Author: Craig

Romans 12:9-18 (Contributed by Craig’s friend, Steve)

Paul starts with a universal standard: “Love must be sincere.” The Greek word used here literally means “without hypocrisy” or “without a mask.”

Whether you are grabbing coffee with your small-group leader or hanging out with a coworker who has zero interest in faith, the mandate is identical. No hidden agendas. No treating people like a “conversion project,” and no faking affection inside the church walls just to look spiritual. Real love hates what is destructive and clings tightly to what is good for that person.

With Believing Friends

When Paul talks about the church community, his language gets intensely familial. He uses words that mimic the deep, fierce loyalty of biological siblings.

• Outdo one another in honor: Imagine a friendship where both people are actively trying to shine the spotlight on the other. Loving your Christian friends means refusing to compete with them. Their success is your joy; their promotion is your celebration.
• Share in the suffering and the practicalities: Verse 13 talks about contributing to needs and practicing hospitality. With your believing friends, love looks like a shared bank account of emotional and physical margin. It means showing up with a meal when they are overwhelmed, praying when they are weary, and opening your home without expecting anything in return.

With Non-Believing Friends

Then, Paul expands the circle to a group that might include people who do not share your values, understand your faith, or even treat you kindly.

• Bless and do not curse (v. 14): It is easy to be kind to people who agree with you. The real test of Christian character is how you speak about your non-believing friends or acquaintances when they misunderstand, mock, or frustrate you. Paul says our default response must be to speak well of them and desire their good.
• Empathy across boundaries (v. 15): “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” This does not have a theological prerequisite. If your non-believing friend gets their dream job, celebrate wildly with them. If they go through a brutal breakup, sit on the floor and weep with them. True empathy bridges worldview divides.
• As far as it depends on you (v. 18): This is perhaps the most liberating, yet convicting, line in the passage. Paul acknowledges that you cannot control the other person. You cannot force a cynical friend to accept your faith, and you cannot force an angry person to make peace. But you are entirely responsible for your side of the ledger. Did you hold a grudge? Were you defensive? Did you insist on winning the argument?

A Prayer for the Week

Lord, give me the grace to take off my mask today. Help me to love my brothers and sisters in Christ with a fierce, honoring devotion that puts them first. And give me a radical, patient grace for my friends who don’t know You yet. Let my life be a safe place for them to land, and let my pursuit of peace be relentless, as far as it depends on me. Amen.

Romans 12:17-21

Do you have any enemies? We don’t want to focus on them, but we also can’t ignore the fact that they exist. Maybe they exist primarily in our heads and not in reality, but we live in our heads and we still have to deal with them. I have a friend who once said, “I have to pray before I mow the lawn. I know that during that time when I don’t have to think about anything immediate, I will be tempted to rehearse every wrong ever done to me.” I pray before I mow my lawn too. It’s the prime time for the devil to play with my head.

For example, if you have experienced divorce, you have plenty of hurts to revisit. My divorce story goes something like this: I was interested in a lovely, vivacious young lady. Once during our courtship, I noticed her act somewhat romantically toward a woman. We talked about it and she was offended that I would suspect that she might be homosexual. I was mollified, accused myself of being too suspicious, and decided she just needed a good honeymoon with me. (How stupid and arrogant of me.) We married and I wondered why she cried her way through our first night together.

Fifteen months after our wedding, I found out why. She had me sit down. She said, “Do you remember what I told you about my old boyfriend, Josh?” I certainly did. They had a lot of fun, romantic adventures. “Josh’s real name was Carolyn”, she said. In the middle of this bomb that had just been dropped, totally exploding my world, I saw our three-month-old son, laying in a little baby chair on the table, watching the chandelier sway above him. For his sake I decided to fight to keep my marriage intact.

Let’s fast forward over all the affairs, betrayals, and legal tricks that left me homeless, penniless, and emotionally crushed. What I can’t fast forward over is the pain inflicted on two innocent children, five and seven years old, who had their family ripped apart and are both in therapy 40 years later.

