Leaving arguments for the legitimacy of Gentile believers' worship behind, Paul presses on into issues of day-to-day living.

12:1      Paul's beginning phrase, "therefore", means he is building on what has come before. The message of the previous chapters, especially 9-11, is that a believing Gentile is as clean as any believing Jew, and is far better, that is in a far better position with God, than any unconverted Jew. Gentiles who are in Christ were chosen by God before the foundation of the world to belong to Christ. They are not simply fill-ins for those who really belonged. So, that truth having been thoroughly expounded upon, Paul moves on to the only right result of right teaching: issues related to responsibility and behavior.

Our "reasonable service" needs to be explained. The word reasonable denotes metaphysical as opposed to physical service, and service refers to duty toward God. RSV translates these words as, "which is your spiritual worship". The word translated reasonable here is used in 1Pet.2:2, with the meaning, "pure, spiritual milk".

12:2      Even those in Christ can be shaped by the pressures of this world into a lifestyle that is ungodly. "This world", of course, includes the kind of worship which carnal men practice and enjoy. Right doctrine aids the saints in their struggle against the pressures of the world, for if we understand what the situation really is, we have added strength to deal with it (Prov.8:14). Without understanding, we can hardly escape being deceived by what looks right and seems right, but is actually harmful to our souls (Prov.16:25).

To "prove" means to examine, or put to the test, and then to approve of what is true. It means to be able to tell right from wrong, and it is a wisdom that must be striven for (Heb.5:14). When one learns what God's will really is, the temptation to serve Him some other way is almost already overcome. Truly knowing the will of God is life (Jn.17:3), because in knowing Him, we know right from wrong.

12:3      The will of God is simply to stay balanced, not warped by vain imaginations.

12:4-8      Nobody but Jesus can be everything to the church. Then let us be content to do our part (to have a part is a precious gift).

Much is made of a supposed "nine gifts of the Spirit", because Paul mentions nine gifts in 1Cor.12. God has many more than nine gifts which by His Spirit He can bestow upon the church. Here, Paul mentions these:

In verse seven is mentioned the gift of "ministry". In addition to the normal meaning, Goodspeed renders it, "practical service". That is, having a special ability to help with natural things. It was one of the good things about the pastor in Thyatira, Rev.2:19. Some examples of "practical service" are:

The gift of exhortation is of great benefit to the church. Some people are enabled by this gift to avoid being discouraged and to encourage the church by their example to be joyful and have faith.

Some, through their gift of giving, have lifted many a burden for both believers and non-believers. With this gift, even very poor saints have ministered many blessings to others. This gift, in operation, does not depend upon earthly wealth. The Spirit finds a way for these people to give, and give effectively. To give with "simplicity" is to give "sincerely, single-heartedly, bountifully"; that is, without any ulterior motive.

With the gift for ruling, a member of the body feels when it is the right time to move and is able to see clearly to make decisions and judgments that are right. Since this section deals with specific gifts given to specific members of the church, we must acknowledge that "ruling" is a function of only a part of the body. Contrary to what some rebellious hearts would have us believe, it is a part of the kingdom of God for some saints to "rule", in a godly manner, over others (1Pet.5:1-3).

Those who are blessed with the gift of mercy are made by God more patience and kind than the rest of the church, as an example for them. As with other gifts, God's uses this one not only to encourage downcast sinners but sometimes to chasten the church, as the church sees this gift manifested. Seeing mercy shown that we did not feel toward a sinner humbles us, and reminds us of His mercy which was shown to us, and reminds us that His mercy is greater than we are able to be, without His strength.

12:9-21      A description of godly behavior, behavior which is always in the will of God.

13:1-5      Paul is referring to earthly governments when he uses the word power here. We are to submit to every legitimate earthly authority, without bitterness (1Pet.2:13-15). And we are able to do that from the heart because we know that our God is working all things together for our good, if we are trusting Him. Earthly authorities are our God's ministers, and any church member who is contemptuous of the government, is contemptuous of God; if he ridicules the government, ridicules God; if he resists the government, he resists the will of God; if he attempts to overthrow a government, he is attempting to overthrow God. While here, we are ambassadors for the kingdom of God (2Cor.5:20), representing a better place. We are strangers to the elements, to the nature, and to the standards of this world (Heb.11:13-16); and, as ambassadors to this world, and as strangers to it, we are not to become entangled in its affairs (2Tim.2:4).

