom 9:32-33  ^dm; 1 Pet 2:8  ^dn).
14:14  ^do no food, in and of itself, is wrong to eat (literally nothing is common in itself): The word common signals that the root concern that Paul was addressing was Jewish purity regulations. Jews described food as common if it was not clean (i.e., not kosher), thereby causing a Jew to become ritually impure (see Lev 11  ^dp; cp. Mark 7:2  ^dq, 5  ^dr; Acts 10:14  ^ds). Paul again follows the teaching of Jesus that “every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes” (Mark 7:19  ^dt).

• for that person it is wrong: The truth that no food is wrong to eat was not easy for pious Jews to accept because they had been raised to honor God by avoiding certain foods. Paul urges those who are strong in faith not to force others to violate their consciences (cp. 1 Cor 8:1-13  ^du).
14:15  ^dv The word translated ruin (Greek apollumi, “destroy”) is often applied to eternal damnation (see 2:12  ^dw; Matt 10:28  ^dx; 18:14  ^dy; Luke 9:24  ^dz; 13:2-5  ^ea; John 3:16  ^eb; 10:10  ^ec, 28  ^ed; 1 Cor 1:18-19  ^ee; Jas 4:12  ^ef; 2 Pet 3:9  ^eg). By insisting on their freedom to eat whatever they want, the strong might cause sensitive Jewish Christians for whom Christ died to turn away from the faith.
14:20  ^eh The work of God refers both to the spiritual life of other Christians (14:15  ^ei) and to the Christian community itself (14:19  ^ej). The strong, with their dogged insistence on doing whatever they want, create division and disrupt God’s intention to build a healthy and united community of believers.
14:21  ^ek or drink wine: Jews sometimes abstained from wine to avoid the appearance of ritual contamination, since wine was used in pagan religious celebrations (see Dan 1:3-16  ^el).
14:22  ^em keep it between yourself and God: Paul did not contest the freedom of the strong believers, but he instructed them to limit the expression of their freedom out of love for fellow believers so that the whole Christian community could be built up.

• Blessed are those who don’t feel guilty: Guilt could come from harming the faith of the weak believers. Christian freedom is only worthwhile when it can be lived out without bringing such guilt.
14:23  ^en If you do anything you believe is not right, you are sinning: God’s word defines sin for us, yet sin also involves violating our conscience. The weak Christians in Rome did not yet believe in their own hearts that they could eat meat, drink wine, or ignore Jewish holy days; their consciences were still weak. They should not violate their consciences on these matters. Nor should the strong, by the power of their example or by their scorn, force weak Christians to do so.

‏ Romans 15:1-13

Summary for Rom 15:1-4: 15:1-4  ^eo We who are strong: Paul aligns himself with those he identifies as strong in faith, and he reveals that the division in the Roman church was not simply between Jews and Gentiles. Like Paul, some Jews had enlightened consciences and so were counted among the strong. Similarly, some Gentiles were so strongly influenced by Jewish teaching and tradition that they were among the weak in faith.

• must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this: This phrase is reminiscent of Gal 6:2  ^ep. Paul did not want the strong to simply put up with those who were weak in faith; rather the strong were to actively and sympathetically assist the weak in living out their Christian faith with integrity (see also Gal 5:13-15  ^eq).
15:2  ^er others (literally the neighbor): See Lev 19:18  ^es, quoted in Rom 13:9  ^et. Love for others should govern the conduct of people who are strong in faith.
15:3  ^eu This quotation is from Ps 69:9  ^ev.

• A number of passages in the New Testament use Psalm 69  ^ew to describe Jesus’ suffering (Matt 27:34  ^ex; Mark 15:35-36  ^ey; Luke 23:36  ^ez; John 15:25  ^fa; 19:28-29  ^fb). Paul’s quotation of just a small portion of that psalm evokes the whole experience of Jesus’ suffering.
15:4  ^fc Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us: All that God caused to be recorded in the Old Testament has supreme relevance to believers, who experience the fulfillment of God’s plan.
Summary for Rom 15:5-6: 15:5-6  ^fd live in complete harmony: This phrase (see study note on 12:16) refers to the whole orientation of how someone thinks. A mindset of harmony is important for Christian unity (see 12:3-5  ^fe, 16  ^ff; Phil 2:2-5  ^fg).
15:7  ^fh To accept each other means more than grudgingly putting up with each other. We are to welcome other believers, with all their flaws and sins, into our fellowship and treat them as family (see study note on 12:10), just as Christ has accepted us, with all our flaws and sins, into his fellowship and family (5:8-11  ^fi).
Summary for Rom 15:8-9: 15:8-9  ^fj Through Christ, God made it possible for Jews and Gentiles to join together to give glory to him in the new covenant people of God (see chs 9–11  ^fk). The issue of Jewish–Gentile relationships was fundamental to the dispute in the Roman church (14:1–15:7  ^fl).
Summary for Rom 15:9-12: 15:9-12  ^fm These quotations from the Old Testament all emphasize God’s promise that Gentiles would join with Jews in praising God. Gentiles are now full members of God’s people.