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Romans twelve has many different meanings depending on how you look at it and what different researchers have to say. I believe that Romans 12:1-8 is talking about serving the lord wholeheartedly, not only in the church but outside of the church as well. I believe that there are many steps that this passage gives us to be able to serve the lord wholeheartedly. The first step it gives us is to demonstrate your Commitment to God by Giving your Life to him. I look at this as God is always there for us when we are going through bad or good times, when we are sick, at school and much more. Since God helps us through these times we should give back to God by serving and doing his work in the kingdom. The second step to serving the lord wholeheartedly is that, we need to Realize what we were Born to do. There are many ways in which we can serve but we need to realize which one is best for us. To be a Christian means to be like Jesus and we did not come to be served but to serve others and I believe Paul is trying to relay this message to us in Romans 12:1-8. What we do in the Kingdom of God should flow out of us in a loving manner. I believe the third step that Paul is portraying in these first eight verses is that, You are not Alone in Serving the Lord, all ministers are intertwined and to make the kingdom work we must all work together. When something is to go wrong in the one part everyone else should be willing to step in and help, which is what God calls us to do. I believe that Romans 12:4-5 is telling us to use our gifts” humbly” and “faithfully. We must be willing to serve where ever God calls us, and to serve with our full potential. God will use you where ever he needs you and we must be willing to do his work without complaining.
I looked at two different scholars and I found some very interesting information about the first eight verses of Romans twelve. In Romans 12:1-8 the main theme is our spiritual service is the practice of Righteousness (Harrison, 126)”. I believe what Harrison is telling is if we serve than we are living a life of Righteousness and we are faithful to God in are serving. “Romans 12:1-2 are the introductory portion of the prelude which specifies duties of the believer, it also sets up the obligation one must meet before he is prepared to face the challenge of living as a believer in this world. Only an intelligent commitment of life in the light of God’s gift of salvation suffices (Harrison, 126)”. The other scholar I looked at had a little bit different approach to these first two verses in Romans twelve. “Romans 12:1-2 is the paradigm for exhortation, these verses summarize the response to God’s grace and serve as the introduction. They encapsulate what it means to live in a way that pleases God (Schreiner, 2178)”. “The word “therefore” in Romans 12:1 points back to the entire argument from mercies of God, the body refers to Christians as a whole person, for both body and soul belong to God. Paul also uses spiritual worship in a broad sense now includes offering one’s whole life to God (Schreiner, 2178)”. The other scholar has a little different meaning for the word “therefore”. “Therefore” establishes a connection with the entire foregoing presentation, also the Apostle uses now to “urge his readers instead of simply instructing them, the choice of the word urge is discriminating, seeing that it forces lies between commanding and beseeching (Harrison, 127)”. Both of these scholars brought up interesting ideas of the word “therefore” that I have not thought of when I read this passage.
“Romans 12:3-8 deals with the “varied ministries” in the Church, the body of Christ (Harrison, 128)”. “Specifically Romans 12:4-5 talks about the “danger” of individualistic thinking with its resulting danger of pride, Paul refers to the human body as an illustration familiar from its earlier use in 1 Corinthians 12:12 (Harrison, 129-130)”. Schreiner has a different meaning to Romans 12:4-5. Schreiner says, “The Church is “United” though it is composed of many members (Schreiner, 2179)”. “There are three truths that are set forth in Romans 12:4-5 the unity of the body, the diversity in function, and the mutuality of the various members, “each member belongs to all the others” (Harrison, 130)”. “Romans 12:6-8 state that the body is evident from the various gifts God has given the Church, and we should concentrate upon and give energy to the gifts God has given us (Schreiner, 2179)”. Harrison has a similar view on Romans 12:6-8, “we all have different gifts; Paul is not referring to gifts in the natural realm, but to those functions made possibly by specific enablement of the “Holy Spirit” granted to believers (Harrison, 130)”. Schreiner and Harrison had a lot of the similar views on t Romans 12:1-8 but they also varied some too. After researching and looking further into this part of the passage I have gained some new insights for Romans 12:1-8. When I looked at Romans 12:1-8 I knew it was talking about using your gifts and serving the Lord but I did not see it as in depth as these researchers did. I now have a better understanding of Romans 12:1-8, and now I am going to move on with Romans 9-21.
Romans 12:9-21 was a little harder for me to understand and make the connection between this section and Romans 12:1-8. I believe that Romans 12:9-21 is telling us to love others with all of our heart no matter what they have done or what they have been through in their life. We are supposed to love those that even do wrong towards us, God loves everyone and we are supposed to be like God and show his love through us. We are also not supposed to lower ourselves to their level but we are always supposed to love them. We are also supposed to be there for people who are in need, in happy times and sad times, just whatever someone is going through we are supposed to be there and show Christ love to them. Christ died on the cross for us because he loved us so much, and in return we are supposed to love other and serve in is Kingdom. I think that the connection between Romans 12:1-8, which talks about serving and Romans 12:9-21, which talks about loving people, is that the first part is telling us to serve and the second part is telling us how to serve and how to Love people even though they are different from us. Now let’s take a look at what the biblical scholars teach us in Romans 12:9-21.
“Romans 12:9-21 are the “principles” governing Christian conduct, the presupposition here is the dedicated life, which enables one to discover and demonstrate the will of God. “Relationship” to fellow Christians is treated first (9-13), then the “stance” to be assumed toward those who are without (14-21) (Harrison, 132)”. Romans 12:9 tells us that love is very important, love cannot be reduced to sentimentalism, and Christians are to hate evil (Schreiner, 2179)”. “Romans 12:9-21, Love is primary (9-10), but if it is not sincere, it is not real love but only pretense, it seems to describe the Christian’s relations to their neighbors and friends, as well as on reference to their opponents, whereas the next section definitely pictures the people of God bearing up under pressure from the unbelieving world (14-16). Paul then takes a stand alongside the believer by giving him explicit counsel about how to face the hostile world (17-21) (Harrison, 132-134)”. “In Romans 12:20-21, most interpreters think Paul is teaching the Christian to do good to people so that they will feel ashamed and repent, and the sense
is possible. Christians are to do good to wrongdoers, recognizing that God will punish them on the last day if they refuse to repent (Schreiner, 2179)”. I think with my analysis of this portion was kind of right but not extremely right. I understand the first part of the passage which is Romans 12:1-8 better than I do Romans 12:9-21. I understand that you are supposed to love people and show them that they are doing wrong. I understand the second part of the passage better now since I took a look at what the researchers had to say. God just wants us to love people in hope they will repent and give their life to him.
Since doing my research on Romans 12:1-21 I can now better live my life as a Christian since I fully understand what this passage want from us. I am going to try and serve better in the church and outside the church because I believe it is the right thing to do. I also need to be better at loving people even though they are doing wrong or just not doing what I think they should be doing because it is what God commands of us. God sent his son to die on the cross for us so we need to be willing to give our lives to him and serve and love his people all the days of our life.
Work Cited
Harrison, Everett F. The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Ed. Frank E. Gaebelein. Vol. 10. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976.
Schreiner, Thomas R. ESV Study Bible Commentary. 2007th ed. Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001.