Page 82 - Romans Student Textbook.doc

Do not use your freedom in Christ to judge one another or to keep one another from growing in their
trust in and service to Christ. (14:10-23)

Receive one another despite your differences so that the harmony of your relationships with one another
will show the glory of God. (15:1-7)

As Christ has worked on your behalf to show you God’s love and mercy, so you must joyfully accept one
another in spite of your differences. (15:8-13)

13.4 Chapter 13: The Foundational Command and How to Think about Ourselves and Others

Introduction:

At the beginning Romans 12 the whole complexion of the letter changes. The questions which
were so prevalent and drove the logic of the first eleven chapters almost completely disappear.
In their place come imperative statements — commands and instructions about what they
should do in light of what they know about God’s salvation. The tone is no longer so much about
investigation into the wonder of God’s salvation as it is about demonstration of the wonder of God’s
salvation to a watching world. Paul is moving from essential theory and understanding to essential
practice in living. They are being encouraged to live out what they know and live up to who they are in
Christ.

Paul’s goal in all of these things is to see God heal a rift that was developing or had developed in the
Roman churches between the legalistically bent believers from a Jewish background and the freedom-
pursuing believers from a Gentile background. His desire is that their commonly-held understanding
about salvation their theology which he has just rehearsed for them — would help them overcome the
great differences that existed between their religious, social, economic and political backgrounds which
were threatening to drive them apart and ruin their testimony to the redeeming power of the gospel of
Christ in Rome.

Paul structured what he had to say to them about how to live out the gospel in the church and in society
in this way. He began by establishing a foundational command that encompasses all of living to please
God (12:1-2); he then addressed specific applications of that command to situations in life that applied to
all believers (12:3-13:14); and finished by teaching specific commands about how both “the weak” and
“the strong” should relate to one another in their fellowship in the local church (14:1-15:13). The point of
it all is to make clear to both groups that their attitudes and actions fell outside of God’s commands about
how to live out their salvation and to call them to repent and renew their commitment to loving one
another as an expression of their desire to please God.

Foundational Command

Give yourselves totally and wholly to God to think in His way and do His will. (12:1-2)

The foundational command flows out of the exposition of the wonder of God’s salvation as the proper
and reasonable response to what God has done in saving them. Paul expressed the command as an
appeal to the Roman believers who were part of the Roman churches. It is an appeal for them to give
themselves freely and completely to God as His servants as the proper response of worship to his display
of His mercy to them through the person and work of His Son. In making this appeal Paul used a
grammatical form that enabled him to point out what the proper thing was for them to do without
personally commanding them to do so. It is not the normal way commands were expressed but it still

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