Tag Archives: Romans 11-14

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2021 Bible Study — Do Not Conform To This World

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.

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2020 Bible Study Allowing God’s Spirit to Transform Us Into His Image

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

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

The beginning of today’s passage contains a great explanation of why Christians who hate Jews are not true Believers.  Paul’s basic point is that the Jews are still God’s Chosen people.  God has used the rejection by many of the Jews to call Gentiles to Himself, but in due time He will reclaim the Jewish people as His own.  I think a careful examination of what Paul writes here reveals a lot about God’s plan for Jew and Gentile alike.  He cut those Jews who rejected His salvation through Christ off from Him in order to make room for Gentiles.  Yet, if they turn once more to Him, He will make room for them.  Ultimately, it seems to me that Paul is saying that we need to be careful not to make the same mistake towards the Jews which some of them made towards the Gentiles: the mistake of thinking that they (or we) were better than others on account of God’s mercy towards them (or us).  God wished to use the Jews to show His love to all people, but they (but not all of them) chose to attempt to hoard God’s love for themselves.  They chose to look at others as rejected by God.  Let us not make the same mistake.  The mistake of thinking that God does not still love His prodigal sons and daughters.

In order to avoid that mistake, we must allow God’s Spirit to transform us into a new person by changing the way we think.  We need to avoid letting ourselves copy the thoughts and behaviors of our society.  Part of that transformations is to not think of ourselves as more than we are.  I am no better than anyone else, and they are no better than I.  As Believers, each of us are part of the Body of Christ.  Each of us has been given different gifts by God in order to fulfill His purpose.  Whatever gift God has given us, let us use to the fullest of our ability.  One gift that we each have is the ability to love others.  So let us truly love others, even those who persecute us. Let us pray for them and ask God to bless them.  When people do wrong to us, we should not attempt to repay them in kind.  Instead, we should remember that Jesus’ rule was, “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.”  Not, “Do unto others as they have done to you.”

There are two more things in this passage I would like to cover, but I think I am only going to get to one of them.  Paul tells us that we should submit to the governing authorities.  Those who have positions of authority have been placed there by God, even those who may have broken laws to get there.  So, we should accept their authority.  Of course, we must temper that submission to those authorities with what Peter and the other Apostles told the Sanhedrin, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”  So, while we should obey the governing authorities, we must remember the limits to their authority.  And Paul gives us guidance in determining how to identify those limits.  Let us act with true love towards everyone, any command from the governing authorities which would lead us to act outside of love for others is outside of the bonds to which we are bound to submit.

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2019 Bible Study — God Loved Us Even Though We Did Not Deserve It, So We Should Love Those We Think Don’t Deserve It

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

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

Paul continues his discussion of the paradox between our free will and God’s providence.  Our salvation is not the result of any action we have taken and therefore not something which we deserve.  Rather we were saved by God’s grace and mercy because He chose us.  Yet, we must be careful because if we stop having faith, and acting accordingly, God will reject us as He has rejected those who refused His free gift.  Even the fact that God has chosen us does not make us better than others.  Paul’s entire point here is to address a very human tendency: the desire to elevate ourselves above others, to find some way to claim that we are better than other people.  Sometimes, we do that by claiming to be worse than they, to be a better sinner than those others.  This even forms the basis for the problem Paul addresses when he tells us not to condemn others.  If our purpose in telling others that what they do is to tell them, “I am better than you because I do not do THAT,” (whatever THAT is) then we are failing to truly love our neighbor.

In chapter 12 Paul brings all of this together.  I have already touched on his instructions that we should not think more of ourselves than we really are.  We should love each other with genuine affection, not just going through the motions of how we think we should treat others, but actually caring about them.  As an aside I want to note that you cannot truly care about those whom you have never encountered.  In order to follow Paul’s instruction to truly care for others we need to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us.  Otherwise we will find ourselves conforming to behaviors and norms which our society claims are correct.  Those behaviors and norms are those of people who choose to think of themselves as better than others, who choose to think that only some people are deserving of love.  When we should know full well that none of us are deserving of love, but God loved us anyway.  Which is why we should love others, especially those we are tempted to believe are not deserving of love.

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2018 Bible Study — Do Not Conform, Be Transformed

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

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

    Paul discusses his desire for all Jews to accept Jesus as their Savior. Today, we often speak of trying to convert Jews to Christianity. Paul did not see that as something to be attempted because he believed that putting faith in Jesus was a natural result of faithfully following Judaism. Paul tells us that at all points in history there will be a number of Jews who faithfully follow God and accept Jesus as Lord. He also prophecies that at some point all Jews will come to the Lord. However, my biggest takeaway from Paul’s writing here on Jews is that you cannot be a faithful follower of Jesus and hate Jews.

    I want to write about chapter twelve because I think it contains some of the most important advice for Christians there is. However, I am unsure what to write because this is one place where what Paul writes is so clear and concise. All too often, we as Christians fail to listen to what he says here and allow ourselves to blend in. One of the most effective ways to reach unbelievers is to live our lives in a way which causes them to ask us, “Why are you different?” Paul is really quite clear. If we do not allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds, and thus transform us, we will conform to the patterns of those around us. Paul does not leave us to guess what that transformation would look like and he tells us how we can invite that transformation. The first step is to have an honest, accurate view of ourselves, not thinking ourselves better than others and recognizing that God has made us valuable to Him where and how we are. Whatever gifts He has given us we must put into use to the best of our ability, not spending our time attempting to do things which require gifts which God has not given us. Those who have been transformed bless those who persecute them and repay evil with good.

