I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, [which is] your intelligent service.
Romans 12 turns a corner. The letter has traced what God has done for the guilty. Now Paul asks what a person who has received all that will do with himself. The appeal rests on mercy, and what God asks for is the body.
The word "therefore" reaches back over everything already written. One writer connects the appeal to the earlier chapters:
The exhortation follows on all that has been unfolded of the mercies of God in chapters 1–8. ... So when we connect the exhortation directly with the teaching of chapters 1–8, how irresistible God's claim upon us becomes.
Paul does not order; he begs, and he begs people he calls brothers. The manner of the request is itself part of the lesson:
The first lesson to be learned here is a very important one — the apostle's way of speaking. How graciously and tenderly he pleads with the saints at Rome as brothers! Great apostle as he was, he places them all on the same level as himself... "I appeal to you therefore, brothers" — this is true humility, though joined with divine authority. Only nearness to the Lord can give both.
God asks for the visible man. That closes a door many would like to leave open:
Many then, as now, would claim devotion inside while letting the outward man do as he pleased. This verse shuts out that self-deception. It is all the more striking that the appeal comes not to Jews with their system of outward observances, but to Christians who know that without faith it is impossible to please God.
Under the old system a sacrifice was an animal put to death. A sacrifice that stays alive would have sounded absurd:
In Old Testament times the sacrifices were animals given to God by death. The thought of a living sacrifice hardly appears. It would have seemed a contradiction in terms, and an impossibility. But a service that was impossible under Judaism becomes an intelligent service under Christianity. The believer's only right course is to give his body to God, wholly devoted to His will and use and glory.
This offering is made of ordinary daily actions, and it costs:
Our feet to walk in the path of obedience, our hands employed in His service, our tongues to speak as a witness for God. ... To restrain the flesh involves the sacrifice of much that nature desires... We may present our money and our goods, but such gifts, however right in their place, are not "living"... It is also to be presented as a "holy" sacrifice. God's service needs not only a living body, but a "holy" body. The sacrifice is acceptable only as the body is kept holy.
Where ESV reads "spiritual worship", other translations say "reasonable service" or "intelligent service". That does not mean each person reasoning his own way:
Worldly elements stand condemned, ceremonial rules have passed away, formal worship has ended. God will only be served now intelligently. This is not reason judging for itself without the word. It is the Spirit guiding the mind by divine revelation, understood more and more.
And "service" here does not mean duty:
"Service" here is not bondage, nor law, nor demand. It is worship — the glad return of a grateful heart in the intelligence of redemption and in the power of the Spirit.
Commentators differ here. One reads the presenting as continual, and warns that willpower cannot do it:
We are not to bring a dead sacrifice and lay it on God's altar, as the priests of old did. In the power of the Holy Spirit we are to offer up a living sacrifice. It is therefore a perpetual sacrifice, always presented to God as long as we are here on earth. But how, we ask again, do we do this? Is it by an act of will? No, that is impossible... it is Christ controlling our bodies instead of ourselves.
Another reads it as a settled act that is never reversed:
It does not mean you must keep doing it over and over. It means that what you have given to the Lord you would not take back. If you have laid it on the altar, it would be strange to take it away again!
- Mercies first — the appeal rests on the mercy God has already shown in chapters 1–8. His claim is irresistible because the mercy came first.
- Mercies plead — Paul pleads instead of ordering, and speaks to brothers on his own level: humility joined with divine authority.
- Mercies claim the body — God asks for the visible man. That shuts out any claim of devotion inside while the body does as it likes.
- Mercies keep it living and holy — a sacrifice still alive was unthinkable under Judaism. Now it costs the restraint of much that nature desires, and the body must be kept holy.
- Mercies make it intelligent — not bondage or demand, but worship, with the Spirit guiding the mind by revelation. Writers differ: a settled act once given, or an offering renewed every day.
And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of [your] mind, that ye may prove what [is] the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Paul has just asked believers to give their bodies to God. Now he turns to the mind, with two commands: one says stop, the other says change. The question behind them is practical: how do you find out what God wants, and why does that depend on what you refuse to copy?
The word behind "world" points to the present era.
The word used here for "conformed" is also translated "fashioned." The word for "world" is closer to "age." So the apostle is saying to us: "Do not be shaped by this age." This age is a Christ-rejecting age, and God calls us to represent Christ in the middle of it. Can there be agreement between us and it? And if there is no inward agreement, should there be outward conformity? Never!
That "age" is not a place you can walk out of. It is an atmosphere.
The "age" is not quite the same as the world. It carries a moral meaning. It stands for all the influences at work around us at any given moment. These influences are the danger for God's people. Many give way to them and wreck their testimony — Demas, a companion of Paul who left him for love of the present world, is one example. That is why the apostle writes, "Do not be conformed to this age" (Romans 12).
The two words are not just different in style. They differ in how deep the change goes.
Instead, Paul urges us to be "transformed" by the renewing of our minds. Look up these two words and you will find a clear difference. The "form" inside "conformed" means a likeness on the surface. The "form" inside "transformed" means a deep change in the person.
