Romans 13:8-10

We should pay everything that is due, taxes, financial debts, honour etc. Ie we are to fully give what others have a right to. But with love, we have an unending duty to love others. Love is freely given, we are to love people because it is right to do so, not because they have earned it. For this is how God loves. All the commandments relating to ones duties towards other people can be summed up the one command "love your neighbour as yourself".

So, Paul says, love is the fulfilment of the law. Jesus said the same thing when He said the law can be summed up by the two commandments, to love God with all we have, and our neighbour as ourself.

Romans 13:1-7

Remember that the chapter and verse numbers were not part of the original text, but were added later for our convenience. Sometimes this can make us compartmentalise sections, whereas they were written as a continuous text. Paul has just said do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Governments often do evil, and the Roman authorities were certainly no exception to this. The instructions that Paul gives here on submission to authority should be read in this context.

Authority has been instituted by God. Now, the government may not be exercising that authority properly, but we are still to submit to it. If we resist authority we are in fact resisting God. We often feel self-righteous when we object to some authority, whether it be government or at work, but we are in fact resisting God.

The godly purpose of authority is to promote good and to restrain evil. So the general rule is that if we do good then we will get on fine with authority, if we do evil we will suffer the consequences. Likewise we are to pay our taxes fully and willingly.

Of course all this raises many questions. Is it ever right to resist authority? The answer has to be yes. Peter and John refused to stop preaching, but we need to closely examine our motives.

Our starting point should be that we will submit to authority. Our sinful nature is to be rebellious, so we should always view inclinations to resist authority with suspicion.

If we then still feel we must resist we should ask ourselves on whose behalf are we resisting? Is it for our own self-interest, or is to protect others. If the former then it is highly likely that we are wrong to resits.

Another question to ask is who is going to pay the price of our resisting? Is it us or someone else? If it is someone else, again we need to closely question whether or not we should resist.

Finally we should examine our hearts. Are we feeling self-righteous? If we suffer for resisting are we going to start blaming all sorts of people and complaining "it's not fair". If so, then it is unlikely to be a godly resistance, for Christ did not complain at the suffering He had to endure.

Romans 12:14-21

The gospel produces a radically different approach to life. The natural reaction is to love those who love us, and hate those who do us harm, but Jesus tells us to love those who hate us (Matthew 5:43-45). We are to pray for the well being of those who do us harm. This does not mean pretending that what they are doing is not wrong, but we are to pray for their highest good. The natural reaction is to put ourselves in the judgement seat, but this position belongs only to God. This is what Paul means when he says "leave room for God's wrath". The best outcome is that someone repents and turns to God, and that is what we are to work towards. Now, Paul is perfectly aware that not all will do so, but we trust God to do any judging that needs to be done. In fact the very act of helping our enemies will throw them into confusion.

We are not to be self-centred, but to rejoice with others who are rejoicing, and to share in the sorrows of those who mourn. We are not to have a high opinion of ourselves, but to consider others better than ourselves (Phil 2:3). This does not mean having a demeaning opinion of ourselves, but considering others to be of great value.

As far as it is possible we are to live at peace with each other. Again, Paul is very aware that it is not always possible, but we should make sure that we do not give people a justifiable excuse for being offended by us.

Romans 12:9-13

Any notion that saying we are saved by faith alone means it doesn't matter what we do is consigned to the dustbin by passages such as this (of which there are many in Paul's writings).

We are to have a sincere love for one another. The gospel gives us the freedom to do this, for we have no need to prove that we are righteous, so we can genuinely look after the needs of others. We are free to honour one another, and to be devoted to each other. Jesus was able to give completely because He had complete confidence in His Father, we can now do likewise. We can give in practical ways, we can give in honour. For we know that God will provide, and we know that we have nothing to prove to God, so we have no need to prove that we are better than someone else (or that someone else is worse than us, which is fairly standard human reaction!).

We are to maintain our spiritual zeal. The zeal of the Lord is crucial, and we need to ask the Lord to daily renew our zeal. The events of day to day life can easily sap this zeal, but through the Holy Spirit we have an unending supply of renewed zeal.

Hope is to be a characteristic of our lives. The expectation of a great future should fill us with joy. When we go through times of affliction (as we will inevitably do from time to time) we need to be patient, for we know that the end result will be good. Prayer is essential.

