The last section of Romans 12 speaks of what a surrendered life looks like. We learn that it's a loving life. Below is an explanation of this love taken from the NIV Application Commentary and written by Doug Moo:
LOVE IN ACTION. Few terms are as popular among Christians as the term love. And rightly so, for along with faith and hope, love is one of the most important ways of expressing what Christianity is all about. The New Testament puts love at the heart of what it means to be a Christian in relationship to other people. To be sure we must never allow this horizontal dimension of Christianity to push out or diminish the more basic vertical dimension of our faith. Relationship to God is first and primary; our relationship to others flow from it. The problem with love, however, is that it can be a vague term. People fit it with almost any meaning they want. Particularly in a culture that thinks of love as something a person can "fall" in and out of, the biblical meaning and significance of love needs careful attention. Biblical love, as we are constantly reminded is not an emotion. It is an attitude, a mind set.
It is this attitude that will overcome evil with the good of Christ. The "heap burning coals on their heads" phrase refers back to an Old Testament Proverb. The meaning is most like two things, Just like God's kindness leads us to repentance, showing God's kindness to our enemies can lead them to the love of God. The other meaning is that we should be concerned about love and let God handle judgement because that is His role not ours.
Live in the constant love of God (see yesterdays comments) and...
Go live.
1 comment:
One of the things in this passage that I view as really cool... was verse three,(For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you) And the reason that it was interesting is because he came after the time of Plato and in on of his works he hits on that subject of don't think you are the wisest rather question it. It just shows that Paul would have been higly educated even in the philosophy sides of things.
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