Romans 12

In a document that I am preparing for certain religeous officials, I was asked:


2. Identify some of your personal convictions.

so I quickly jotted down a list... wrote out some thoughts... and realized that I had summarized Romans 12 in its entirety. Here's what I came up with...


Holiness (Romans 12:1-2) - I see a great need for the church as a whole to come to terms with what it means to be “set apart." Growing up I was taught that Christians were defined by what they didn't do. Christians were to be marked by an outer piety that refused to participate in certain "wordly" or "secular"” activities. Today, my heart longs for a greater awareness among the people of God of His calling on our lives to be alternative in a variety of ways. He is calling his church out of the ways of this world into a new polis. The world is offering us the chance to call ourselves Christian and still hold to its promises of power, relevance, pride, material wealth, safety, and comfort. Jesus warned against this saying "No servant can serve two masters" (Luke 16:13) and that those who choose to live this way would lack freedom, shackeled in a worldly social purgatory. He goes on to say of the Pharisees, who loved money, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight” Yet God is demanding that his people announce a new way to be human by living under the Reign of God.

The Functioning Body of Christ (Romans 12:3-8) - There are many people in the Body of Christ who have slipped into a slumbering state of apathy, allowing the role and duty of ministry to rest squarely on our well paid, professionally trained ministers. It is a conviction of mine to speak out against this atrophy in the Body of Christ and to energize each member of my local body in their special and unique vocations.

Service (Romans 12:9-13) - Christ demonstrated the way of service in many ways throughout the New Testament. When arguing which of them were the greatest, Jesus taught the disciples saying "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35) Service lived out shows the open hand of Christ to the world. It is an invitation to all who are in need.

Nonviolence (Romans 12: 17-21) - There is no doubt in my mind that Christ called all who would follow him to love their enemies ( Matt.5:38-48). In doing this Christ both energized the alternative way of peace and love and criticized the accepted ways of violence in his culture.

This world will come to know the way of Christ only through our service and love. A counter cultural witness to the world is an authentic and accurate portrait of Kingdom of God.