Romans 12:3-5 - Sober judgement

12:3

“For by the grace given me ..” Right at the start of Romans (1:5) we read that Paul received grace to call the Gentiles. Here again we see grace being active. Someone might ask what right does Paul have to tell them what to do. People will often accuse Christians in general in the same way. In our own lives there are times when we have to tell others what to do, whether it be people in our family, in our church or in a work setting. Humanly we can often have one of two reactions. We can feel woefully inadequate on the one hand, so aware of our own weaknesses, and we might react to this by avoiding confrontation of any sort. On the other hand we might get so puffed up with ourselves, adopting a very superior attitude. Both of these are examples of living by the flesh. We need to live in the grace that God gives us, and we need to recognise the grace that He has given us, and so correct and instruct in the right situation with the right attitude. The right attitude has three essential elements:

• We rely on God
• We do not consider ourselves better than others
• We are seeking the well being of the people we are instructing

Here Paul starts by instructing the Romans to have a sober judgement of themselves, a realistic judgement. And we are to act in faith. We are saved by faith and grace, we live by grace and faith.

12:4,5

Paul’s instructions apply in general, but he is also applying them in particular to various ministry situations, and the first thing we need to do is to recognise the variety of ministries and the importance of ministries. The body metaphor is used on several occasions, especially in 1 Corinthians 12. The worldly attitude is to ask which is the best ministry, which is the most important. This is not the Christian attitude. The church is a body, the body of Christ and it has many parts. And for the body to function well all parts need to work well. So we are to regard each other with respect, and whatever function we have we are to value that, and to see it in the context of serving others, not of self-advancement. Each part belongs to all the others. We work together with each other, we do not compete against one another.