Trying harder is not the alternative to worldliness that Paul offers.
Sometimes we see conformed Christians. They are shaped by this age, and their bodies show it. Sometimes we see reformed Christians, working hard to imitate Christ and do as He would do. But Paul sets a third figure before us: the transformed Christian. That change starts in the mind and works out to the body.
The change starts in the mind, not in the rules a person keeps.
This transformation can only come by the renewing of the mind. It is not an outward change made by wearing special religious clothing, like that of a monk or nun. Such clothing may be plain, but it only draws attention to self. The believer should differ from the world not only in dress, but in manner, speech and ways. That comes from having a different mind. The outward change is the result of an inward change of thought. We may ask endless questions about what is right in dress and way of life. But the inward change — the renewing of the mind — would settle a thousand of them, and show us the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
This renewing is not the same as being born again. It never finishes in one moment.
This does not refer to the new birth. God has already done that for every true child of His, so Scripture never urges us to seek it. It refers to the daily, ongoing renewing that the Holy Spirit works in us. The Word of God gives our minds light, brings them under its authority, and brings them into agreement with it.
The verse ends with proving God's will, not simply knowing it.
With a renewed understanding, a person is no longer tied to the present age. He is tied to the will of God. Notice what the apostle does here. He calls for intelligent service, and so he begs Christians to offer their bodies as a sacrifice to God. He warns against being shaped by this world, and what he wants is not merely an outward separation. He wants a separation that matches the renewing of the mind, so that we can discern the will of God. A person rarely knows His will all at once. God trains us so that we may know it, and in that training He forms us. We learn that His will is good, acceptable and perfect.
The difference shows up in ordinary decisions.
The world judges wise action by three things: convenience, money and present comfort. Suppose a man receives the offer of a good job with a good salary, far from any gathering of believers. If the world has shaped him, he will take it. If God has transformed him, he will put the Lord's interests first, because his renewed mind reasons from the Lord's viewpoint.
- Age — "this world" is the present age, the sum of influences around us. You breathe it in before you notice it.
- Surface — "conformed" is a likeness on the outside; the age only ever asks you to match its shape.
- Radical — "transformed" is a change in the person, working from the mind out to the body. Not conformed. Not reformed.
- Daily — this renewing is not the new birth. It is the Spirit's ongoing work, bringing the mind into harmony with God's Word.
- Proof — the end is not instant knowledge of God's will. It is the proving of it, learned as God trains us, and shown in real decisions.
For I say, through the grace which has been given to me, to every one that is among you, not to have high thoughts above what he should think; but to think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith.
The first two verses call for devotedness and a renewed mind. Verse 3 is where that renewal gets tested first: in what a person thinks of himself.
One writer sets this verse beside the two before it.
The Christian's walk, according to the first two verses, should be marked by devotedness and obedience; and according to the verse before us, by humility and dependence.
Paul appeals by the grace given to him. One writer draws out what a constant sense of that favour does to us.
What a constant need there is of the sense of the free favour shown to us individually, and given to us! It is this that enables us to have low thoughts of self. It enables us to think soberly, or to think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith.
The verse names one yardstick, and it is not the one the world reaches for.
The more our minds are renewed, the more we see ourselves as God sees us. We know then that it is the measure of our faith that counts with Him. Faith brings God into our lives, and so the measure of faith determines our spiritual calibre. We once heard a Christian say of another, gravely and a little sadly: "Well, if we could buy that good brother at the price we put on him, and sell him again at the price he places on himself, we would make a huge profit!" God help us to think about ourselves with great sobriety. Not intellect, not social status, not money, not natural gifts, but faith is the deciding factor.
A measure does not mean the supply runs short for the work God has given you.
Faith is not measured in the sense that it is so limited it might fail us for any work that is ours. We find its limit only when we get outside our own sphere and take up, perhaps, another's work. We shall not find faith for that.
Sober thinking is not the same as thinking little of yourself. There is a failure on each side.
High-mindedness hinders both our doing our own duty and others doing theirs... As each does his own proper work according to the measure of faith God deals out, each acts with humility but with firmness, knowing it is God's will and his own service. Unbelief seeks great things. It overlooks the one thing that matters: our own duty assigned by God, without going beyond its measure or outside its nature. Let us remember, however, that there is a false modesty that fails to act, as well as a lack of modesty that goes too far.
Both errors show up among younger believers.
It is sad when a young man who is not gifted imagines himself to be gifted and so pushes himself forward with no profit. Godly saints always welcome and appreciate real gift. On the other hand, a gifted young man like Timothy may be too backward. Such a man should be stirred up not to fail in service.
One way to go past your measure is to copy another believer.
There is danger in going beyond the measure of our faith. What another may do by faith, I may not have faith for doing at all. If so, let me not try to copy what he does... One person may be clearly limited in one line, another in a different line. But we ought to heed our limitations. They remind us of our dependence, and they should certainly keep us humble.
Going past your measure is not just unwise.
The apostle speaks of gift as God's dealing to every man the measure of faith. This is to be the ground for every man to act on. If he goes beyond it, much or little, he is in the flesh and in folly, whatever his attainments or acceptance may be.
