A Living Sacrifice
12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Gifts of Grace
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Marks of the True Christian
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (ESV)
5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us…
Every Christian has talents that they can use to serve God. Not everyone has been given the same skill level in everything, but we all have specific strengths that we can use to serve others and bring God glory. The problem is that often Christians are deceived into thinking that it is okay to not use these talents. Whatever skillz we have, we have for a reason. We are a part of the body of Christ, and just as we cannot survive without the rest of the body, we have a specific task that God has planned for us to do. And just as we depend upon other believers to do their jobs, we also need to find ways to serve.
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
As representatives for Christ, we need to make sure that our lives are lived above reproach. If people look at our lives and see that we are no different from them – quick to do evil, driven by revenge, etc. – then we are being poor witnesses and giving people the wrong idea about Christ through our actions. Instead, we need to live so that when Christians and nonChristians alike who look at our life will not be able to find ways that we are living in sin or under the influence of our sinful nature. On the contrary, we who are in Christ are new creations, and we need to be showing this to the world – NOT to bring any glory or attention to ourselves, but to bring glory to God by living so that when people look at our lives they see Him.
LORD, let my mind be transformed through the renewal that comes from understanding and doiing what You say in Your word. Thank You for the chance to align myself with Your good and pleasing and perfect will today!
Let me, today, be joyfully hopeful, patiently suffer, faithfully prayerful, sharing hospitably and let me bless my enemies so they see You in me! I can’t do this at all without You and Your Spirit, plesae guide me this way today!
12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Wow this is an amazing chapter, it was hard to not comment on every verse!
These are all reminders for us to do. Being joyful through hard times as we earnestly hope and depend on God’s help. When we are suffering we must be patient and wait on the Lord to help us through the trial and to provide a way out…..because He always does! And we must be faithful in our prayer! Not just little prayers everyother day, but in constant prayer. When we tell someone that we will pray for them, we need to not only do it that day but also until the prayer has been answered! This 1 verse had 3 great reminders and my new goals in it…..so lets now put these things into action today!
Maranatha!
Verses 9-21 are rich with instruction for godly living…the verse that stood out to me was:
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
What a counter-cultural statement! In our world there are two schools of thought for how to treat people who persecute us. The first one is–If someone harms you it is ok to harm him back, after all, he started it. The second one is–If somoeone hurts you, turn the other cheek and walk away. Verse 14 makes it clear that both of those worldy responses to persecution are wrong. God calls us to BLESS those who persecute us. What does that look like? We should pray for people who do us wrong because most likely they are not saved and need the Lord to draw them to Him in repentance and faith. Another godly response to persecution is to be kind to the person…say something kind to him, build him up. If we Christians started living this way when we were wronged we would really stand out as being set-apart, children of God.
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
This often means having patience and holding your tongue when you want to talk back. It’s really hard to repay someone with good when they treat you badly, but that’s what we’re called to do. When people respond with patience when someone is rude to them, they usually get more respect from those who observe it. This is a great chapter.
This chapter was filled with things we can apply to our lives. We can repay evil with good, we shouldn’t be concieted, and etc… We need to take Gods word seriously and put these verses to practice.
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This is why we have SOTD! If we go along with the ways of the world we will conform to its sinful practices. We need to renew our minds! We need to get up in God’s Word and think according to his ways! We will practice his will and be pleasing to him!
Staying in God’s Word is so critical for our Christian life and yet many people seem to lose focus on it so easily. Let’s make sure we are diligent to get into God’s Word here on SOTD every day! And let us encourage others towards renewing their mind!
16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
This verse reminds me a lot of school, and sadly sometimes church. We need to realize that if we call ourselves Christians we need to love everyone and not just the popular people or the people we want to love and are easy to love. This requires us to humble ourselves with the realization that we were all once sinners and are just in need of a savior as the next person. When Jesus was here on earth he spent time with the social-outcasts like the tax collectors and the begars, in the same way we need to show Christ’s love to everyone so that God may be glorified in how we act. Spiritual status is the only status that matters
19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”says the Lord.
great comment Mike! kind of echoing what Mike said, as Christians we should be like other people driven with rage and revenge. if someone does wrong to us, we need to turn the other cheek, and repay them with good. today people see a lot of hypocracy in the church and with Christians. sometimes it is so easy for us to want revenge and to repay someone with what they did to us. if soemone sins against us that is a non-Christian, and they see us be kind and show mercy towards them, we will be a great witness to them. the Lord’s wrath will be the avengeance, not our actions.