So again, do you have any enemies? Have you been divorced, or betrayed by a friend, or cheated financially? Have you ever thought, “That’s not fair!” What response is God expecting?

“Never pay back evil for evil to anyone” (Rom.12:17). This may seem unreasonable, because our just and holy God expects fairness and hates evil. But His holiness is exactly why we should never try to help Him set things straight. He can do it better than we can. As Paul says elsewhere, ” Do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the thigs hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts, and then each man’s praise (or condemnation, I think) will come to him from God” (I Cor.4:5). God knows facts we don’t know. He sees heart secrets that we know nothing about. Helping Him correct wrongs is about as sensible as helping an expert carpenter make a cabinet. He will do it right and we won’t, so just do him the favor of getting out of his way.

In addition, there is this chilling phrase in the Lord’s Prayer we must remember: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”. The dirt some offender has sprinkled on me is nothing compared to the mudslide I have dumped on my Savior, Who died forgiving those who abused Him. I want and need forgiveness; I better be able to share it with others. What I send around is what is going to come back around to me.

The Bible says that with this restraint, we “make room for the wrath of God” (Rom.12:19). Payback time will certainly come, “The Judge of all the earth will do right” (Gen.18:25); but He won’t collect my debts if I do it first. My enemy is dealing with a much bigger debt collector than me.

That’s why I pray for her every day. That’s why I hang a little ornament she once gave me on the cross that is opposite my bed. That’s why I hope she will clear her debts the same way I cleared mine – by coming to our Savior in repentance and letting Him “wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (Ps.51:2).

Her name is Nancy. I invite you to pray for her too.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. – Romans 12:2

A Bible dictionary will help make this verse more understandable and interesting.

To prove means to carefully examine and thoughtfully consider something, with the intention of accepting it. A friend of mine bought a truck this week. I expect he first walked around it, lifted the hood, took a test drive, checked Carfax, and negotiated about the price. The will of God doesn’t just fall into our lap; it has to be actively sought. God isn’t playing hide and seek; He wants us to find His plan for us, but patient, confident effort is required. The process could be described by a phrase a friend told me was used in the Navy: “explore with an affirmative attitude”.

As we engage in this process, we can be confident that God will guide us into a life which Paul says will be good, acceptable, and perfect. Once again I opened the Bible dictionary.

“Good” means that God will move us closer to Him. To reflect God more fully and grow to be more like Him is the definition of goodness. On his first voyage, the logbook of Christopher Columbus described weather and sailing conditions and concluded every day with these words: “Today we sailed westward.” Your day can be defined as good, no matter what the external conditions are, if at the end of it you can say, “Today I moved Godward”. As Godspell says, we experience good when we “see Him more clearly, love Him more dearly, and follow Him more nearly day by day.”

The word “acceptable” means to be fit together closely. It is a word a carpenter might use as he crafts a dovetailed drawer. The will of God is acceptable because it makes your life fit closely into place with the overall plan of God. We begin to see a design in what previously was confusion and chaos. All things work together for good to them that love the Lord. The acceptable will of God also moves us into closer contact with the rest of His people. Paul goes on to describe the church as a body, where each of us is a discrete, necessary part of a larger whole.

The “perfect” will of God is a word farmers use at harvest time and accountants use on April 15. It means that a cycle of life is completed and a reward is impending. When we find the will of God there are no loose ends or frustrating roadblocks. Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, makes our work bud, bloom, and bear fruit. Billy Graham’s wife Ruth, saw an interesting road sign once and decided to make it her epitaph. The sign said, “construction complete; thank you for your patience”. Her grave is a witness to the fact that she carefully sought the will of God, which moved her always Godward, connected her life with the work God was doing around her, and made her life completed and fruitful.

The process of finding and following God’s will requires two things, according to Romans 12:1-2. We must present our bodies as living sacrifices by taking concrete actions to “do the next right thing”, and we must renew our minds by focusing on God.