Verses 4-8 explain why a sober self-estimate matters: nobody is serving alone.
Here the apostle looks at the Christian life in a narrower circle... he now looks at the body of Christ — the body in which each must show conduct and activity that fits the place he occupies in it. This is the only place in the letter that mentions the body, the Church, and it does so in relation to the duties of each member... But since there is one body, the service of the members should be in the common interest. We cannot act in isolation, as if we had no tie with anyone on earth.
- Renewal — a renewed mind shows itself first in a lower view of self. The first two verses call for devotedness and obedience. This one adds humility and dependence.
- Grace — Paul appeals by the grace given to him. A sense of that free favour is what produces low thoughts of self.
- Measure — faith is the deciding factor before God, not intellect, status, money, or natural ability.
- Limits — faith never runs short for your own assigned work. It runs out only when you step into someone else's. The answer is not imitation but your own measure.
- Body — sober self-judgment serves the common interest, because no member acts alone. False modesty that refuses to act is just as much a failure as pride that goes too far.
For, as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office;
This verse draws its picture from something everyone knows: one body with many parts, each doing its own work. It sits inside an appeal about how a Christian should measure himself. Two questions follow. What does it mean that the members do not all have the same "office" (ESV: "function")? And which body does Paul mean?
The verse begins with "For" — it is the reason for something already said. What precedes is a warning against thinking too highly of oneself, and one writer points out how telling it is that such a warning was needed at all.
The Christian is not yet free from the sin that still lives in him, though chapter 6 teaches him how to deal with it, since he himself is in Christ. He needs the warning given here, "not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." What creatures God's saints must be, if they need such a warning — a warning that even comes with a reason showing how fitting it is!
One writer traces the phrase back to our own arms, fingers and feet, then asks who the one body takes in.
"All members have not the same office." There is a great lesson in that. Each has its own function. The many members in one body are our arms, fingers and feet, and that is the picture Paul uses. This is the first teaching in the New Testament about the Body of Christ. "So we, though many, are one body in Christ." Who are the "we"? All Christians. You must not think of it as a society, a club, or a mere organisation, as men would say. Think of the members of the human body, and then ask who makes up the one body. "Many" — in fact all Christians on earth today are of it. "And individually members one of another" — I think that means, I cannot get on without you, and you cannot get on without me.
If gifts differ, no one person can carry them all.
What counted was God's dealing with each person, not a human commission given to one man or a few. So faith came in, and each is urged to think soberly of himself, and to use what God has given him instead of pretending to more. We do not see one member taking all the gifts to himself, or holding others back. We see many members, and yet only one body, with differing gifts, and each one urged to use them.
Why did the Spirit choose a body, and not some other image?
Romans 12:4 gives the illustration; Romans 12:5 applies that illustration. Forgive me for saying it, but if the Spirit had meant a regiment or a corporation, the picture He actually gave might seem unfortunate and misleading. We have many members in one body, but these are all organically united. The many organs and members are wonderfully suited to their different uses, yet in their very nature they are one, and together they form one living whole. They are not separate units, each with a life of its own, even if such units were all placed under one commander or director.
So who counts as a member — a person, or a group?
The Epistle to the Romans views the believer in his individual character rather than his corporate one. So it uses the same picture, not to explain the nature of the Church as doctrine, but to press the duty of every Christian to act according to the gift given to him… In these passages, note carefully: the members are individual believers. They are not different local assemblies, and still less are they voluntary associations, self-styled "Churches," divided from each other on points of doctrine, discipline, and order.
One detail marks the angle here: Romans says nothing about the Head.
In Romans 12 we have the same general idea as in 1 Corinthians. It assumes all of them are true saints. It looks at the members, not in union with the Head, but in their relationship to one another and in their service as individuals. "So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another."
- Cause — The verse gives a reason, not just a picture. It explains why no Christian should rate himself too highly.
- Gift — Different offices mean different gifts. Use what God has given you, and never pretend to more.
- Union — The tie is a living one, like a body. It is not a federation or an organisation under a director.
- Members — The members are individual believers, never denominations or societies. You belong to the one body, not to a group.
- Reach — Romans reaches this far and stops. It looks at the members in relation to one another, not at their union with the Head.
thus we, [being] many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other.
Paul has just warned every believer not to think too highly of himself. Here he gives the reason: many as we are, we form one body, and each of us belongs to all the others. So who is the "we"? What makes this oneness real? And what does it change in everyday service?
Romans deals mostly with the individual before God. That makes this mention of the body both rare and pointed:
Here the apostle looks at the Christian life in a narrower circle... It is the only place in this letter that mentions the body, the Church, and it does so in relation to the duties of the members as individuals. The main subject is man in his own responsibility before God. But since there is one body, the members should serve in the common interest. We cannot act on our own, as if we had no tie with anyone on earth.
