2 And let not your behaviour be like that of this world, but be changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete purpose of God.
Like children ruled by God, do not go back to the old desires of the time when you were without knowledge:
So if any man is in Christ, he is in a new world: the old things have come to an end; they have truly become new.
That you are to put away, in relation to your earlier way of life, the old man, which has become evil by love of deceit; And be made new in the spirit of your mind, And put on the new man, to which God has given life, in righteousness and a true and holy way of living.
Have no love for the world or for the things which are in the world. If any man has love for the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Because everything in the world, the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but of the world. And the world and its desires is coming to an end: but he who does God's pleasure is living for ever.
For this reason, then, do not be foolish, but be conscious of the Lord's pleasure.
And I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.
So that you may give the rest of your lives in the flesh, not to the desires of men, but to the purpose of God.
Not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but in the measure of his mercy, he gave us salvation, through the washing of the new birth and the giving of new life in the Holy Spirit,
The religion which is holy and free from evil in the eyes of our God and Father is this: to take care of children who have no fathers and of widows who are in trouble, and to keep oneself untouched by the world.
My son, keep my teaching in your memory, and my rules in your heart: For they will give you increase of days, years of life, and peace. Let not mercy and good faith go from you; let them be hanging round your neck, recorded on your heart; So you will have grace and a good name in the eyes of God and men.
For the purpose of God for you is this: that you may be holy, and may keep yourselves from the desires of the flesh;
Because the god of this world has made blind the minds of those who have not faith, so that the light of the good news of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not be shining on them.
Happy is the man who makes discovery of wisdom, and he who gets knowledge. For trading in it is better than trading in silver, and its profit greater than bright gold. She is of more value than jewels, and nothing for which you may have a desire is fair in comparison with her. Long life is in her right hand, and in her left are wealth and honour. Her ways are ways of delight, and all her goings are peace. She is a tree of life to all who take her in their hands, and happy is everyone who keeps her.
Make a clean heart in me, O God; give me a right spirit again.
The law of the Lord is good, giving new life to the soul: the witness of the Lord is certain, giving wisdom to the foolish. The orders of the Lord are right, making glad the heart: the rule of the Lord is holy, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, and has no end; the decisions of the Lord are true and full of righteousness. More to be desired are they than gold, even than much shining gold; sweeter than the dropping honey. By them is your servant made conscious of danger, and in keeping them there is great reward.
We are certain that we are of God, but all the world is in the power of the Evil One.
I have given your word to them; and they are hated by the world, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
This I say, then, and give witness in the Lord, that you are to go no longer in the way of the Gentiles whose minds are turned to that which has no profit, Whose thoughts are dark, to whom the life of God is strange because they are without knowledge, and their hearts have been made hard; Who having no more power of feeling, have given themselves up to evil passions, to do all unclean things with overmuch desire. For this was not the teaching of Christ which was given to you;
And you, who in the past were cut off and at war with God in your minds through evil works, he has now made one In the body of his flesh through death, so that you might be holy and without sin and free from all evil before him:
And so that I may take delight in your teachings, to which I have given my love. And so that my hands may be stretched out to you; and I will give thought to your rules.
By experience you will see that the Lord is good; happy is the man who has faith in him.
You are of God, my little children, and you have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world, so their talk is the world's talk, and the world gives ear to them.
Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world has no love for you.
Who gave himself for our sins, so that he might make us free from this present evil world, after the purpose of our God and Father:
For the wisdom of this world is foolish before God. As it is said in the holy Writings, He who takes the wise in their secret designs:
Because of it I keep straight in all things by your orders; and I am a hater of every false way.
All my desire has been for your salvation, O Lord; and your law is my delight.
(Because the fruit of the light is in all righteousness and in everything which is good and true), Testing by experience what is well-pleasing to the Lord;
It is not possible for you to be hated by the world; but I am hated by it, because I give witness that what it does is evil.