Are you confused about a decision you need to make? Offer God your willingness to do what is right as He reveals it. Do the things you already know are right. Read and meditate on His Word. You will find the will of God, which is good, acceptable and perfect. You will move toward Him, have the satisfaction of fitting in with His big plan, and someday be able to say, “construction complete”.

-Romans 12:3-4

I heard a story about a time when an organ was played by two people; one at the keyboard and another behind the organ, pumping air into the pipes. A talented musician was impressing his audience with his rendition of something by J.S. Bach. At the conclusion, he stood next to the organ and bowed deeply. The curtain came down. The musician sat back down, ready to play one more selection as an encore. Waiting for the curtain to rise, he quietly congratulated himself. “I have done a splendid job,’ he said. As the curtain rose, he placed his hands on the keyboard, expecting to hear the impressive opening chords of his final piece. He heard nothing. He emphatically repeated his opening chord, again with no result. A little voice behind him belonged to the bellows pumper. It whispered, “say ‘we’, mister.”

In Romans 12:3-8, Paul reminds us that we need to “think of ourselves with sober judgment”, remembering that we are part of a network of people who participate together in a given task. How many people make your typical day possible; from the people who keep the lights on to the workers and truckers who stock the grocery store to the men who take our garbage away to the delivery guys who bring us the mail and packages we need, to…. You get the idea.

Church runs this way too. Paul tells us we are a body with many members, each one having a different function; each one indispensable to the success of the whole. I am not the star of the Craig Show; I am a piece of the Jesus show – the big, powerful, beautiful body of Christ. I need to open my eyes and gratefully see the rest of that body. How can I express my gratitude? How can I be a support to someone else as they function in the body? How can I decrease so that Christ might increase?

.It’s learning to say “we”, not “me”.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.  Rom.12:1-2

Whenever you see the word “therefore”, you have to find out what it’s there for.  In chapters 1-8 of his  letter to the Romans, Paul explained the gospel.  It begins with an awareness of our perverse, continual turning away from God.  We need help, not the affirmation and the “attaboy” the world tries to offer us. God’s help consists of two parts; first God forgives our sins by dying on the cross to absorb the punishment we deserve.  Second, Jesus was raised from the dead so that He could gradually transform our lives by living in us. 

• We need help
• Jesus died to pay our sin debt
• Jesus lives and now lives in us

That gospel now needs to be applied to our daily lives, and that’s what Paul does in Romans 12-15.  A change in belief brings a change in behavior, or as Alistair Begg says it, “The learning is for living”.  So how are we going to live out the gospel?  The answer is what the “therefore” is there for.

Paul has recognized that when Jesus comes into your life, He doesn’t come into a vacuum.  You are already travelling full speed ahead, in the wrong direction.  A fight for control of the steering wheel of your life unfolds, with the resurrected Jesus seeking control of the body-mobile you have been driving.  Up until you accepted the gospel, your body was in the driver’s seat.  “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God;for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.  And those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom.8:6-8).  The risen Christ is able and willing to enter a human heart and change it.  “By the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body” (Rom.8:13).

Paul calls your body a living sacrifice, because as soon as your feet hit the floor in the morning, you are asking Jesus to guide your thoughts, hands, eyes, mouth…into His good path for you today.  Your gratitude and love for Him will be expressed by what you do, say, and think.  Your path won’t be perfectly executed, because the body puts up a serious fight for the steering wheel, but on a daily basis, you will be coming closer and closer to God’s will.  Your body is a living sacrifice because your mind is gradually being transformed by the indwelling Christ. 

Details will follow as Paul tells us how this transformation and sacrifice will change how you worship God, how you think of yourself, how you work with your Christian family, and how we deal with a world that neither understands nor loves the gospel.

Questions as you prepare for Sunday: Exactly where in your life is your body seeking to run you off the road toward God? What habits or thoughts are the battleground between the risen Jesus and your old self?

God tells you to “present your body”; that means it’s up to you to make it happen (with His help, of course). What can you do to facilitate the change God is seeking?

