The first time I read this passage in The Message Bible, a paraphrase prayerfully and carefully written by Eugene Peterson for his congregation in which he was pastor, I was blessed beyond the words!  I had always enjoyed Paul’s inspired words to the Roman churches but even more so as directives in how to live a life committed to Christ are made crystal clear in my language of understanding! 

This particular part of the letter to the Romans is the pivot point from explaining who we are to what we do. I have used this passage over the years for training young leaders in The Body of Christ too many times to count!  Romans 12 has become the key passage for understanding how to be in Christ, as a representative of Christ, as we serve The Body in God’s Sprit of love and truth.  The secret?  Jesus lives in us, (Romans 8:10) and His Holy Spirit guides us. God’s is always at work to mold and shape us into what HE created us to be in the Body.  To God be the glory!  Yes!

So, here’s what I want you to do—God helping you…

Romans 12, The Message

Place Your Life Before God

12 ^1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

³ I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

^4-6 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we’re talking about is Christ’s body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn’t amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ’s body, let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t.

^6-8 If you preach, just preach God’s Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don’t take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don’t get bossy; if you’re put in charge, don’t manipulate; if you’re called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don’t let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

* * *

^9-10 Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

^11-13 Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

^14-16 Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.

^17-19 Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. “I’ll do the judging,” says God. “I’ll take care of it.”

^20-21 Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he’s thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

WHO WE ARE—EMBRACE THE GRACE!

Paul spent time meticulously assuring us who we are in Jesus who died for our sins, removing them completely from us as we repent.  “All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory,” Romans 3:23.  No one is exempt.  But the Good News is that everyone who confesses that Jesus is Lord, (Jews and non-Jews), is saved from all our sins—forever!  We are all God’s beloved, the “chosen” and the “grafted-in adopted” together!  God set things right in our relationship to Him by sending His One and Only Son to save us from those sins that blocked our view from God!  Jesus, raised from death as the Victor over the enemy, gives hope to all who believe in Him—eternal life. 

Yes, all are welcome. All are offered the gift of God’s salvation.  It is us who mustdecide to accept the offered gift with humbled gratitude.  Those who do accept, believe and repent of our sins in Jesus Name have not only been forgiven; we become children of God—a work of God’s generous love, mercy, and grace—forever!  Our loving relationship with God secured, made right by Jesus.  This is blessed assurance, indeed!  This is unfailing love.

WHAT WE DO

Now God inspires Paul to write how to live a life that gives God glory as we seek His help to be more and more like Jesus, His Son in our everyday lives.  Paul not only gives us the “should” he tells us the “how.”  Paul teaches us what to expect when God’s Holy Spirit causes new shifts in our behavior that will occur as we cease pursuing self and wholeheartedly pursue what God wants most—His best for our good!

Notice all the commanding action verbs…

• PLACE our lives before God as an offering giving all of us to all of Him.
• EMBRACE what God does.
• FIX OUR ATTENTION on God.
• READILY RECOGNIZE what God wants and QUICKLY RESPOND.

All this action, in Jesus Name, for God’s glory, comes with a promise:  God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.  God, helping us…

Gratefully embrace the grace of God to avoid arrogance and pride!

“The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.”

God gives us gifts withing the Body to help the Body of Christ grow healthy and strong—for our good and His glory!  Paul warns of evil’s schemes and behaviors that distract, deceive, and destroy our relationships with God and each other:  greed, irritation, frustration, envy, arrogance, pride, and comparisons.  Instead, “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it.” 

Oh church, how we need this message to penetrate our hearts today.  Being the Body of Christ is not just another business entity who strives to make a profit—instead we are God’s children, molded and shaped by God, to be ambassadors of the One who saved us from our sins and sets us free to love each other like He loves us.  “Freely you have received; freely give.” –Jesus, Matthew 10:8 “We love God because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:29 

The “center of who we are” is God’s perfect love that grows within a heart given to Him.  Loving and living from the core of our being given to God, God helping us, we will learn to:

• Keep ourselves fueled and on fire—not to do harm but to provide warmth so others will be drawn to Jesus in us with whom we serve with enthusiasm.
• In hard times, we will pray, asking for more help and wisdom.  Quitting isn’t an option.
• Be inventive in hospitality—even to our enemies!  This becomes fun!
• Our new goal in life is to “make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody.”
• Discover beauty in everyone.  Judge less—love more.
• Treat others better than they treat you—especially those who hate you for who you are.  Pray for your enemies. Pick a “take your enemy to lunch” day and serve them with real love.  Listen to their hurts.  Pray for their needs.  “Don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.”

These are God inspired words of wisdom have penetrated Paul’s being at the core!   Paul was a life changed by Jesus and now lives differently in his thinking and behaving.  Take it from one who was and still is being changed and transformed by Jesus—give all of you to all of Him.  You won’t regret it!  We are New lives becoming a new creations that God planned for us to be from the beginning!

Lord,

Thank you for these words that teach us your ways of Kingdom living.  Thank you for helping us to be then do what you say.  Thank you for saving our souls and making us whole in the Body of Christ.  Thank you for continually cleansing our hearts, renewing our minds, transforming our behaviors with your love, tender mercies, and amazing grace. Thank you for restoring the joy and peace of you in me and me in you daily.  I believe.  I’m listening as I embrace the grace you so generously give.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen!  Yes!