13:6-7      Just as God has ordained that "those who preach the gospel should live of the gospel" (2Cor.9:14), so God has ordained that those who rule on the earth have authority to gain their living by their office. Tithes and offering are for the church; taxes, for the government.

13:8-10      If you walk in love, you will not owe the government, nor the church, anything. You will have rendered to Caesar all of what is Caesar's and to God all of what is God's. Secondly, if you walk in the love of God, there will be nothing about you that would prevent your neighbor from coming to Christ, if God calls him.

13:11-14      Walking in that love, we will be prepared for the coming of the Lord. Fear of God's judgment, as well as love for Him, will save us from falling into sinful patterns of thought and action. Always remember, with each passing day our salvation is nearer than the day before. Then, do not even provide the flesh with an opportunity to have its way. Stay filled with the Spirit of Christ.

14:1-9      Paul is addressing both Jewish and non-Jewish believers in Rome, encouraging them to receive one another as brothers without wrangling over their respective callings from God. The circumcised believers were bound by conscience before God to observe the Law in all its parts, while the uncircumcised believers were freed by the Son of God from the Law.

Paul does state that it is a weaker brother who cannot eat meats and who esteems one day above another; however, if God called the Jews in circumcision and made them responsible to Him to refrain from certain meats and to revere some days above others, then the Gentiles ought to be satisfied to have them as brothers with that calling. Likewise, the Jews should be content with their calling and, at the same time, happily receive the Gentiles believer as a beloved citizen of the kingdom of God with them, without bearing contempt for their eating of any meats and the non-observance of holy days and ceremonial rites.

Jesus has paid the price of ownership of all the souls of men, especially of those of faith. Therefore, all who are in Christ are of God, and anyone in Christ who feels that another in Christ is not of God is wrong.

So complete are we in Christ, so completely are we received by God, that we need not even quarrel about differences. God's love for us excludes it. The Gentile believer can love the Jewish believer unreservedly, having respect for his observance of "holy days" and his dietary restrictions. And the Jewish believer is free to rejoice with his Gentile brothers over their liberty from the ceremonies contained in the Law which God gave to Israel at Mt. Horeb.

There is no need either for strife or envy, nor yet pride, as though one calling is better than another. It is God who does the calling. And if He has baptized one, being uncircumcised, and another being circumcised, we are free to acknowledge His good work in both cases and to love one another, without trying to impose the will of God for us upon others. As Paul exhorted the church, "Is any man called being circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God" (1Cor.7:18-24).

14:10-13      In these verses, Paul speaks primarily to the Jewish brethren in Rome. Because of the way salvation history developed, the greater pressure was on the Jewish believers to despise the Gentile believer on account of his uncircumcised calling. Contrarily, it was only natural for those Gentiles who came to believe in the Messiah of Israel to look up to their Jewish brethren (at least for the reasons Paul mentioned in 3:2 and 10:4-5); but, Paul's underlying message is that all who were in Christ were in Christ as one (1Cor.10:17, and 12:14ff).

Then, Paul calls for an end to all quarrels concerning the Jew-Gentile matter. Each man will give an account of himself to God for the calling he has received, not for the calling of another. Therefore, it is clearly unwise to be overly concerned with another's work, or to criticize another concerning his calling; each will give account for his own deeds, and therefore should concentrate on being an edifying member of the body of Christ rather than an inspector of another's part (Jas.3:1).

14:14-23      In these verses, Paul speaks primarily to the Gentile brethren in Rome. Because the Gentiles are free from the works of the Law, their temptation is to despise the Jewish brethren for continuing to practice dead works. Paul warns them that because the greater liberty is theirs, the greater responsibility is theirs to demonstrate the love of God for the weaker brothers.

It is sinful to flaunt your liberty in the face of sincere children of God who do not know better than to live and worship the way they do. By doing so, you could provoke your brother to sin, and cause him to lose his crown.  "Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died." It is good to have the knowledge of God that liberates from the dead works of the Law and the many false doctrines of men, but it is not good to exercise any liberty if a weaker brother is made to stumble by your doing so. The standard is charity, the love of God in action, not the amount of knowledge you possess. You are not excused for harming another's faith because you have the knowledge to do a certain deed. If by your knowledge you have offended a weaker brother, neither the love of God nor true faith was the motivation of your deed - and that is sin.

