Read Romans 12:1-21 and respond to the following:
What is the ?therefore? there for in Romans 12.1? In other words, what connection does Paul want us to make with what he has been developing in Romans 1-11?
What mercies in particular are in view in Romans 12.1 (think about the theme that Paul has just finished, and how it relates to the letter as a whole)?
In Greek, Romans 12.1 literally reads ?offer your bodies (plural) as a living sacrifice (singular). This is not normal in Greek (grammatically Paul should have written ?living sacrifices?). Why might Paul have made this subtle but profound change? How does this fit with the message of Romans 1-11?
In the context of Romans, what does it mean to conform to the world? How are the Jews and the Gentiles conformed to the world when they boast, judge and exclude?
What does it look like to be conformed to the world in your own life?
How does Paul expect transformation to happen in this passage?
What is the content with which we are to renew our minds?
What is the goal of having a renewed mind?
What kind of attitude is Paul addressing in Romans 12.3-8? How does Romans 1-11 address this attitude?
How are we to view our gifts, talents and place within God?s world according to Romans 12.3-8?
What are your gifts and talents and how might they contribute to serving the people of God and the world?
According to Paul, how are we to respond to evil?
How is Christ himself an example of what Paul calls for in Romans 12.14-21?
What do you find most compelling about the vision that Paul lays out in Romans 12 for the body of Christ? What do you find most challenging?
Read Romans 13:1-14 and respond to the following: [1]
Do you think that Romans 12.1-2 could be interpreted as being disengaged from the world? Could Romans 12.1-2 by misinterpreted as encouraging Christians to denounce the world and its rulers? Explain.
According to Romans 13.1-5, what is to be the function of governing bodies?
Note: Many people today take it for granted that political leaders are not to be trusted. Many Christians take it for granted that governments are corrupt and dehumanizing, and that it?s part of our brief as followers of the Lord Jesus, the world?s true sovereign, that we should offer serious criticism and opposition, even, if necessary, at a cost to our own prospects. When Paul was writing during the first century, the Roman Empire was rule by the notorious Nero. The system he ran was full of injustice and imperial arrogance, and had been for a long time. Some people find it so incredible that Paul in Romans 13 would endorse such submission to governments that they would wonder if maybe the paragraph has been stuck in to the letter by someone else. Other people think that this may have been a topic Paul hadn?t given much thought to at this stage, but that by the time he wrote later letters from prison he had changed his mind about whether Roman authority was such a good thing. These explanations are not convincing. Indeed, they miss the point of what is going on. Of course, this paragraph has been used?and abused?by many people in power as a way of telling their subjects to keep silent and offer no resistance even in the face of flagrant abuse. Like many passages in the Bible, a few verses taken out of context can become dangerous and misleading.
Paul describes the ?ruling power? as ?God?s servant? twice in these verses. How can government be a servant of God? Can government be a servant of God without knowing it?
Read Acts 16.35-40 and Acts 23.1-3. How can what Paul says in Romans 13.1-7 be reconciled with what he says in Acts?
Romans 13.1-7 stands within a particular Jewish tradition from the Old Testament. Although the OT often denounces pagan nations and their rulers some of the very same prophets inform Israel that YWHW is working through the pagan nations and their rulers for Israel?s long-term good. See for example Isaiah 10, 45, and Jeremiah 29. It was precisely this tension which came to its head when, in John?s gospel, Jesus stood before the Roman government and declared that, even though Rome was about to execute him, the power by which he did it had come from God in the first place (John 19.11). What does it mean for Christians today that, on the one hand, God wants his world governed under the rule of appropriate law and, on the other, that Jesus is already installed as the supreme Lord of heaven and earth?
The Roman rule was threatened with dissatisfaction throughout the empire because of high taxes. What does Romans 13.1-7 ultimately urge Christians to do? How does this compare with what Jesus taught (Matt 22.15-22)?
In Romans 13.8-10, Paul once again used the term ?debt?. According to Paul what do Christians owe?
How does love fulfill the law? (Compare with Gorman)
Why does Paul use the image of day in Romans13.11-14 to explain the behavior that he expects Christians to engage in and the image of night for what they shouldn?t do?
In Romans 13.13 Paul notes a number of activities that Christians should avoid?what are they? How do these activities destroy Christian community?
How do we ?put on the Lord Jesus? (Romans 13.14)? What does this look like practically?
What are the implications of this passage regarding the church?s engagement in local, civic activities?
Read Romans 14:1-23 and respond to the following:
Who are the weak and the strong in Romans 14.1-4? Why would there be a dispute over meat and vegetables in the early church, especially in a mixed community like we find in Rome? (See Gorman 464-466)
What is the dispute over in Romans 14.6-9? In other words, what ?day? is in view?
What attitude is each group to have, according to Romans 14.1-12? How does the message of Romans 1-11 establish this kind of attitude? (See Gorman)
True or False: Paul discouraged Jewish Christians from maintaining the Mosaic Law. Explain.
In Romans 14.13-23 Paul offers a foundational perspective that each group must adopt as each deals with those with whom they may disagree. In your own words, what is that perspective that Paul offers? (See Gorman)
How does something that is clean become unclean according to Paul in Romans 14.13-23?
How do we know which issues are essential (i.e. no disagreement can be tolerated) and which issues are non-essentials (i.e. room for disagreement) within the Christian faith? Does Paul provide any help or guidelines in Romans 14?
Note on meat/vegetables: If we are correct in assuming that Paul was writing Romans not long after the Jews were allowed to return to Rome in A.D. 54, Jewish Christians would have been returning to a church filled with Gentile believers who had come from pagan backgrounds. In a city like Rome, many animals were slaughtered as sacrifices in pagan temples and then served up in adjoining eating establishments or offered for sale in the open market. There it would be likely impossible to know which meat had been part of a pagan sacrifice and which had not. No devout Jew would dream of eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Many Gentile Christians too, having been regular attendees at pagan temples before their conversion, avoided anything that reminded them of the lifestyle that went with their former beliefs.
Read Romans 15.1-33 and respond to the following:
What are the two major sections in Romans 15? What are the themes of each of those sections? (Compare with Gorman)
What is the exhortation in Romans 15.5-7?
What is the theological basis for this exhortation?
What does ?receive one another? mean? (See essay ?On God, Hospitality, and Being a Follower of Jesus? by Kelly D. Liebengood (PDF)
How does this fit with what Paul has been developing in Romans 1-11? (See ?On God, Hospitality, and Being a Follower of Jesus? by Kelly D. Liebengood (PDF)
How does Romans 15.14-33 fit within Paul?s purpose for writing Romans? (Compare with Gorman)
Read Romans 16.1-27 and respond to the following:
In Roman culture, one only kissed a member of one?s family. What is Paul suggesting with his exhortation in Romans 16.16?
How is this exhortation to kiss one another a fitting end to what he has been arguing up to this point?
How might Romans 16.17-20 summarize what Paul has been trying to accomplish with his letter?
According to Paul (as he writes in Romans), what does ?faithful obedience? look like in the Roman church?
Final Reflections
What does Romans reveal about the ultimate goal of spiritual formation (Rom 12-15)? Is this different from contemporary approaches to spiritual formation? Explain.
What does Romans urge the church to do?
How does Romans help the church better understand its mission?
[1] Some parts of this section have been adapted from N.T. Wright, ?Romans: 18 Studies for Individuals and Groups?.
See Investigative Report Rubric for grading expectations.
