derekmaul

What Christianity Looks Like: Clear Instructions from Romans 12

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12:2

– when in Rome

This journey through the Book of Romans – taken along with my men’s Bible-study group – continues to inspire me. Every chapter comes across as a kind of revelation, a series of “ah-ha” moments, an invitation into deeper understanding.

This week, Chapter Twelve, was the same only more so.

I’m thinking that maybe it’s the approach we take, or at least try to take, to our reading of the scripture. It’s something that came to me – or should I say was revealed to me – Tuesday morning a week ago while I was preparing for the lesson. “Creator God,” I said, “please give me something practical that will encourage the guys this week.”

Sense of purpose…

– some of the Tuesday morning men at HMPC

This is what came to me, very clearly, and I shared it as a rhetorical question before we read the scriptures.

“What is the purpose behind our coming together?” I asked. “Other than the fact that it is great to be here among friends and to share mutual encouragement, what are we looking to achieve?”

I wrote the following bullets on the white board. “Our purpose in being here and in reading the scriptures is:

  • To encounter… the truth/Jesus
  • To know and to grasp hold of… the truth/Jesus
  • To be set free by… the truth/Jesus.”

So when we are thinking this way, and praying this way, and reading the scriptures this way, then what we get from Romans 12 (as we ask God to “renew our minds”) is an encounter with The Holy and a challenge by Jesus to live transformationally.

How then should we live?

If we are at all uncertain regarding how God is inviting us to live out our faith, and what it means to be “Christian” in this current social, political, cultural climate then here it is; Paul spells it out in verses 9-21:

– Romans 12:9-21 (Saint John’s Bible)
  • Let love be genuine. 
  • Hate what is evil;
  • Hold fast to what is good. 
  • Be devoted to one another in love. 
  • Outdo one another in showing honor.
  • Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 
  • Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 
  • Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. 
  • Practice hospitality.
  • Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
  • Rejoice with those who rejoice;
  • Mourn with those who mourn. 
  • Live in harmony with one another. 
  • Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.
  • Do not be conceited.
  • Do not repay anyone evil for evil. 
  • Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 
  • If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 
  • Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
  • On the contrary:
    • “If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
    • if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
    • In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
  • Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
– Derek Maul worships and meets with the men’s Bible study at HMPC Tarboro

We know how to live! If our religion… our church… our leadership… our favored voice or commentary is not teaching us this, then we can be quite sure that it is not Christianity.

So “don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world,” the Apostle Paul instructs, “but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Amen to that! – DEREK

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