Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 11-14.

In today’s passage, Paul destroys the primary argument used by those who claim to follow Christ to hate Jews.  First, Paul starts by pointing out that God used the rejection of Christ by Jews to open the door for Gentiles to come to Him.  However, Paul points out that if God cut off those Jews who rejected Christ, He can also cut off those Gentiles who fail to remain faithful.  God desires to bring the Jewish people fully back into a relationship with Him.  There is more to what Paul writes on this than I can put into my own words.  Every year I read this passage and try to make the point I see in it and every year it feels like I fail to clearly state it.

That being said, I want to put my main focus on chapter 12 (and perhaps some of what comes after in today’s passage).  Actually as I try to compose my thoughts I realize that in this passage Paul’s wording makes his meaning crystal clear.  There is no real need to  spend much time rewording it to make it more clear.  First, we should offer our bodies up to God as a sacrifice.  If doing His will means pain, suffering, or even death, we should embrace that as an opportunity to return to Him a little bit of what He has given us.  That should lead us to allow the Holy Spirit to transform our minds and thoughts into those which imitate God and refuse to allow the world to mold us into its image.  Part of that transformation means looking for ways to bless those who persecute us, those who desire to see our faith broken.  Another part of that means not viewing ourselves us superior to others.  Let us not look down on others and be willing to do “menial labor”.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.