Reading Romans

Hey Parents,

It's time for a Sunday School update....last Sunday your students hit chapter 12 in Romans....and it is a jam-packed chapter!  So let's take a quick look at what they talked about!

Give Yourself in Worship (Romans 12:1-2)
Paul starts chapter 12 off with urging the Romans to offer themselves as a living sacrifice.  This would have been a crazy thought to the readers at this time...they had always understood that the sacrifices were only to be the first and best animals...but Paul was talking about a radically different type of sacrifice.  Paul was encouraging believers to present their bodies as living sacrifices...harking back to the discussion of the body being dead to sin because of the life-giving presence of the Spirit (back in chapter 8).  To live by the Spirit is to offer oneself completely and daily as a holy and pleasing sacrifice.

Paul explains that living as a holy, pleasing sacrifice was a believer's spiritual worship.....this is the logical and pleasing way for Christians to serve God.

Paul also urges his readers to reject worldliness and to be transformed by the renewing of the mind.  This was a continuing action...the transformation of our thinking and attitudes is an ongoing, lifelong endeavor.

The result of having our minds renewed by the Spirit is to grow in our ability to discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.  See, Christian living is not about emptying the mind, but rather about thinking intelligently and logically in accordance with God's ways.

Use Your Gifts (Romans 12:3-8)
Paul encourages believers to remain humble while seeking God's will for their lives.  We have to work to keep our pride in check.  As Paul begins to talk about spiritual gifts, he's well aware that the human propensity is to prize one type of gift one gets over the actual purpose of the gift.

Paul urges his readers to think sensibly about the faith they all possess in common.  See, each believer possesses a measure of faith - at least one spiritual gift that gives evidence of his or her saving faith.  Paul shows how, just like the parts of a body all function differently but all work together, all the different spiritual gifts function differently but work together for one unified purpose!

Here's a breakdown of each gift:

Prophecy - the gift of speaking God's inspired message

Service - the gift of serving in ways to meet the practical needs of others

Teaching - the gift of effectively instructing others, especially in scriptural understanding and moral living

Exhorting - the gift of coming alongside others to encourage and cheer them on toward godly living

Giving - the gift of contributing generously and effectively to help meet others' needs.

Leading - the gift of organizing and guiding Christians in cooperative ventures of service and spiritual growth

Mercy - the gift of acting with grace and cheerfulness to alleviate suffering and hardship, such activities as feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and tending to the elderly.

Paul wanted his readers to use their gift to benefit their local churches.  We need all these parts to work together to serve the body of Christ.

Love Your Fellow Christians (Romans 12:9-16)
As a result of experiencing God's transforming love in Christ, believers are to exhibit Christlike love for one another.  Paul describes 4 qualities of Christlike love:

1.  It is without hypocrisy - we must not pretend or put on a show...but we need to genuinely desire the well-being of other Christians.

2.  Love despises evil and clings tenaciously to what is good.  It's not wishy-washy about right and wrong.

3.  It's expressed as family affection - we should view each other in the church as brothers and sisters in the Lord.

4.  It drives us to outdo one another in showing honor.  It's constantly seeking to for ways to help, encourage, or celebrate others!

Paul exhorts that as believers we should be positive and gracious, not negative and vengeful.  We are to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep.  We need to learn to appreciate others!

Treat Enemies with Kindness (Romans 12:17-21)
So here's a tough one....Paul writes with a focus here on how Christians are to relate to people outside the church.  Both within and outside the church, believers are to display an active, intentional, Christlike-ethic.  We need to avoid reactionary, vengeful behavior.  We need to make every effort to develop an honorable reputation in our communities.

This is basically an encouragement to live at peace with everyone.  Sometimes conflict is unavoidable, but as believers we can control our attitudes and responses by the power of the Spirit living in us.  When someone does us wrong, we can choose to put the matter in God's hands and trust in His sovereign judgement!


As you guys can see, chapter 12 is full of applicable truths for our students, and for us as adults as well!  Next week we'll be looking at Chapter 13 so read up this week!

Heffe