Verse 4 draws the picture of the human body. Verse 5 applies it to us, and it rules out any thought of the church as a crowd of separate people:
Romans 12:5 is the application of the figure. Christians differ widely, and each has his own exercises and activities. Yet in Christ they are one living body. That is, we are not thinking of a mere gathering of separate people, but of organs and members in a body... So this verse adds that we are all "members of one another." Each one is incomplete without all the rest. You could never say that of any group of people, however united they are.
Paul never narrows the word "we." Every Christian is inside it, and the last phrase spells out a plain mutual need:
"So we, though many, are one body in Christ." Who are the "we"? All Christians. You must not think of it as a society, a club, or an organisation, as people would say. Think of the members of the human body, then ask who makes up the one body. "Many" — in fact all Christians on earth today belong to it... "Individually members one of another" — I think that means I cannot get on without you, and you cannot get on without me.
Another writer rules out a common mistake about who these members are:
Notice in these passages that the members are individual believers. They are not different local assemblies, and still less different voluntary societies that call themselves "Churches" and are split from each other over doctrine, discipline, and order.
The words "in Christ" mark this unity off from anything God had before. Israel had one nation and one law. This body could not exist until Christ had died and risen:
In the past age there was one nation according to natural birth, and a covenant of commandments suited to that age. Now, by contrast, "we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another." What a contrast this is to Israel... In the past no one could be in Christ. Christ had to die and be raised from the dead, or He would remain alone. But now we are one body in Christ... Here we have not so much the doctrine of the one body as the practice of all the members of that one body.
No member holds every function. So the verse rules out one person doing everything, and it traces each gift back to God rather than to a human appointment:
What God had dealt to each one was in view, not a human commission given to one man or to a few. So faith came in, and each one is urged to think soberly of himself, and to use what God has given him instead of pretending to more. We do not see one member soaking up all the gifts, or holding others back. We see many members and yet one body, with different gifts, urged to use them — not only out of love, because each of us is a member of all the others, but because of the grace God has given.
The phrase "members one of another" is one strand of a larger truth. Two other strands run beside it:
There are three ways of looking at membership in the Body. Linked with Christ: "we are members of His body" (Ephesians 5:30). Linked with all believers: "individually members one of another" (Romans 12:5). As individuals: "we are members in particular" (1 Corinthians 12:27). So we have three lines of truth here: connection with Christ, connection with one another, and individual responsibility.
- One — all Christians are one living body, not a club and not a group of clubs. The members are people, not churches.
- In Christ — this oneness could not exist until Christ died and rose. No one votes himself into it.
- Of one another — each member is incomplete without the rest. No one carries every function.
- Sober — see yourself as one member, and high thoughts die. You use what God gave you and stop pretending to more.
- Serving — Romans gives the fact, not the full teaching, so that no one serves alone. Each works in the common interest.
But having different gifts, according to the grace which has been given to us, whether [it be] prophecy, [let us prophesy] according to the proportion of faith;
Paul has just told the believers in Rome that they are many members in one body, and that each is to think soberly about himself. Verse 6 draws the conclusion. Our differences are not accidents of talent. They are gifts of grace. That raises a question: how far does a gift reach, and where does it stop?
The word translated "gifts" is charismata. One writer traces it back to charis, the word for grace. So a gift is not first a display of power. It is grace at work through a member of the body.
Some gifts did have a clearly miraculous character, and we have lost those. I do not deny that. But I deny that this was the necessary character or real meaning of charisma. It is the effect or product of charis, grace, here applied to the action of a member of the body in service.
"Differing" could sound like ranking. One writer turns it round. The same grace that made one unlike another also made each one necessary to the rest.
Let us never forget that, whatever the differences, all are gifts. The grace that gave them has made one person differ from another. But it has also made each one necessary to the others, since all are in the one body. Whatever we have from the Lord, let us use it all in subjection to Him, and for the object He had in view.
This takes in every Christian. Not every gift is prominent.
There is no true Christian who has not something or other given him for service in the body — perhaps merely a little bit of wisdom. Everybody has got something for service to the body, as a hand or foot or eye; but not everybody has a prominent gift as a pastor or evangelist.
Sober self-judgement cuts two ways. A person can push past his assignment. He can also shrink from it.
Each did his own proper work, according to the measure of faith dealt out by God. So each would act with humility, but also with firmness. He knew it was God's will and his own service. Unbelief seeks great things. It overlooks the one thing that matters: the duty God has assigned to us. We are not to go beyond its measure, or outside its nature. Let us remember, however, that there is a false modesty that fails to act, as well as the lack of modesty that goes too far.
Prophecy heads the list. The word means more than predicting the future.
We often limit the idea of a prophet to one who foretells future events. The main idea of the prophet is that of a forth-teller, as well as a foreteller. The prophet brings his hearers into God's presence, to face their state before Him… To be effective, a prophet must aim at the conscience. That was true of Isaiah and others who addressed a sinful nation in their day. It is just as true of those who prophesy now (Rom. 12:6).
Commentators differ over this phrase. One reads it as faith that rests wholly on the word of God (F. W. Grant). The most practical reading is a limit on the speaker: do not go past what God has given you.
