1 I call upon you, therefore, brethren, through the compassions of God, to present your bodies a sacrifice -- living, sanctified, acceptable to God -- your intelligent service;
and ye yourselves, as living stones, are built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
neither present ye your members instruments of unrighteousness to the sin, but present yourselves to God as living out of the dead, and your members instruments of righteousness to God;
In the manner of men I speak, because of the weakness of your flesh, for even as ye did present your members servants to the uncleanness and to the lawlessness -- to the lawlessness, so now present your members servants to the righteousness -- to sanctification,
through him, then, we may offer up a sacrifice of praise always to God, that is, the fruit of lips, giving thanks to His name; and of doing good, and of fellowship, be not forgetful, for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased.
and be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, for your proving what `is' the will of God -- the good, and acceptable, and perfect.
who `were' once not a people, and `are' now the people of God; who had not found kindness, and now have found kindness. Beloved, I call upon `you', as strangers and sojourners, to keep from the fleshly desires, that war against the soul, having your behaviour among the nations right, that in that which they speak against you as evil-doers, of the good works having beheld, they may glorify God in a day of inspection.
Let the sayings of my mouth, And the meditation of my heart, Be for a pleasing thing before Thee, O Jehovah, my rock, and my redeemer!
have ye not known that to whom ye present yourselves servants for obedience, servants ye are to him to whom ye obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
What do I return to Jehovah? All His benefits `are' upon me.
and when the kindness and the love to men of God our Saviour did appear (not by works that `are' in righteousness that we did but according to His kindness,) He did save us, through a bathing of regeneration, and a renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He poured upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that having been declared righteous by His grace, heirs we may become according to the hope of life age-during. Stedfast `is' the word; and concerning these things I counsel thee to affirm fully, that they may be thoughtful, to be leading in good works -- who have believed God; these are the good and profitable things to men,
As to the rest, then, brethren, we request you, and call upon you in the Lord Jesus, as ye did receive from us how it behoveth you to walk and to please God, that ye may abound the more,
And working together also we call upon `you' that ye receive not in vain the grace of God --
cleanse out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, according as ye are unleavened, for also our passover for us was sacrificed -- Christ, so that we may keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of evil and wickedness, but with unleavened food of sincerity and truth.
And I call upon you, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in the prayers for me unto God,
I praise the name of God with a song, And I magnify Him with thanksgiving, And it is better to Jehovah than an ox, A bullock -- horned -- hoofed.
Do I eat the flesh of bulls, And drink the blood of he-goats? Sacrifice to God confession, And complete to the Most High thy vows.
And I call upon you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the same thing ye may all say, and there may not be divisions among you, and ye may be perfected in the same mind, and in the same judgment,
the meats `are' for the belly, and the belly for the meats. And God both this and these shall make useless; and the body `is' not for whoredom, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body; and God both the Lord did raise, and us will raise up through His power. Have ye not known that your bodies are members of Christ? having taken, then, the members of the Christ, shall I make `them' members of an harlot? let it be not! have ye not known that he who is joined to the harlot is one body? `for they shall be -- saith He -- the two for one flesh.' And he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit; flee the whoredom; every sin -- whatever a man may commit -- is without the body, and he who is committing whoredom, against his own body doth sin. Have ye not known that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own, for ye were bought with a price; glorify, then, God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
in behalf of Christ, then, we are ambassadors, as if God were calling through us, we beseech, in behalf of Christ, `Be ye reconciled to God;'
and God, being rich in kindness, because of His great love with which He loved us, even being dead in the trespasses, did make us to live together with the Christ, (by grace ye are having been saved,) and did raise `us' up together, and did seat `us' together in the heavenly `places' in Christ Jesus, that He might show, in the ages that are coming, the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, for by grace ye are having been saved, through faith, and this not of you -- of God the gift, not of works, that no one may boast; for of Him we are workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God did before prepare, that in them we may walk.
Why `is' this to Me? frankincense from Sheba cometh, And the sweet cane from a land afar off, Your burnt-offerings `are' not for acceptance, And your sacrifices have not been sweet to Me.
for the love of the Christ doth constrain us, having judged thus: that if one for all died, then the whole died, and for all he died, that those living, no more to themselves may live, but to him who died for them, and was raised again.
but if also I am poured forth upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and joy with you all,
and I have all things, and abound; I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things from you -- an odour of a sweet smell -- a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God:
which way he did initiate for us -- new and living, through the vail, that is, his flesh -- and a high priest over the house of God, may we draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having the hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having the body bathed with pure water;
for what renown `is it', if sinning and being buffeted, ye do endure `it'? but if, doing good and suffering `for it', ye do endure, this `is' gracious with God,
Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah, Say ye unto Him: `Take away all iniquity, and give good, And we do render the fruit of our lips.
And we ask you, brethren, to know those labouring among you, and leading you in the Lord, and admonishing you,
for ye do it also to all the brethren who `are' in all Macedonia; and we call upon you, brethren, to abound still more,
If, then, any exhortation `is' in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye may mind the same thing -- having the same love -- of one soul -- minding the one thing, nothing in rivalry or vain-glory, but in humility of mind one another counting more excellent than yourselves -- each not to your own look ye, but each also to the things of others. For, let this mind be in you that `is' also in Christ Jesus,
Because of this, having this ministration, according as we did receive kindness, we do not faint,
according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, and in all freedom, as always, also now Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death,
and if any widow have children or grandchildren, let them learn first to their own house to show piety, and to give back a recompense to the parents, for this is right and acceptable before God.
for my being a servant of Jesus Christ to the nations, acting as priest in the good news of God, that the offering up of the nations may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
for as ye also once did not believe in God, and now did find kindness by the unbelief of these: so also these now did not believe, that in your kindness they also may find kindness;
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,