June 3, 2011 – Romans 12 – 13:7

Chapter 12 has a couple of interesting discussion points.  First, the idea that our bodies are sacred.  In the world we live in, how many just use their bodies for things totally selfish and unholy.  Everything we see and read about, the commercials that clog everything, the pornography that destroys young people by the millions, all of these are an attack on the body.  And once we fall into the habit of using our bodies in sinful ways, they are very hard habits to break.  And the temptations are a slippery slope leading to worse and worse sins.  Our bodies and our relationships with our other gender is one of the most beautiful and mysterious ways that God shows His love for us.  This is why it is so heavily attacked by Satan. 

They other is the long list of things to do to show that you are Christian.  Not a faith alone type of argument, but a list of works that shows you are Christian.  Not only that, but Paul seems to say that different amounts of faith are given to different folks.  With different amounts of faith, a person is called to accomplish different types of task.  And he ends with the hardest task, loving your enemies even while the persecute you.  We must realize that this is not just some abstract saying from a theologian.  By the time Paul wrote this he had been stoned, arrested, and nearly killed several times.  

I almost published this without going on to Chapter 13.  Here Paul talks about obeying authority.  Not only that but he talks about those that have authority and that they were given authority by God.  Who is he talking to.  And if all the talk about not needing works of law means that you don’t need a church authority, what does he mean by “no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God”.