There is great need of this: that we attend first to the nature of our gift, and second to its measure… I do not doubt that many a person's gift would be recognised if he did not go beyond his measure in it. "If he prophesies, let him prophesy according to the proportion of faith." Everything beyond that is flesh, and putting himself forward. People feel it, and they reject his whole gift, because he has not known how to keep inside it.
Gift, then, is never its own authority.
The reality of gift did not and does not remove the need for regulation by the word. No one brings the hearer's soul into more direct contact with God than the one who prophesies; yet his prophesying must match the faith.
The list that follows sorts the gifts into two plain streams.
There were gifts, charismata, fitting each one for his service. They all flow from the Holy Spirit, as 1 Cor. 12:4 shows… Looking at the different kinds of service in the assembly, we can divide them into two classes: ministry in the Word, and ministry in other ways.
- Grace gives. A gift is charisma, the product of charis, grace. It is grace at work through a member of the body.
- Grace differs. The same grace made one member unlike another. It also made each one necessary to the rest. Even a little wisdom is something given for the body.
- Grace measures. God deals out to each one a measure of faith. Do not overstep it — and do not hide behind false modesty either.
- Grace is regulated. Even prophecy must stay in proportion to faith, under the word. Whatever goes past the measure is flesh, and people feel it.
- Grace serves. Service runs in two streams: ministry in the Word, and ministry in other ways. Both belong to the one body.
or service, [let us occupy ourselves] in service; or he that teaches, in teaching;
Paul has just said that believers, though many, form one body. Their gifts differ, and this verse names two of them — service and teaching. Both come with the same instruction: stay in it.
The ESV calls this gift "service." Older translations call it "ministry," the word the writers below use. Either way, it does not mean public speaking:
Scripture separates what people call "ministry" from "preaching," as you will find in Romans 12. The apostle speaks of the teacher giving himself to his teaching, and of the one who serves giving himself to his service. Nowadays people use "ministry" to mean only preaching or teaching. But that is not the language of the Holy Spirit. Many people who have no such power do a great deal of serving — serving the saints. It would be no great loss if there was less ministering in that way, and more ministering in a real way.
Commentators differ on how wide the word is. Some take it as any service to the saints; others tie it to the work of a deacon:
The words minister and ministry are sometimes used of the apostles, of teachers, and of all who serve in the gospel. Sometimes they carry a narrower sense, of the office of deacon. That narrower sense seems to be the right meaning of the word "ministry" here. The deacons were officers who cared for the poor and the sick, and for the outward affairs of the church. And if a man's gift lay in ministering to the saints in this way, he was to attend to it. This is a real service of love, and one most acceptable to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His poor saints.
Teaching is more than holding the truth yourself:
The teacher not only knows and enjoys the truth himself. He also has the gift of opening it up so that others see it, enjoy it, and own its weight and importance. At the same time, do not confuse the teacher with the prophet, or teaching with prophesying.
That also settles what a teacher may say:
The teacher is one of the gifts set in the church, and Scripture tells the teacher to keep busy with teaching (Rom. 12:7). "Teaching" is the clear, intelligent setting out of the truth by the Holy Spirit. It leaves no room for the mind and opinion of man.
The repeated instruction — service in serving, teaching in teaching — draws a boundary. Each person does his own work and leaves the rest alone:
There are many members, not heads. Again, no one is to go beyond his measure. Each is to wait on his ministry, whatever it may be; let him stick to that one thing, and not attend to everything else. The one who gives, let him give with simplicity. The one who serves is to wait on his service and do the work he has to do — and let him not try anything else. In the same way, the one who exhorts is to wait on exhortation. God may give one person half a dozen gifts. One may be an evangelist only; one may exhort and move the conscience; and another may teach.
Two gifts can look alike and still not swap places:
The teacher of the gospel differs from the evangelist. The evangelist works out in the world, among the unsaved. He is a fisher of men, while the teacher of the gospel feeds the babes in God's household. The two are closely related, but they are distinct gifts with different fields of work. Often the gospel teacher grieves that no one is converted when he speaks to sinners. And the man who is purely an evangelist loses his usual freedom when most of his hearers are believers. Each "gift" is for one special work, and that is the work he is appointed to do. Let then the teacher wait on his teaching (see Rom. 12:4-8), and the evangelist on his preaching.
This is not just a personal matter. The whole church gains or loses by it:
We cannot press too strongly how important it is to take the place given us to fill, and to use the special gift or function given to us in the body. Every Christian has his own place, which no one else can fill. Each has his own work, which no other can do. The health and wellbeing of the assembly depend on believers seeing this truth and living it out.
- Given — Gifts differ according to the grace God gives. He may give one person several gifts, and another only one.
- Named — "Ministry" here means real service to the saints, not speaking. Commentators differ: some see the deacon's care of the poor and sick, others service in a wider sense.
- Unfolded — The teacher does not just hold the truth. He opens it up so others see and value it. What he sets out is the Spirit's truth, not his own opinion.
- Bounded — Each one sticks to his own work and leaves the rest alone. The teacher waits on teaching, the evangelist on preaching.