20On 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.”
this verse is particularly encouraging. we should not look to heap burning coals on our enemies heads, but as we are witnessing to people as we are kind and gentle, it will anger them. sometimes when im mad i want to hurt the other person, and stoop to their level. if they hit me i want to hit them back. that will do absoultely nothing; it will make the fight bigger. but if i am kind and forgiving, they will get mad. as Christians we are called to be loving and humble to everyone, as Hunter pointed out, and hopefully our Christ-like actions will result in people not look at the hypocracy in Christians, but their fruits and acts of faith.
11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
Since we memorized this verse a few weeks ago, not a day has gone by that I didn’t need to remind myself of this command! What I’ve found is that the only way I can keep my spiritual fervor is by daily being in the Word of God to read or study it and also being quick to do what it says. Whenever I delay obedience I find my energy going down, getting lazy and not keeping a passion in living for Him each day. I was glad to be reminded of it again today!
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
This is so difficult to do. I know that when people are being just rude and mean to me, I want to throw something right back at them that will hurt them. If we bless them instead, they won’t know what to do and see that we are different from everyone else.
19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”says the Lord.
This verse goes along with verse 14. We want to take matters into our own hands and get back at people who have done wrong against us. That is NOT what we are supposed to do. Right there in verse 19, it tells us NOT to take revenge, but let God handle the punishment.
wow, this chapter is filled with amazing things we need to live by!!
verse 2: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.Then yo uwill be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will”
*The pattern of this world is satins template.The things of this world lead to corruption and thats exactly what we dont want!and in the last part of verse two, it says pleasing will…to please God does not necessarily mean pleasing to us…we need to make sure we know that God comes first, and if things happen that go according to his plan that we dont like, we need to get over the fact that we dont like it and stop making ourselves so high in position, and fully trust that God knows what He is doing…like it mentions in verse 3.
“Honor one another above yourselves”
i think that when we read this part of verse 10, we think, oh yeah, i can do that, its pretty easy…but then when we really evaluate how we act, how we treat one another, and how we think about ourselves, its really sad to see how high we sit ourselves on a throne.there are so many times that we see a person walk by and we think “aww man what did they do to their hair…or what are they wearing?!?!”
thats pretty judgemental if i do say so myself.
of course, verse 11 “NEVER be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”
AMEN TO THAT!!!i love love love re reading and listening to the sermon bobby gave about this verse recently! we need to be sooo excited and so enthusiastic about our faith, and about how AWESOME God is! we need to lean on God and pray that we continue living lives according to his will so that we dont become part of the 80% of “christians” that lose their faith over the years of college and highschool….
verse 14: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse”
i think that the perfect example of this was when Jesus was hanging on the cross.the people were spitting on him!throwing things at him!!!!
if i were to be in jesus’ position…what would i have done?i would have probably screamed at them and yelled and i most definatley would not have blessed them!!
but look at what a perfect example Jesus set…he blessed them…he said “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”
he did not mock them back…he did not spit on any of them, but instead he lowered himself on the ladder and he asked God for forgiveness upon them.Do we treat bullies and persecutors like Jesus did?i highly doubt all of us ask God to forgive the things that come out of their lips….i think thats something we should all think about…
hunter did great on verse 16!!
If we truly live the Christian life, and walk the way the Bible tells us to, then we should see that we become more and more humble daily…if that is the case, then how hard should it be to accept those who are of “lower” position…
verses 18-21 are about resolving conflict.these verses take a lot of time to really grasp.we need to keep humbling ourselves to really live according to these standards!!
maranatha!
11.) Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
True that Christa…if we are not constantly in the Word, how can we be getting closer to God, and if we are not getting closer to God we cannot have a growing spiritual fervor. Prayer and staying in the Word also help us to keep from sin so that we can effectively serve God and follow His commands!!!
7″If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; ”
8″if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. ”
there are so many great verses you really can’t just choose one in this chapter. this is so great it shows thta if your friend is serving do not dicourage them. If your body is teaching do not punish it. or if you show mercy to others then do it cheerfully.
16″Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. ”
It says do not cause comotion but live with others peacfully. but you still don’t fall into earthly desires. Also do not be cocky or proud and ecpect a return in favor. but do it from your heart.
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
I love this verse! We should be living for God, not for the things of this world. Our minds should be focused on the Lord, and we need to be praying and seeking what his will is and always remembering that it will work out! We need to be doing what God wants us to do! The world offers nothing! Storing up treasures in heaven is way more important than earthly desires of the world. God’s will is always the right one, and is always going to happen. Whatever his will is, we need to be ok with it.