This is the true measure of your knowledge of God: true liberty is absolutely free; that is, free to eat or not to eat. Free to go or to stay. Free to do what you want to do and, if it is more beneficial to the church, free not to do what you want to do. A man who is made free by the Son of God is free to do the will of others or his own will - which ever is more edifying at the moment. That is liberty, and that is the righteousness of faith.

15:1-7      Paul concludes this topic by reminding the church in Rome that the life he is describing is the life Jesus lived, who chose to do his Father's will and suffer rather than to do his own. And he chose this path because it was the path along which God's love for people led him. He lived for others, not himself. Jesus was willing to suffer the hatred and scorn (the "reproaches") of those who secretly hated God in their hearts, if that was the necessary result of obeying his Father. Anyone who dares to walk in the Spirit and reflect the heart and mind of God on earth will expose in men the secret feelings which they harbor in their hearts for God. Those who truly love God in their heart will truly love the one who speaks the words of God and is an example of purity and faith; those who secretly despise God will openly despise anyone on earth who is a reflection of God's holiness.

Finally, Paul exhorts the saints in Rome, both Jew and Gentile, to "be likeminded" toward one another and to "receive one another as Christ also hath received us."

Concluding Remarks

15:8-13      Paul points out that Jesus came for both the Jews and the Gentiles: (1) to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs and (2) to cause the Gentiles to rejoice in the mercy of God. So, Paul exhorts all in the church in Rome to rejoice in the Spirit, because, whether Jew or Gentile, all the family of God abound in hope "through the power of the holy Ghost."

15:14-22      Paul is confident that they already understand these things, and are enabled already by the love of God to receive from one another, but is simply reminding them of their blessing from God and rejoicing with them in it. Especially does Paul rejoice in his own calling: the ministry of the gospel among the Gentiles.

Paul did not travel through the Gentile world in order to persuade them to become worshipful people; they were already deeply worshipful, in their own pagan ways. His duty was to make their worship acceptable to the living God by having them sanctified by the holy Spirit. This would require their hearing of the gospel of Christ Jesus and their repenting of all ungodliness. Then, having their conscience purged from respect for dead works (Heb.9:14), they could worship God as He demands: in spirit and in truth.

It was for preaching among the Gentiles this gospel of liberty from dead works that Paul suffered much of his persecution (e.g. Col.4:3). In fact, he said that if he would only include dead ceremionial works in his message, which he said were nothing but "a fair show in the flesh", his persecutuions would end (Gal.5:11; 6:12). Here, Paul states that his preaching of the truth to the Gentiles has given rise to situations which have prevented any previous trips to Rome.

In these verses, Paul demonstrates the beauty of true liberty. He knows that it is against the doctrine of many Jewish leaders for Paul - or any other Jew - to go among the Gentiles (1Thess.2:16a). Peter, you will remember, was grilled by some of the church elders in Jerusalem for going to Cornelius's house, the holy and wonderful results notwithstanding (Acts 11:1-3). Though aware of the possible provocation of some of his Jewish brothers who believe, Paul boldly and joyful speaks of his travels among them. Was he flaunting his liberty, and hurting his brothers, causing them to fall? Absolutely not! He had fully explained his reasons, confessed his calling, and made it clear that what he does in Christ's service he does in submission to the calling of God, not in rebellion against the will of any man. Paul is concerned enough for the souls of his Jewish brethren that he would die for them; but at the same time, he sails ahead with full speed in his preaching to the farthest reaches of the lands around the Mediterranean Sea. Concern for the conscience of others doesn't make you a slave to it.

15:23-25      Paul expects, on his upcoming trip to Spain, to be financed by the church at Rome. What an opportunity he is giving them! He wouldn't take a penny from the Corinthians for himself (2Cor.11:7-10). It is a privilege to have your offering accepted by a man of God. Even Paul felt that it would be a blessing for him if the poor saints in Jerusalem to accept the money and/or goods that he was carrying to them.

15:26-27      The Gentiles were indebted to the Jews, if for no other reason, then for persevering in the Law long enough, alone among the nations of the world, for Jesus to have been born. The blessings of the Gentiles, Paul writes, are spiritual things which belonged to the Jews, who rejected their opportunity to possess them. And, as he does in other places, Paul sets forth the sound doctrine that those who receive spiritual food are duty-bound to render natural benefits to those who are responsible for feeding them.