What specifically needs to change in the way you worship, the way you think about yourself, the way you connect with other believers, and the way you relate to an unsympathetic world?

Both the Bible and history books tell us that during the reign of Emperor Claudius, Jews were expelled from Rome because of public disturbances about “Chrestus”. The career of Paul outlined in Acts shows how disturbing the proclamation of Christ as the Messiah could be to traditional Jews. The absence of Jewish Christians from church meant that the Gentile Christians had to assume leadership. The situation was confused and probably charged with animosity when the Jewish Christians were allowed to return after about six years of exile. Who’s in charge now? This toxic brew of jealousy and hate gave rise to antisemitism.

God told Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, that he and his family were chosen to be a blessing to the whole world. Those who blessed Israel would be blessed; those who cursed it would be cursed. (See Genesis 12 and 15). God called this nation His peculiar people. The word translated peculiar actually means encircled. God set the Jewish people apart so that Israel could become his witness nation. If the world wants to know the ways of God, exhibit A is His dealings with the Jewish people.

This is why He gives the Jews so many identity markers. Cut your hair in this certain way, eat these foods and avoid these other foods, celebrate these special holidays, wear garments made from this kind of cloth, keep a sabbath every week with these particular habits and prohibitions. Men must be circumcised. These are the rules and behaviors that encircle and set apart God’s special people.

Satan wants to take the circle God draws around Israel and make it the center of a series of concentric circles that becomes a bull’s eye. He wants us to believe the Jews are special because they are especially evil and vile. Antisemitism is the work of the devil.

Paul tells the squabbling Jewish and Gentile Christians to think of the history of salvation as a tree (Romans 11). Abraham and his family were planted by God to bear fruit – a history of how God deals with people. His discipline, protection, and guidance are set forth before the world through the Jewish people. Israel is and always will be that tree bearing witness to God, because “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom.11:29).

The tree Paul describes is being reshaped by God. He is pruning and removing dead branches (the unbelieving Jews). He is grafting into His salvation tree believing Gentiles. Whatever kind of branch you are, Jew or Gentile, remember that you are being supported and nourished by the root of the tree, the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. There is no room for antisemitism in the Christian faith. The Jewish people and the nation of Israel are the blessed witnesses of God’s dealings. All of the apostles were Jewish. Three of the four gospel writers were Jewish. Jesus was a Jew, as was Paul. God blesses those who bless the Jews and curses those who curse them (Gen.12:3).

The Gospel Paul sets forth in his letter to the Romans is this: Jesus died to forgive our sins and he was raised from the dead to give us his resurrection life. Every time Paul introduces the gospel , he begins with the resurrection of Jesus. You can check it out for yourself by looking at his recorded sermons in Acts 13 and 17, and then reading his personal testimony shared with a lynch mob (Acts 22) the Jewish governing council (Acts 23) Governor Felix (Acts 24) his successor Governor Festus (Acts 25) and King Herod Agrippa (Acts 26).

Why does Paul consistently begin with the life changing resurrection of Jesus, instead of the sin bearing death of Jesus? Let’s pretend that you are an observant Jew or a God fearing Gentile living in the first century. A visiting scholar and rabbi has come to your synagogue. He has been invited to “say a few words”. If he stands up to tell you that there is a man who was crucified to forgive your sins, you would think, “People get crucified every day. Crucifying criminals is how the government keeps us citizens in line. What makes this particular death so special? How does it forgive sin? I walked by a crucified man in order to get to the synagogue today. I don’t think he forgave my sins.” Three people were publicly executed on Good Friday. Why is the man on the middle cross so unique?

Because he was raised from the dead, that’s why. He is still alive, able to perform signs and wonders, able to enter a human heart and change it. Because he is the only man eternally raised from the dead, his entire life means something. His birth was unique. His death was sin-forgiving. Jesus’ life-giving resurrection proves the rest of the gospel.

Because “He was raised from the dead” I know “He died to forgive sins”. This implies one more necessary fact – “our” sins. The good news about Jesus is just news, maybe interesting, but not relevant; unless I know that I am a sinner in need of forgiveness and life change.