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
This is one verse really stood out to me because if someone is persecuting us as christians we should try our best to not curse them.
10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Humility, regarded as one of the most important things in a Christians life. How many times does the BIble remind us to be servants of others and lower our pride level? A lot. For me this is a daily struggle that I constantly have to keep in mind so that I don’t gloat over some accomplishment that I did. I pray that we could all learn how to humble ourselves before others regarding their needs as more important than ours. As Jesus put it those who are first will be last and those who are last will be first.
Mhhmmmm! Such a packed chapter of things we can apply to our lives!
9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Our love must be legit. It can’t be this faked thing that we do just to put on a show or whatever; that would by hypocritical to the faith we profess. In verse ten, it gives us an example of what love should look like. If we love, we will put others before ourselves, their needs before ours. We will be hospitable, genial, and kind. We will be looking for ways to serve others and ultimately reflect God’s glory in our lives. Then going back to verse 9b. We need to be pursuing what is good in the eyes of God. Following Philipians 4:8 – “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
What an awesome chapter, so much to comment on! Nice to see you guys on too!!!
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
I love verse 2, do not be like the world, but be renewed by transforming our minds on Scripture and the Bible is telling us how God is expecting us to live our lives for Him! This reminds of the song “Rebel intro” by Lecrae, and the message of the song is being a rebel because everyone sins and we should be rebels and lessen sin or try to be sinless like Christ, being imitators of the Lord (Ephesians 5:1) we still are going to have sin in our lives though. We got to hate evil and love doing good.
10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
We should be devoted as honoring one another above are selves. Is this something we do? We got ask ourselves that! We shouldn’t be seeking to find betterness for ourselves but for our church family and everyone around us, we got to be loving one another, it is mention in the Bible a lot to love one another.
19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”says the Lord.
I used to have a big problem with this before I became a Christian, just seeking revenge on people. If someone wrongs us, we should confront them without doing anything wrong or harmful to them. We should let the Lord deal with their wrong when He is going to display his wrath. Look at the last part at the verse: for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”says the Lord. A perfect example is David and Saul. David was getting hunted down by Saul who wanted to kill him, but he knew not to take revenge on him, because he knew that He would let the Lord punish Saul, David had a perfect chance to kill Saul, but David didn’t and then someone else killed Saul and David order that person to recieve a death sentence, and David cried for Saul after he died, he actually wanted to see himself dead before Saul.
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
The correct response to what God has done for us is worship. The fundamental way to worship God is to daily offer yourself to Him to be used for His purposes rather than your own. By doing this we consistently start to experience the fulfilling life that God intended. Note Jesus’ words in John 10:10b, ” I have come that may have life, and have it to the full.”
Usually I paste a verse or two that realy shot out to me when I read the chapeter for the day. Today I had all of them hit me so i decided I’d just say that you can read it again if you wanna know what really stands out. We should never lose our fervor(intense heat) for spreading God’s word and continually reading it day after day. I admit that I struggle with these as well but after watching Facing the Giants I know that even though its a movie it is true, God can do anything He wants even if everyone else says its impossible. I believe thats exactly what God loves to do the most, the impossible.
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
In the world we live in, people are calling good things evil and evil things good. It is so important that we define what is good and evil based on what the Bible says, not what the world teaches us.
11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
this is such a good verse!! we should never be lacking in zeal, but always keeping our spiritual fervor serving the lord…we need to be reading our bibles daily and not falling behind, we need to be on fire for christ every day of our lives sharing the gospel to everyone!!
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
I think it is important that we understand worship because we often get it confused with singing songs to God. We need to worship God with our actions. this verse shows how we all need to be doing the right thing for God because he takes pleasure from our actions for him just as much as he enjoys it when we worship him in singing.
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
We can’t be living in this world as Christians. it is so important to keep the world from taking root our lives in order to keep hypocrisy out of it. If we are living for the pleasures of this world we need to evaluate how important God really is to us and rearrange what we value most.
10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
This verse reminds me of what we talked about in the brotherhood. we need to always be their for each other and read to serve. our friends should be able to count on us no matter what the circumstances are because we should love them more than we love ourselves.
11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
We need to have passion and excitement for the Lord, which will keep us devoted to him and spreading his word.
19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”says the Lord.
I just want to say that we shouldn’t get this confused with matters such as Iraq. So many people seem to think that this war is evil and that God is opposing it because we are getting revenge on them. We are NOT fighting them out of revenge, but to protect ourselves. otherwise we could end up being attacked again. Sometimes it is necessary to fight a war in order to prevent more people from dying.