15:28-33      Paul is excited about his upcoming visit with the church in Rome and reiterates his expectation that his planned trip to Spain will be financed by the saints there. Paul requests that they pray with him for two things, that when he arrives in Judea (1) he will be delivered from the Jews who do not believe and (2) that the gift which he would carry to the poor saints in Jerusalem would be accepted by them.

16:1-2      Paul's "Letter of Recommendation" for Phebe, the bearer of Paul's letter to Rome and a faithful servant of the church near Corinth.

16:3-16      Personal greetings... First, Paul greets his two fellow-laborers, Priscilla and Aquila, who have risked their lives for the gospel.

Note that Paul also sends greetings to "the church that is in their house". This must have been a common practice for Priscilla and Aquila to have meetings in their house wherever they lived, for Paul mentions a church in their house while they were with Paul in Asia (1Cor.16:19). This is the meeting place of the earliest church: the house of some faithful saints. Specifically mentioned are the churches in the house of Nymphas in Colosse (Col.4:15) and in Philemon's house (Philemon 2).

The followers of Jesus were in a house when the holy Ghost first fell (Acts 2:2). Afterwards, they broke the bread of life, teaching in the temple and from house to house (Acts 2:46; 5:42). And it was into houses that Saul of Tarsus went looking for the church (Acts 8:3). Ananias found the young Saul of Tarsus and laid hands on him in a house, and in that same house Paul received the holy Ghost and was healed (Acts 9:11,17). Cornelius saw an angel as he prayed in his house (Acts 10:30), and Peter came and preached to him in his house. Peter, having been loosed from his prison by God's angel, went to Mary's house, where they were deep in prayer for him (Acts 12:12). When Paul lived in Corinth, he taught "from house to house" (Acts 20:20). And John warned the church not to received into their house anyone teaching the apostolic doctrine (2Jn.1:10).

This is no small matter. There has been much confusion caused, and much evil done, by the commonly accepted practice which has evolved among Christians of calling a building a church. The church is not the place of meeting; it is the saints who meet there. To compromise that point is to confuse your own soul. The church is the dwelling place of God, "a spiritual house" for Him to inhabit (1Pet.2:5), for "the Most High dwelleth not in temples made by hands" (Acts 7:48), but He does dwell within those who have His Spirit (Jn.14:23).  "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost, which is in you?" and "The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1Cor.6:19; 3:17).

To have a building as the church, the house of God, is Satan's substitute for having a congregation of saints; but he has that, too, if the saints honor and attend worship services in that building that Christians call their church.

After greeting Priscilla and Aquila, Paul sends greetings to the man who first repented and received the word of God in the heartland of Greece, whom Paul knows well.

Afterward, Paul mentions a lady who helped him, and then some of his kinsmen, who have worked and suffered with Paul, and were in Christ before Paul himself entered into the kingdom of God.

Paul then lists a number of people to whom he sends greeting, among them another relative and an elderly woman to whom Paul refers as his mother.

16:17-20      A final exhortation to communion and watchfulness. Paul exhorts the saints to avoid those who teach unordained doctrines. After obeying that injunction, the saints there may expect to see God bruise Satan under their heels in short order. In modern terms, the commandment to avoid unordained ministers is tantamount to a call to come out of Christianity.

16:21-23      Greetings from others with Paul to the church in Rome, including Tertius, who actually penned the letter at Paul's dictation, and Gaius, with whom Paul was lodging at that time.

16:24-27      Paul's conclusion.

THE END

SUMMARY

Paul's letter to the church in Rome is aimed at preventing discord between Jewish and non-Jewish believers. He strives to show that if anyone is in Christ, it is the choice of God that he be there, and that if God has baptized a man with His Spirit, He has granted a man admission into His kingdom, and that everyone else in God's family should then welcome him, for he is fully cleansed, fully accepted by God, and fully a partaker of the promises made to Abraham. There are no grandchildren in the family of God. All His children are His children, and He dearly loves them all. Understanding that rightly will enable us to avoid envy and strife so that we can love one another without fear, and be thankful for and rejoice in one another's calling.

Paul's concern for the Gentile believers is that they might yield their precious liberty and faith to the pressure of certain Jewish believers who felt very strongly that Gentiles should observe the ceremonial laws which Moses and David gave to Israel (and possibly that they should also observe traditions of the elders as well). He uses every means at his disposal to show these Gentile believers that they were from the beginning intended by God to be who they were, and that their own experience with the holy Ghost was proof positive that they belonged to God in Christ.