I make hummingbird food regularly at this time of year in a two quart pot with a nice long handle. I would not think of handling a pot of boiling sugar water by grabbing the pot itself; I pick it up by the handle. The gospel is a pot with three ingredients: I am a sinner, I have a Savior, and He is my risen Lord. The handle which picks up that pot with all its wonderful contents is the fact that I have a risen Lord. That fact is first and foremost.

Phillip Yancey tells about a Christian friend who decided he was more attracted to someone other than his wife. He knew Jesus was his Savior and there was enough salvation in the cross to cover every sin imaginable. So he planned to divorce his wife, marry this other person, and ask for forgiveness. What was Phillip’s advice?

Phillip’s acknowledged that Jesus is a wonderful Savior who can forgive all sin, but once this particular deed was done, his friend would no longer be interested in forgiveness. The handle we must use to grasp the gospel is the resurrection of our life changing Lord. He is the One who forgives sin. When I no longer acknowledge Him as Lord, I no longer enjoy Him as Savior.

Personal evangelists used to be taught to ask, “If Jesus were standing before you today to ask you why He should let you into heaven, what would you say?” After a moment of thought, most people responded with some good deed or good quality they possessed. “I was a scout leader”, “I am a faithful member of my church”, etc. Paul would be aghast at these answers. Romans tells us that performance religion has been replaced by the gospel of grace.

If you can answer the question, “Why should Jesus admit you into heaven?” by any answer that begins with “Because I…”you are dangerously, sinfully wrong. We are heaven-bound because God picked us in advance, forgave our sins, came into our hearts through His life changing Spirit, and put us on the path to His glory. It’s all about God’s grace; not our performance.

Paradoxically, that doesn’t mean that there is nothing we have to do. Right on the heels of Paul’s teaching about God’s gracious election comes the need for our response: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart a person believes and is made righteous, and with the mouth he confesses and is saved.” We take hold of God’s grace when we accept it with thanks. We make Jesus lord when we tell ourselves – and anyone listening – that He is lord. Paul tells us that we aren’t just mouthing good words; we are making a heartfelt proclamation. I say that Jesus is lord because I experience His resurrection power in my heart.

To recap, God does the choosing without any qualifications or performance on our part. Then He calls on us to respond by calling Jesus lord and cherishing the change He is making in our hearts.

The final twist in this corkscrew is that we can only make the appropriate response because God is enabling us to do so. “By grace you are saved through faith”. Our faith takes hold of God’s grace. “BUT that is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, so no one may boast.” Even our “yes” to God’s gracious invitation is inspired and actuated by His power.

Everything comes from God. Nothing really comes from us.

In this chapter, Paul reveals that he is deeply disappointed with the results of his ministry. We usually think of him as a victorious Christian, a level headed man who has learned how to be content in any circumstance, but in Rom.9:2 he says, “I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart”. Something in Paul’s life is chronically wrong, something that gives him constant pain. Is your outlook on life clouded by the recognition that something important is wrong, and no matter how hard you try, you can’t fix it? Welcome to Paul’s world; a world of unceasing grief and great sorrow, always there even when it is very well hidden.

Paul was one of the leading Pharisees of his day, at the head of his class, trained by the best, heart and soul devoted to the Jewish law. He lists the treasured benefits of his Jewish culture in Rom.9:4-5. Paul was part of a cohort of up-and-coming Jewish leaders. When he became a Christian, he wanted his fellow Jews to come along with him. He was so determined and devoted that everywhere he went, he ministered first in the synagogue, urgently seeking to persuade his countrymen to find the completion he enjoyed in Jesus. Some came to Christ, but to Paul’s sorrow, many didn’t. Paul kept at it until they turned on him with violent hatred. He loved them enough to risk stoning, beating, whipping, and imprisonment. His heart was set on the evangelism of his countrymen. He turned to the Gentiles when he was turned out by the Jews. He deeply wanted something, and he was deeply disappointed.