6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to hisfaith.
7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;
8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Okay, we may not have sweet gifts like prophesying, we still can do what the other half of the verse says. Basically, if you do anything or have any gift, use it to serve the Lord. God gave you gifts. Use them for the betterment of God’s kingdom.
Oh my gosh guys, seriously, awesome comments! Christa your so right, we need to keep our spiritual fervor and the only way of doing that is by reading His Word continually and when you stay on “cruise mode” read more! And Kyle, great example! That song by Lecrae is pretty much the best. Well they were all pretty radical! :D
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
God wants us to offer our whole selves not just a part of us. Some worldly things might keep us behind that we think are important but in the end are they? They’re all gunna perish one day! Fire is going to burn it all up so what’s the point? What could be holding a non-Christian back? Like Bobby said, “What in this world is so worth going to Hell for?” So, God wants all of ourself to focus on Him knowing that one day, we’ll be rewarded greatly in Heaven! We get to see our Heavenly Father someday, everyone’s excited ’bout that right?! By doing everything for the Lord we are worshiping Him, giving Him all the glory so even though you may not be singing worship songs in class, your giving Him the praise by just doing what the teacher says. Obedience, God loves obedience. :D
I could copy and paste a verse but this whole passage is pretty much the guide to life…Everything in here is something important we can apply to our lives
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Love must be SINCERE… something i struggle with a lot!! Sometimes I show “love” for my enemies just because i feel like i have to, not because i joyfully want to show Christ’s love and obey his commands! Jesus loves everyone, even the classmates you may find annoying!! All of us are sinners, and no one person is better than the other!!
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
haha this verse immediately reminded me of the special sibling relationship!! Not-so-fun sometimes when they annoy or bug you, but like what Meisha Meisha tells me often, you cannot control them, you must control YOURSELF!! Now there’s a way to show sincere love, by showing your siblings Christ’s love through forgiveness!! :D
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This was a verse we talked about in Girl’s Workshop a while back. Since then I have constantly been praying that God would keep me from any behavior that would characterize a non-Christian — sin! The “pattern of this world” is a pattern of habitual sin.
20On 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.”
Its hard not to respond out of anger or revenge when people wrong us. This verse says that instead, we need to take the extra effort to show love to that person. But that way that might see their evil and be ashamed and so repent. When we keep this mindset of always caring about people’s souls, then the temporary troubles we face are nothing if it results in someone being saved.
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
I love how this chapter right away starts out with this verse. Our act of worship is not just when we sing songs in church, but through our lifestyles as well. Our spiritual act of worship is offering our bodies as living sacrifices, using our bodies as tools of righteousness! This should be our reaction to the mercy that God as shown us, to live for Him and Him alone!
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This is actually the verse that i used for my senior quote. I chose this verse because when i think of high school this is what i think of. High school is the perfect place to fall into the temptation of conforming to the worlds way of thinking. Its so easy to just blend into the crowd. But as Gods children we are commanded to be set apart. We should always be standing out at our schools, we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We do this be reading our Bibles daily!!
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
I compeletly agree with Sarah G. I have this problem too sometimes. God is commanding that our love is from the heart and is sincere. Sometimes i show love to others and enemies becuase i know that i should, but this love isnt sincere! I need to love them the way that God loved me!
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
7If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach;
8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
As followers of Christ we need to offer our body to Christ and everything to Him. So that it will please Him. We need to do everything for the Lord and as if He was standing right next to us. The body of Christ is filled with Christians and we are brothers and sisters through Him. Do what is right because it will please Him. Don’t be evil to someone who is evil to you but encourage them with Christ and like with evil don’t fight fire with fire. So don’t fight evil with evil but evil with goodness.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
When one of your friends is happy he rejoices and you join in with him right? It is easy to share the joy with another person. But when your friend is having a hard time do you share in it? Do you have a good time with him then during trobulesome times leave him in the dust? I am guilty of this and so are many others. A true friend will help you through rough times and share in your greif. The Christian thing to do would be to help them not leave them! When your friend says, “I am having a bad day,” do you say, “Well…I hope you feel better,” then walk away? I hope not! We need to get deep….if they are willing and want to talk about it, listen. When they are sad, share in it. When they want help, slide them some scriptures (I know its comforting to me).
We need to help others.
10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
This is a good reminder for how we need to be treating each other in a society that is very much “me me me.” When we treat other people with kindness and put them above ourselves we bring God honor too. Its a good reminder to hold the door open, not cut at the theme park, etc.. next time.
I love Romans 12, one of my favorite in the whole Bible.
Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment…
Pastor Mike shared that Scripture says the key to knowledge is to fear God. And the knowledge that we’ll one day stand before a holy God – as people who fall short of his standard – should be motivation to humble ourselves now today.
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good
Ummmmm, this verse is amazing. It is saying two things: don’t be taken over by sin, and destroy sin with good. SO don’t be taken over by sin; don’t be overcome by it. As christians, Jesus died for us int hat we would be free from sin. We will still sin as followers of Christ but we should be killing it daily in being sanctified(Growing in Godliness) which leads to the second point: overcome evil with good. Use the sword of the spirit to cut down sin unless it is sexual sin in which you have to run from.
The sword of the Spirit is God’s word by the way.
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith.
8if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
i like these verses together because in verse 2, it talks about knowing that you love God more than anything else. and that this world is full of sin and you’re going to repent and then become a new person, and know God’s will, and stick to it. then in verse 6, you use everything you got because you love Jesus Christ so much and you want everyone to know who He is so you tell everyone God’s word. Finally, in verse 8, you encourage people to come close to God and become a Christian and to show God’s love to all people. And make them disciples so they can go evangalize too, to make more of God’s people.
20On 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.”
I can remember a spesific time when i did this. That person was so drawn back and anoyed that they couldn’t bug me that they just gave up because of frutration. I know, I know, it doesn’t seem like being kind to them would really bug them that much, but it truely does.
21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Wow this chapter was so encouraging and really lets me know what i need to start working on!!
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
When it talks about the bodies and how we should give up our body for God, it reminds me of 1 cor. 3:16-17 talking about how our bodies are God’s temple and how we should take care of it! Our bodies are his and if we are giving it up to him, we want to make sure we are taking care of it.
20On 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.”
I love this!!!!! How confused will our enemies be if we show them love?!?! How awesome would that be and we would be showing such a good example for our non christian friends. Im definatly excited to go help someone out who im not to fond of (=!
p.s- Thank you Beth Lauder <3 ;)
vs. 20 is are diliberate instruction about revenge. It is for the Lord so we are actually sayng “God, I think I can be better than you.” when we take His place. But this verse shows us what we should do. This verse is especiall hard to follow out during sports and is one that I need to improve upon and I think many over people do too.
20On 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.”
21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
I know this is a huge thing for my life. Revenge is always something that you want
to do, but in the end you are only going down to their level and showing them that
you are no better than they are. By offering support and understanding and trying
to confide with them, you can find a resolution.
2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Completely speaks for itself :]]
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
Though it can be hard, we have to always forgive people for the bad things people do to us. As Christians, we aren’t supposed to try to get even or hold grudges, like its sometimes tempting to do, especially when people hurt us. We have to always be good examples of Christ, and not be hypocritical. How hypocritical would it be if all the Christians were running around trying to get revenge for every bad thing that happened to them? We have to stand out and live lives different from the world.
20 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.”
This verse gives me a different perspective for when people wrong me. I love to think about the response of my enemies in times that I show them love when they are in need. I think it’s important to remember that it’s God’s place to judge and avenge and our place to be his followers.
16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Great comment Hunter!
When I read this verse I couldn’t stop thinking about the Brotherhood at True North. I am concerned when I see students sitting by themselves at True North. When we step in to True North on Sat or Sun are we thinking more about those who are sitting alone by themselves or are we thinking more about whom we are going sit with? If we are of the Spirit we should be filled full of compassion towards others and not on ourselves.
10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
13Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
I do not understand why I see brothers making fun of other brothers at True North. This act of conceit by belittling others is a cancerous sin that grieves the Spirit.
9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
13Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”says the Lord.
this verse says, in my opinion we should love our enemies; that we are like related to everyone else in this world because of Adam, Eve, and God. We should like, not boast, cus it’s not in the bible to do so, and that we’ll get our just reward. God is the Ultimate Supreme Creator of the Universe; we’ll get what we deserve at Judgment Day.
I know this comment is really late….but i cant help but give my opinion
This is definatly one of my most favorite chapters of the bible. It is filled with advice, guidlines ect. to keep me on track. To me, it is kind of like a daily checklist, because i can look at it and see what i need to improve on or things that im acceling at!
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.
We all need to constantly please God with our actions. Also don’t be selfish and only do what you want because God may be wanting you to do something and you could miss the chance.
3For 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.
We cannot go around thinking that we are the best…no one is, so get rid of those egos and attitudes. God is the one above everyone and we always have to remember that. In his eyes, we all sin (which is true) so none of us are better than another.