    I considered passing over the end of today’s passage partly because I am running out of time and partly because it is difficult to reconcile with the need to hold our brothers and sisters in Christ accountable to His word. Paul here tells us not to argue over “disputable” matters. He gives as examples of such matters, the issue of what is appropriate to eat or drink and celebrating holy days. On the issue of food and drink, I believe that Paul is referring both to Jewish kosher law and dealing with the issue of food sacrificed to idols (which he discusses in more details in his letters to the Corinthians). The important point about what he teaches here is that we should not attempt to force those who feel the need for more strict rules to abandon those rules just because we believe they are unnecessary. The key here is that those of us with a stronger faith should accommodate the beliefs of those with a weaker faith. In other words, if what you are arguing for is not fundamental to being a follower of Christ, you should drop the argument. Failing to drop the argument is a tacit admission that your faith is weaker than the person you are arguing with.

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2017 Bible Study — Do Not Conform To The World, Instead Be Transformed By The Holy Spirit

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

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

    Paul tells us that many of the Jews of his day had failed to accept God’s grace because they wished to attain salvation by their own good works. Many people today make the same mistake, both among those who call themselves Christian and in the world in general. However, salvation can only be obtained by accepting God’s free, and undeserved, grace. We can never do enough good works to earn our salvation, and trying to do so is a rejection of God’s freely offered grace. Those Jews who insisted on trying to earn salvation, and thus rejected God’s grace, were broken off from the vine which is God’s family and those Gentiles who accepted God’s freely offered gift were grafted on to that vine in their place. Fortunately, this is where that metaphor breaks down, there is room enough that should they, or any others, realize their mistake and accept God’s freely offered gift of salvation there is room for them to be grafted on to the vine, no matter how many have previously accepted God’s gift.

    The beginning of chapter twelve contains some of the best summations of how the followers of Christ should behave. We must not allow the thinking, habits, and practices of the world around us to shape the way that we think and act. Instead, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and transform us so that our thoughts and actions make our bodies into a living sacrifice to God. As part of that process we need to think of ourselves with sober judgment. God has given each and every person unique gifts. Each of these gifts are valuable and necessary to the Body of Christ. The gifts I have been given do not make me better, or more important, than you, and vice versa. As an aside I want to note that while Paul tells us not to think of ourselves more highly that we ought, he does tell us to think of ourselves with sober judgment. The implication being to not underrate ourselves either.

    Whatever gift we have been given we should exercise it to the fullest extent of that gift and not whine and refuse to use it because we have not been given some other gift which we consider more prestigious. If we truly love others, and Paul tells us that we ought to do so, we will use whatever gifts we have been given and not spend our time selfishly pining after gifts we have not been given. It is not enough to go through the motions of loving others, we must truly seek what is best for them. Paul instructs us not to be so proud that we are unwilling to associate with those who are “beneath us”, because the very idea that some people are beneath us is contrary to Christ’s teaching.

    I would really like to spend more time on chapter fourteen than I can because of what Paul says there about who is truly the strong in faith. If we demand that the Church change its doctrines and teachings according to our tastes we are declaring that our faith is too weak to survive if those of stronger faith continue to hold to their beliefs. Paul instructs those of stronger faith to temper their behavior so as to not damage the faith of those with a weaker faith. If another believer thinks that some action which you consider acceptable is a sin, you must not flaunt your belief in front of them. For example, I know Christians who believe that as followers of Christ we should abstain from all alcoholic beverages. I do not share that belief, but I do not try to convince them that they should drink (I may occasionally attempt to convince them that it is not wrong for others to consume alcohol) and I refrain from drinking or discussing alcoholic beverages which I enjoy in front of them.

Daily Bible Study

November 26, 2016 Bible Study

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

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

    Paul points out that while the rejection of the Gospel by so many of the Jews opened the door for Gentiles to hear the Gospel, the Jews were still eligible to receive God’s grace. Furthermore, we should desire that they turn to God and accept the free gift which He offers to all people. We as Gentiles benefited from the rejection of the Gospel by Jews, how much more will the entire world benefit if and when they accept it? It is not possible to be a faithful follower of Jesus and to harbor anti-Semitic attitudes. God did indeed trim off from His family tree those descended from Abraham who rejected his free gift. And yes, He did graft those of us not descended from Abraham in their place. However, we should not become arrogant because He could just as easily remove us once more in order to graft them back should their hearts embrace Him.

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    I love chapter 12. Paul tells us that we should be willing to offer our bodies up as living sacrifices to God. We should be willing to experience whatever physical unpleasantness necessary to serve God’s will. We should not strive to fit into the world around us. Instead, we need to study God’s word and allow His Spirit to transform us fully into His image. Paul instructs us to evaluate our abilities clearly and soberly. We should neither overestimate our abilities, nor should we denigrate ourselves (which sometimes is a reverse form of puffing ourselves up). People have varied and different skills. Each and everyone of us is a unique creation who God placed in this world for a specific purpose. Let us embrace the purpose for which we were created without holding ourselves above others.
    In line with that, it is not our place to bring judgment or cause suffering on those who we believe deserve it. Rather, we should strive to live at peace with others. That will not always be possible, but let us strive to avoid being the reason why it is not possible. If others refuse to live at peace with us, that is beyond our control and not our responsibility. Rather than return the evil others do to us with evil, let us return that evil with good. If we do as God wills, either those who are currently our enemies will be transformed by God’s Holy Spirit, as we have been (we have been transformed by the Holy Spirit, haven’t we?), or God will bring the appropriate judgment upon them. If we do good to those who wrong us, those around us will see our good works and praise God.