- Fruitful — Every Christian has a place no one else can fill. The health of the whole church depends on each one keeping to it.
or he that exhorts, in exhortation; he that gives, in simplicity; he that leads, with diligence; he that shews mercy, with cheerfulness.
Romans 12 lists gifts that differ, and this verse ends the list with four of them — exhorting, giving, leading, and showing mercy. Each one comes with a manner attached. What you do for God's people matters, and so does the spirit you do it in.
This is not a list of things every Christian should try. Each person is to take up what God has actually given him.
There are many members, not heads. Again, no one is to go beyond his measure. Each is to attend to his own ministry, whatever it is. Let him stick to that one thing and not take up everything else... God may give one person half a dozen gifts.
Teaching and exhorting are named separately on purpose.
So we see that in the days of the apostles God did not always give a man a gift for both teaching and exhorting. Each gift was to have room to be used, and each person was to keep to the service God had entrusted to him. It would have been good if believers had always remembered this and acted on it.
Exhorting is not the same work as teaching. It aims at a different target, and it costs something on both sides.
The teacher deals mainly with the understanding, the exhorter with the conscience. It takes great grace to be an exhorter, and just as much grace to receive a word of exhortation... Exhortation includes warning and comfort. It urges people to practical duties and turns them away from neglecting duty. It points out where they fall short. It applies the promises or the warnings of Scripture, as each case needs.
Another writer explained why this gift is rarer than preaching or explaining Scripture.
The power to do this is a very distinct gift from God. It is much rarer than the gift of the evangelist or of the one who explains Scripture. Those two keep the mind within limits — the first to the good old gospel, the second to the passage of Scripture and what is in it. In exhortation you have to apply the truth of Scripture to the soul. You have to know how to slide it in between flesh and spirit, so that it condemns the flesh and gives liberty to the spirit.
Older versions read "with simplicity" here. The word points first at the giver's motive.
The same word that describes God's own giving is the one Paul urges on the Christian: "He that gives, in simplicity." How often mixed motives try to get into the heart when we give! Liking instead of love in one case, dislike holding us back in another. Self-importance, concern for our reputation, going along with others on one side; on the other, a cautious or unbelieving fear hiding behind excuses... A single eye here, as everywhere, promotes love, because it lets in light. And what it leads to is generosity.
This also explains why "simplicity" and "generosity" end in the same place.
A man who gives simply will give generously. The need speaks to him and stirs the love in him. And true love is wise; there is nothing blind about it. Divine love is never separate from divine wisdom.
Leading is its own kind of service, and it comes with its own demand.
It is striking that leading appears among the services God has given to the saints. The leader is not always gifted to teach or preach, and the teacher and preacher is not always a leader. The leader is the one whose wisdom and experience fit him to guide the people of God. He is to use his gift with the diligence that puts thought and care into his guidance.
Where this gift sits in the list matters too. It blocks any attempt to sort these gifts into an official class and an ordinary one.
God guards us here from drawing so sharp a line that it would favour the ruinous split between clergy and ordinary Christians, into which the early church soon slipped. Some try to find in this list a move from public gifts to private ones. But that is wholly fanciful. The Holy Spirit has made such a scheme impossible by placing the most public gift of all, the ruler or leader, between "the one who contributes" and "the one who does acts of mercy."
The last pairing guards the way kindness feels to the person receiving it.
This is a fine gift, and one that everyone who visits the poor and the suffering should want. We are not only to show mercy. We are to show it so cheerfully that it is plain the help comforts them and is a pleasure to us. The value of any service of love done for people in sorrow depends mainly on the spirit in which it is done.
- Gift — Take up what God actually gave you. No one is to go beyond his measure, and one person may not be gifted for both teaching and exhorting.
- Manner — Each gift comes with its own spirit: simplicity, diligence, cheerfulness. How you do it is part of the doing.
- Conscience — Teaching aims at the understanding. Exhortation aims at the conscience, applying Scripture so that it condemns the flesh and frees the spirit.
- Motive — Simplicity in giving keeps out self-importance, concern for reputation, and unbelieving fear. The single eye still ends in generosity.
- Reach — Leading takes thought and care. Mercy takes a cheerful face, because a kind act done coldly loses its worth to the person who receives it.
Let love be unfeigned; abhorring evil; cleaving to good
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
as to brotherly love, kindly affectioned towards one another as to honour, each taking the lead in paying it to the other
Paul has moved from teaching to daily life. He has just told believers that love must be genuine, and now he turns to the circle of God's own family. The verse asks two things that cut against our instincts. It asks for an affection built on relationship, not on how appealing someone is. And it asks us to compete at giving honour instead of receiving it.
The command does not stand alone. It follows a call to sincere love. One writer sees a narrowing here, with the standard set by the closest family ties:
The love spoken of in the previous verse is most likely love to all people. Here brotherly love is singled out. The teaching of the Spirit in this verse appears to be that Christians should have a love for each other, as brothers in Christ, that is as sincere and tender as if they were their closest relatives.
Commentators differ on what that earlier love means. William Kelly reads it as deeper than kindness between believers or kindness to everyone:
Love is the activity of the divine nature in goodness. So it cannot be separated from that nature when it is reproduced in the children of God.