Did you ever feel like that? Have money problems, relationships, or health concerns ever become chronically painful? I remember a very quiet man in one of the churches I served whom I visited in the hospital. I remember his agonized cry, “Where’s my Lord?” That’s Paul’s question, and maybe it’s yours sometimes too.

Paul’s first response to disappointment is, “it is not as though the word of God has failed”. He has just ended chapter 8 with the beautiful confidence that nothing can separate us from the love of God. In the light of the amazing thing God did for us on the cross, we can be confident that our loving Father would withhold no good thing from us. If something we want is being withheld, it must not be the good thing we think it is.

A little child may want to drink that delicious looking green stuff in the bottle under the sink, but a loving parent won’t let him. Paul reminds himself and us that we are pieces of pottery questioning the potter about what He is doing. He knows and we don’t, and, hard as it may be, we need to leave the issue there. Have faith in His goodness.

Over 40 years later, I am haunted by the agonized cry of my friend: “Where’s my Lord?” Jonathan Edwards, the great Puritan thinker and preacher, died alone after suffering a negative reaction to cutting edge medicine – the smallpox vaccine. He dictated his will and a letter to his beloved wife, and then he said his last words: “Where is Jesus, my never-failing friend?” It’s almost the same question as the one I heard, but those last three words make a world of difference.

Disappointments; chronic, heartbreaking disappointments; may come. You and I, like Jonathan Edwards and Paul, have to draw closer to Jesus, our never-failing friend.

In colonial days, two Puritan preachers met briefly. One asked his friend, “What did you preach about last Sunday?” “The wicked will be sent into hell,” was the grim reply. After a moment, the first preacher said quietly, “Were you crying when you had to say that?”

Paul has been sharing the wonderful good news of Jesus’ death to pay for our sin and His resurrection to bring us a new quality of life; but chapter 8 ends that theme. Chapters 9-11 bring that gospel message to a particular problem in the church at Rome. Paul is crying as he has to explain it.

Both history and the Bible (Acts 18:2) teach us that the Jews, including Jewish Christians, were temporarily expelled from Rome. This would disrupt and confuse leadership in the church at Rome. Imagine your pastor being forced to vacate his position, making the church scramble for leadership; only to have the new leaders dealing with the return of the pastor a few years later. Confusion could deepen into animosity if the returning “old guard” was Jewish and the “young bucks” were Gentiles. How does the gospel apply to deep cultural and ethnic divisions?

Paul, a preeminent Jewish Christian, has bad news for his fellow Jews, and Rom.9:1-5 tells us of his deep sadness as he has to say it. The gospel brings an end to Jewish entitlement that was based on “the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises” (Rom.9:4). Paul has shown us in Rom. 1-3 that performance-based religion is like climbing a ladder that is leaning on the wrong wall. Performance brings pride, then frustration and condemnation. We just can’t climb that ladder to the top (see Rom.7:14-24). When what is needed is God’s grace, not our effort, Jews have no advantage. We all are great sinners blessed by a great Savior.

Romans 9:16 puts it in a nutshell: “It (God’s blessing) does not depend on the person who wants it or the person who runs, but on God who has mercy.” God selects; we don’t earn. And who does He select? Rom.9:7-15 tells us the answer is in God’s heart, not in our potential. He picks those He wants, without a discernable reason.

Speculating on the given examples, it may be that God has a fondness for zeros, not heroes. Jesus’ disciples included blue collar workers, a Roman collaborator, a terrorist, and several uneducated nonentities. Mathematics tells us that if you begin with a 0 and add something to it, the end result is just the addition. When God begins with nothing whatever finally results just brings glory to Him. Therefore, Paul tells us elsewhere, “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and the weak things of the world to shame the strong…and the things that are not (the 0’s) so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God” (I Cor.1:27-29).

Martin Luther observed that when God created the world, He began with nothing. Likewise, He can’t create a saint until He begins with nothing. Sorry, you privileged people with the great heritage and the natural advantages, you’re too big for God to use. He has a particular love for zeros.