For all those who do any of these disgusting things will be cut off from among their people. So then, keep my orders, so that you may not do any of these disgusting things which were done before you, or make yourselves unclean through them: I am the Lord your God.
In which you were living in the past, after the ways of this present world, doing the pleasure of the lord of the power of the air, the spirit who is now working in those who go against the purpose of God;
Every holy Writing which comes from God is of profit for teaching, for training, for guiding, for education in righteousness: So that the man of God may be complete, trained and made ready for every good work.
Do not keep company with those who have not faith: for what is there in common between righteousness and evil, or between light and dark? And what agreement is there between Christ and the Evil One? or what part has one who has faith with one who has not? And what agreement has the house of God with images? for we are a house of the living God; even as God has said, I will be living among them, and walking with them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people. For which cause, Come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and let no unclean thing come near you; and I will take you for myself,
<MEM> O what love I have for your law! I give thought to it all the day.
After this I will not say much to you, because the ruler of this world comes: and he has no power over me;
And that having the eyes of your heart full of light, you may have knowledge of what is the hope of his purpose, what is the wealth of the glory of his heritage in the saints,
When you have come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, do not take as your example the disgusting ways of those nations. Let there not be seen among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or anyone using secret arts, or a maker of strange sounds, or a reader of signs, or any wonder-worker, Or anyone using secret force on people, or putting questions to a spirit, or having secret knowledge, or going to the dead for directions. For all who do such things are disgusting to the Lord; and because of these disgusting things the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You are to be upright in heart before the Lord your God. For these nations, whose land you are taking, give attention to readers of signs and to those using secret arts: but the Lord your God will not let you do so.
Do not be moved to do wrong by the general opinion, or give the support of your words to a wrong decision:
How sweet are your sayings to my taste! truly, they are sweeter than honey in my mouth!
Being conscious that you have been made free from that foolish way of life which was your heritage from your fathers, not through a payment of things like silver or gold which come to destruction,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Romans 12
Commentary on Romans 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 12
The apostle, having at large cleared and confirmed the prime fundamental doctrines of Christianity, comes in the next place to press the principal duties. We mistake our religion if we look upon it only as a system of notions and a guide to speculation. No, it is a practical religion, that tends to the right ordering of the conversation. It is designed not only to inform our judgments, but to reform our hearts and lives. From the method of the apostle's writing in this, as in some other of the epistles (as from the management of the principal ministers of state in Christ's kingdom) the stewards of the mysteries of God may take direction how to divide the word of truth: not to press duty abstracted from privilege, nor privilege abstracted from duty; but let both go together, with a complicated design, they will greatly promote and befriend each other. The duties are drawn from the privileges, by way of inference. The foundation of Christian practice must be laid in Christian knowledge and faith. We must first understand how we receive Christ Jesus the Lord, and then we shall know the better how to walk in him. There is a great deal of duty prescribed in this chapter. The exhortations are short and pithy, briefly summing up what is good, and what the Lord our God in Christ requires of us. It is an abridgment of the Christian directory, an excellent collection of rules for the right ordering of the conversation, as becomes the gospel. It is joined to the foregoing discourse by the word "therefore.' It is the practical application of doctrinal truths that is the life of preaching. He had been discoursing at large of justification by faith, and of the riches of free grace, and the pledges and assurances we have of the glory that is to be revealed. Hence carnal libertines would be apt to infer."Therefore we may live as we list, and walk in the way of our hearts and the sight of our eyes.' Now this does not follow; the faith that justifies is a faith that "works by love.' And there is no other way to heaven but the way of holiness and obedience. Therefore what God hath joined together let no man put asunder. The particular exhortations of this chapter are reducible to the three principal heads of Christian duty: our duty to God t ourselves, and to our brother. The grace of God teaches us, in general, to live "godly, soberly, and righteously;' and to deny all that which is contrary hereunto. Now this chapter will give us to understand what godliness, sobriety, and righteousness, are though somewhat intermixed.
Rom 12:1-21
We may observe here, according to the scheme mentioned in the contents, the apostle's exhortations,