Paul's concern for the Jewish believers was that they might fall victim to pride because of fleshly matters; to wit, their cultural history, their circumcision, and their lineage. He challenges any of them to demonstrate how the Jews are superior to the Gentiles, except for the things that God did for them. Paul knew that if he could persuade them of that truth, they would not be puffed up against Gentiles who had received the grace of God.

The length of time Paul spends on this issue, not only here in Romans but also in other letters of his, especially Galatians, indicates how important this issue was to Paul. Paul considered the challenge to the Gentiles' liberty from the works of the Law to be tantamount to a challenge to God Himself. It should be observed that those who questioned the validity of these and any Gentile's faith were believing Jews, not unbelieving. The threat from unbelieving Jews was non-existent. The Gentile believers knew that unbelieving Jews were wrong in their assessment of their faith. But Paul rightly sees that the opinion of believing Jews would bear great weight in any argument with the Gentile church.

Paul's point: if God has accepted the Gentiles' faith, who then are the Jews - or anyone else - to despise them, or to burden them with demands (e.g. circumcision) which God no longer requires? Paul states clearly that the church in Rome already knows these things, which is yet another indication of how important a place in Paul's mind for the churches this issue must have held. Despite their knowing the truth already, Paul felt they needed a lengthy and strongly worded exhortation to abide in the truth of the gospel and not to yield to the enormous pressures against it.

CONCLUSION

Unfortunately, despite Paul's greatest efforts, Jewish and Gentile believers who held that ceremony ought to be incorporated into the worship of Christ eventually won the battle.

The enormity of the disaster which then befell the churches (even before Paul's death - 2Tim.1:15) is so great that the church has been in a spiritual state of "denial" since the time that it happened. The fact that Paul's gospel was replaced by adapted forms of Old Testament ceremony is virtually unnoticed by most believers today. Nevertheless, Christianity, the religion which for nearly twenty centuries has deceitfully attracted the world's attention as the offspring of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, carries in its bosom the telling vestiges of that false gospel.

The sprinkling of "holy water", the burning of incense, observance of "holy days", ministerial vestments, an elected hierarchy, forms of water baptism, special garments for worship, ceremonies for ordination and marriage, political entanglements, and the ability to "join" the religion, and a multitude of other symbols, doctrines, and forms, are merely variations of the works of the Law which Moses gave to Israel at Mount Sinai. They are "dead works", put to permanent rest by the sufficiency of Christ, yet taken up again from God's trash heap by the men considered by Christians to be the early "church fathers", men who rejected Paul's gospel even as they devised another, and who were not submissive to Jesus, whom they claimed to serve.

The cult which men now call "Christianity" is a form of worship which Paul spent his life exhorting the church to reject. To wit, faith in Jesus and in ceremony. The use of symbolic ceremonies, the propagation of false ideas about God, and the wretched history of Christianity's cruelty and violence against those who did not wish to join that religion, are undeniable evidences that Christianity is not now, nor has it ever been of God. The dissimilarities between the way of Christ Jesus revealed in the Bible and the ways of Christianity are so great that it is mind-boggling to consider how many people still believe that Christianity is of God.

It is a well-known fact, even acknowledged by many Christians, that one may be a member of Christianity without belonging to Christ at all. This can only be true because the way of the Spirit of God and the way of Christianity are two different and irreconcilable ways

. The faith of Christ Jesus is not, and never has been, the faith known as Christianity. The apostle Paul died in faith, knowing that the true church would suffer and be led astray by false apostles of Christ (the "fathers" of Christianity); but, the loss of that great battle for the saints will not be the winning of the war for Satan. In John's Revelation, we have revealed to us (1) the coming destruction of Christianity, to which religion John refers with the cryptic term, "Babylon", and (2) the ecstatic joy of victorious saints and the angels at Babylon's destruction. For this reason, the call of God for His children is being sounded, in ever clearer terms, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Hearing this voice, one can only obey the man of God's exhortation, when he reminds us that Jesus suffered outside the gate of the holy city, being counted unworthy so much as to die near the temple of the Jews:  "Let us go forth therefore unto him outside the camp", wrote this wise and humble servant, "bearing his reproach."

Amen.