If affection depended on how appealing a person is, it would collapse as soon as someone became difficult. The verse rests it on something else:
Our affection for one another should flow from our relationship as brothers, not from some quality in them that we find attractive or useful. Brotherly love makes us ready to let others have honour instead of grabbing it for ourselves.
That same ground holds even when a believer is weak:
We are not asked to love the sinful nature in our brothers. We are to love them because they are brothers, despite all their weaknesses.
One writer presses the point that honour here means going first:
The point here is not just to repay the courtesy of others. It is to take the lead in treating them with honour, and so by example to lead them into the same lovely ways.
The failure to move first is rarely dramatic. It hides behind ordinary awkwardness. Then it gets blamed on everyone else:
Some have a false modesty, and others a secret pride. Either one makes them slip out of a meeting fast, so that people who would gladly have spoken to them never get the chance. When this goes on for a while, people complain that the believers are cold and show no love to strangers. But who is at fault?
Paul did not leave the instruction as theory. Later in the same letter he greets two believers, Andronicus and Junias, and hands them the credit:
The claims of kindred are not forgotten; but the higher claim to remembrance, in the case of Andronicus and Junias, is that they had suffered with the Apostle as "fellow-prisoners". The Apostle carries out his own exhortation, "In honour preferring one another" (12:10), for he says they "are of note among the Apostles", and "were in Christ" before himself.
The everyday form is simple enough to start today:
Let us delight in paying honour to other believers. Draw attention to their good qualities and their work instead of our own.
Sometimes warm treatment cannot continue. One writer draws a line between the affection itself and how we show it:
Through the power of Satan, a brother may be living in a disorderly way, or he may fall into error, and so become a proper case for discipline. We must change how we treat him, though our love stays the same, or even grows stronger.
- Relationship first. Love your fellow believer because he is your brother. Not because he is attractive or useful to you.
- Family warmth. The affection asked for is as sincere and tender as what you would give your closest relatives. It grows out of shared birth into God's family.
- Take the lead. Honour here is not repaying a courtesy. It is going first, and setting an example that draws others after you.
- Give the credit away. Paul did it by saying that others were well known, and were in Christ before he was. You do it by pointing at someone else's work instead of your own.
- Love outlasts kindness. When a believer's life calls for discipline, the treatment changes. The love stays the same, or grows stronger.
as to diligent zealousness, not slothful; in spirit fervent; serving the Lord.
Older translations read "not slothful in business" here, where the ESV says "Do not be slothful in zeal" — and that one word has caused centuries of confusion. So two questions come first: does this command cover my daily job, and how does anyone stay fervent for a lifetime?
The word behind the older rendering means diligence — an attitude, not a set of tasks.
This next clause has been much abused, and the misunderstanding comes from the way words change their meaning over time. We naturally take "business" to refer to our daily jobs — these are, in fact, the things men are most "busy" with, and think they must be. But the word simply means "diligence": "In diligence not slothful." There is a way of being busy about things without any real diligence.
Notice also what Paul does not command. He sets a floor, not a ceiling, and he places the fire somewhere other than the workload.
It is often quoted as "diligent in business," which is not what is said, though man's selfishness likes to think so. The "business," I take it, means whatever might rightly claim a believer's attention — "whatever your hand finds to do." About such matters it is clearly wise to say simply "not slothful." On the other hand, the word is "fervent in spirit," not fervent in business. The one refers to the outward life, the other to the inner.
Commentators differ on how wide the first clause reaches. Kelly takes it broadly, as anything that has a claim on you. Andrew Miller limits the phrase to service for God, yet he still allows the Christian no laziness anywhere.
The exhortation refers to religious activity, not to the active work of our everyday jobs. Many have supposed it does, and the word "business" in our text suggests as much. At the same time, whatever the Christian does, in temporal or spiritual things, he should not be slothful or indulge in laziness. In every duty he should show a spirit of zeal and devotion. "In spirit fervent" is the Lord's word. Scripture says the same of Apollos, a teacher who was "fervent in spirit" and taught accurately about the Lord (Acts 18:25).
Diligence alone can harden into busyness with nothing behind it. The second clause exists to prevent that, and the third supplies the reason.
Three exhortations follow that more directly have the Lord in view. In our service to the Lord we are to be diligent, with a holy zeal that resists slothfulness. Zeal, however, can degenerate into mere outward activity, so the call is to a fervency of spirit that keeps the Lord before us as the motive of the service.
Fervency is not a mood we manufacture. Heat needs fuel, and we take it in private before we spend it in public.
Lukewarm Christians are the devil's delight and the Lord's grief. Fervency of spirit is what we should desire above all things. But if our hearts are to burn in this cold world, the oil of grace must flow into them; and for that we must cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart. Then His own supplies never run out. They come to us in secret, and they are more than enough to meet every public demand, despite the world, the flesh, and the devil.
A few old copies read "serving the season" instead of "serving the Lord." Kelly weighs the evidence and rejects that reading.
