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

Many use the rejection of Jesus by Jews, which Paul references here, as an excuse to be hostile to Jews. or are hostile to Jews for other reasons.  Paul warns against that in today’s passage, reminding us that God chose them as His people.  Paul repeatedly tells us that we should not think of ourselves as better than others.  Here he warns us that while the rejection of Jesus by Jews opened the way for Gentiles to be welcomed into the family of God, Gentiles should not think that makes them better than those Jews who reject Jesus.  If the rejection of Jesus by some Jews resulted in them being cut off from God so that we could be adopted into His family, then, if we begin to believe that we are entitled to be in God’s family, we can be cut off to make room for them if they turn to Him.  There are other things to be learned from this, but the take away which I want to remind people of today is that there is no room for the followers of Jesus to be hostile to Jews.

In light of what God has done for us, Paul tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God.  In doing so, we invite the Holy Spirit to transform us by renewing our minds.  I am not sure I ever noticed that Paul refers to the transformation of our minds as “renewing”.  Renewing means returning it to what it was when it was new, before sin entered our lives.  So, let the Holy Spirit transform your mind, as I strive to let Him transform mine, into the likeness of God.  In light of the fact that it is the Holy Spirit which is transforming us into the likeness of God, not our own effort, we should not take attempt to take credit for our goodness.  We should not think of ourselves as better than others.  Each of us has been given gifts from God so as to fulfill His purposes in this world.  Which means that we also should not think of ourselves as less than others.  Whatever gift God has given us we should diligently employ it to accomplish His purposes in this world.

There is a lot more worth writing about in this passage, but I am going to end with one last thing which Paul writes here: live at peace with everyone, as far as it depends upon you.  Paul is not telling us that we have to live at peace with everyone, just that we should not be the ones who initiate the hostilities.  And, even if someone else initiates hostility with us, we should seek bringing those hostilities to an end.

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

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