Just as hope is to be a characteristic, so is generosity. Our God is a generous God who delights to give, we should emulate Him in this.

Romans 12:3-8

"By the grace given to me". When someone tells us what to do we might react against them saying "what right have they got to say that to me?" Paul had the "right" to say what he did because of the grace God gave him. He said these things because God had chosen him to be the apostle to the Gentiles to bring the good news of the kingdom to them. We tend to think of the grace of God only in terms of His forgiveness and mercy towards us. But His grace also gives authority to people, as it did to Paul. We need to look at people, particularly leaders, and ask what grace has God given to them? How does God want to work through them to bring His kingdom into our life. If we look at them only as men or women we will miss out on what God wants to do in our lives (2 Cor 5:16).

Likewise we are not to view ourselves from a human point of view. This leads to erroneous views of ourselves. We either think we are rubbish, or get to high a view of ourselves and our abilities. Instead we are to have a sober view of ourselves, a realistic view, But that is not all, we are to view ourselves according to the faith God has given to us. What we can achieve in life that is truly valuable is governed by the faith that we have.

We are not all the same, but are all part of the body of Christ. We can fall into the trap of either thinking our particular gifting is the most important one, or of thinking that we are not important because we do not have the same abilities as someone else. The body has many parts, and needs all its parts, and will function properly only if every part works as it should.

So whatever gift we have we are to use it according to the faith given to us, and to use it to the full, recognising that God works through us together with others to build the kingdom.

Romans 12:1,2

Now Paul turns to some of the practical implications of the gospel. This is a pattern he follows in most of his letters. The "theological" bits are not there for mere academic interest, they have a direct impact on our day-to-day living. What we believe will affect how we live.

God's mercy is in no way to be viewed as meaning we can do what we like and get away with it. In fact we would pout ourselves in grave danger if we treated God's mercy with contempt (Heb 6:6). Instead we are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. Because of what Jesus did in the cross, our lives are acceptable to God. Sometimes we can hold back because we feel unworthy. Isaiah 6 we read that once the burning coal had taken away Isaiah's sin he was willing to offer his service to God. We should do likewise. The sacrifices of the Old Testament were dead, but we are living sacrifices, our sacrifice will achieve something. The true worship is the offering of our lives to God as instruments to be used by Him for His glory and for the good of others.

We are not to be dictated tom either in our actions or thought patterns, by the world. Instead we are to be transformed, we are to allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds. Sometimes people talk as if the mind is a problem. A renewed mind is not a problem. A mind that is submitted to God is one that will help us to live lives that are pleasing to Him. Our minds were a problem because of sin, but then so were our hearts (Jer 17:9). Jesus died to bring complete salvation to us, and that includes sanctifying our minds.

Romans 11:33-36

This outburst of praise to God by Paul is the attitude that we all ought to have. God's plans go way beyond anything we can imagine. They are infinitely wiser than anything we can come up with, and beyond our understanding. Yet when they are revealed they will prove to be full of justice, mercy, love and grace.

Here in Romans Paul is applying this immediately to Israel, warning us against putting God in a box and thinking that we have it all worked out with regard to Israel, but we can apply the lesson more widely. The error of thinking that Israel is now out of the picture can be based on a short term view, based on what Israel has just done (ie reject Christ). God looks further back than we do, and further forward than we do. If we are honest this isn't hard to do! We very easily become blinded to the truth by the way that things seem to be right now. In any situation we face we do well to remind ourselves that God has an eternal perspective on things. He knows that the final outcome will be. We need to learn to share something of the perspective.

But someone could equally well come to the conclusion that Israel has been rejected by looking at Israel's track record. As Paul points out (and Jesus as well for that matter), she had repeatedly rejected God and His ways. The rejection of Christ was the culmination of this, therefore she no longer has a special place in God's plans. Such a view ignores all the promises made by God, and, perhaps most importanty, the extent of God's mercy. We can be insituations where failure, either for ourselves or for someone we love, seems to be the only possible outcome, inded the only justifiable outcome. The glory of the gospel is that where sin abounded, graces abounded all the more (Romans 5:20).

When we look at situations two of the things we need to do are:

1. Have an eternal perspective on things
2. Be aware of the depths of God's love and grace.