Then, instead of allowing slothfulness, the apostle insists on zealous diligence. In case this should be only outward work, he at once adds "in spirit fervent." Both then have a blessed motive: "serving the Lord." It is well known that Griesbach followed a few manuscripts, versions and early writers, and joined Erasmus in reading kairo ["season"] for Kurio ["Lord"]. He did so against the weight of the evidence and almost every other editor… Serving the time — the "season" or "opportunity" — seems at least a little unworthy, suits the context poorly, and is easily open to the worst abuse.
Nothing makes us go slack faster than watching others get the honour we wanted. That is why this fervency answers to a Master, not to an audience.
Nor should this lessen our own diligent zeal and leave us slothful — a common tendency when we see others honoured and not ourselves. Rather, let us keep a true inward fervency of spirit that guards us from every discouragement and makes us independent of the approval of men. Then "serving the Lord" will be a very real thing to us, and no mere formal phrase or idealistic sentiment.
- Diligence — the word older translations render "business" means diligence, not employment. You can be busy all day and still not be diligent.
- Outward — the command about work is modest: not slothful. A floor, not a demand for frantic activity.
- Inward — Paul puts the fire in the spirit, not in the workload, because zeal can shrink into empty activity.
- Upward — "serving the Lord" steadies both. The weight of manuscript evidence also supports this reading over "serving the season."
- Onward — fervency feeds in secret and answers to a Master, so it survives being overlooked.
As regards hope, rejoicing as regards tribulation, enduring as regards prayer, persevering
Three short commands stand together here in a run of practical instructions. Each names a different part of life: what we look forward to, what we are going through now, and what we do about both. Commentators read them as one chain rather than three separate duties.
Writers note that the clauses before and after this verse are not a random list. Kelly starts from the words about serving the Lord. That mention leads straight into the future, then the present, then the support that holds a believer steady through both.
To my mind, the Spirit links the mention of the Lord and of serving Him with the bright future: "Rejoice in hope." That in turn connects simply with present suffering: "be patient in tribulation." And it connects with the great support of the soul, whatever comes meanwhile: "be constant in prayer."
Hamilton Smith describes the same order as the road itself. Trouble comes along the way.
The following three exhortations refer to the trials along the way. The hope of the coming glory will hold us up in trial and make us patient under it. And prayer, which casts everything on the Lord, will support us in it.
The joy commanded here is not a new emotion to be worked up. One writer traces it back to the joy a believer had at the start, and asks why it should ever fade.
"Rejoice in hope" carries on the same joy in hope of the glory of God that filled the heart at conversion (compare Rom. 5:2). The hope itself has not changed — in fact it is nearer than when we believed: why then should our joy fade? Is tribulation sometimes the answer? "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small." Let us consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself. This will give us patient endurance and will not lessen our joy.
Another writer points to daily duties as what gets in the way of that joy.
Next we have "rejoicing in hope." Sadly, how the present, with its calls and duties, can interfere with that! We need to keep our heads up continually and to be looking at the unseen realities which are ours. Here we have reason to rejoice that will never fail us. As the apostle reminds us, it will carry us through tribulation itself.
Hope here has a definite object. One writer fills it out with the return of Christ, and lists what the mind should dwell on when sorrow is heavy.
The hope of the Lord's coming is the most effective means of producing patience under present trials. Think of the One who is coming, of who He is, of our union with Him. Think of meeting Him in the air, and of being brought by Him into the house with many rooms. Think of seeing Him face to face, hearing His voice, seeing His glory, and knowing His love and grace more fully. Such thoughts are made to calm a troubled mind and to sweeten the bitterness of sorrow.
Writers set the third command against mere religious habit. It calls for warmth and persistence, and they treat it as what keeps the other two alive.
"Be constant in prayer." Meanwhile, come what may, we fall back on the great resource of the soul — fellowship with God, keeping on in prayer… Only this way of dealing with God can feed hope, patience, and every other virtue. It is the direct opposite of formality. Only prayer that is steady, warm and persistent answers to what God asks here. No duty is done well, and no service done rightly, without this kind of prayer.
In practice, this touches how we plan a day and whether we keep the promises we make to pray.
Romans 12:12 tells us to be constant in prayer (older translations say "continuing instant in prayer"). The stress is on perseverance: not giving up until the answer comes… To have time to pray, we may need to put it before other things in our busy day. This takes effort, and interest and concern for others and for Christian things… When we say we will pray for someone or something, do we? And for how long do we do so?
- Hope first. The joy commanded is the joy that filled the heart at the start. The hope is nearer now than it was then, so why let the joy fade?
- Hope has a face. Writers fill hope out with the Lord's coming: meeting Him, seeing Him, His love and glory. Such thoughts calm a troubled mind.
- Hope carries you through trouble. Trouble is expected along the road. Looking at the coming glory is what makes us patient in it.
- Prayer carries the other two. Writers call persevering prayer the great resource of the soul. Nothing else feeds hope and patience.
- Test it practically. Persevering prayer is the opposite of formality. It costs time, and it means keeping the prayers we promise others.
distributing to the necessities of the saints; given to hospitality.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.