Transformed mind and motivation
Homegroup Notes for w/c 8th May 2022
Resurrection Living – Transformed mind and motivation
Romans 12.1-18
Notes prepared by The Revd Malcolm Raby
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION:
Paul (writing Romans) has spent 8 chapters of detailed teaching about the Gospel, and a further 3 chapters outlining God’s glorious plan. Now he turns to some practical application. He uses the Greek word OUN = therefore … in view of God’s mercy, this is how we should live. If Jesus really is Lord of our lives, then nothing about the way we live should stay the same.
Many people in the Western world still call themselves “Christian” but far less live as if Jesus is Lord. If we confess Jesus as Lord then we are signing up for a spiritual revolution, and not just turning up for an hour or so on a Sunday. There is just one true “spiritual act of worship” and that is offering ourselves to the Lord’s service day by day.
So in these opening verses Paul urges the Christians in Rome to sort out their differences and see themselves as one single Body of Christ. They must:
1 Live out the Gospel towards one another (verses 3-8)
2 Live out the Gospel towards God (verses 11-12)
3 Live out the Gospel towards unbelievers (verses 13-21)
For Paul this is the only reasonable/logical act of worship in response to the Gospel message. He wants us to say, “Jesus, we are yours” in every part of our lives.
Rick Warren (best-selling Christian author) spoke these words to tens of thousands of Christians at the Anaheim Angels sports stadium in January 2005:
In 1939, in a stadium much like this in Munich, Germany, they packed it out with young men and women in brown shirts for a fanatical man standing behind a podium named Adolf Hitler, the personification of evil. And in that stadium, those in brown shirts formed with their bodies a sign that said to the whole stadium, “Hitler, we are yours.” And they nearly took the world …
What would happen if (American) Christians, if world Christians, if just the Christians in this stadium, followers of Christ, would say, “Jesus, we are yours”? What kind of spiritual awakening would we have?
What does Paul mean by a “living sacrifice” (1)?
Not something offered in the temple courts or the church building, but in home life and in the market place. To please God, our worship must express itself in acts of service performed by our bodies (this would have shocked Greek readers who, brought up on Platonic thought, saw the body as an embarrassing encumbrance). So our feet will walk in Jesus’ paths, our lips will speak the truth and spread the gospel message, our hand will lift up the fallen and perform mundane tasks for others (cf Jesus washing the feet of his disciples), our arms will embrace the lonely and unloved and our eyes will constantly look towards God.
And how do you understand verse 2?
Throughout Scripture there is a call to non-conformity and holiness of living (e.g Lev 18.3-5; 2 Kings 17.14-15; Matt 6.8). Do not be conformed but be transformed. We have a constant battle on our hands to refuse to conform to the world’s ways and standards. “Do not let the world around you squeeze you into its mould” (J B Phillip’s translation).
How might this transformation take place?
It is clear from other passages it is by a combination of the Spirit and the Word of God – and so be able to discern and desire the will of God.
What is your No. 1 motivation in life? We know what the “Christian” answer should be, but be honest!!
VERSES 3-10
Rome was obsessed with social status. Every Roman knew his station in society, and those above him made sure he never forgot it. So Paul’s warning in verse 3. No matter what our status in life, we were all sinners before God. No Christian has any grounds for boasting.
In these post-Covid days, some Christians are asking whether they need to go to church anymore. How would you answer such a view?
Paul makes it clear there is nothing me-centred about following Jesus. We have a duty to care for the “Body of Christ” and to take our place within it. We simply cannot act as if we did not depend on one another. We are different and incomplete by ourselves – we need to be knitted into the local church – just like our physical organs and limbs are of little use until they are joined together.
Verses 4-8 echo 1 Corinthians 12 – we are to build up the Body of Christ by exercising spiritual gifts. This is not an exhaustive list, but can you see these gifts at work in one another? Here is an opportunity to really encourage each other. And if anyone feels they don’t have any of these gifts there are others!
Words spoken by prophets were to be weighed and tested – the apostles were to be believed and obeyed. Prophets tended to speak to a local situation, whereas the authority of the apostles was universal. The prophet had to make sure his message in no way contradicted the Christian faith.
Verses 9-10 echo 1 Corinthians 13 and the call for self-sacrificial love. How might this show itself in practice?
Some years after Paul wrote this letter, a Christian philosopher, Aristides, invited the Emperor to look at the church in Rome as proof of the truth of the Gospel:
They walk in all humility and kindness, falsehood is not found among them, and they love one another. They do not despise the widow or grieve the orphan. He that has distributes liberally to him that has not. If they see a stranger they bring him under their roof, and rejoice over him as if he were their own brother; for they call themselves brothers, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit and in God. When one of their poor passes away from the world and one of them sees him, he provides for his burial according to his ability, and if they hear that any of their number is imprisoned or oppressed for the name of their Messiah, all of them will provide for his needs, and if it is possible that he may be delivered, they deliver him. And if there is among them any man who is poor and needy, and they have not an abundance of necessities, they fast two or three days so that they may supply the needy with the food they need. And they observe scrupulously the commandments of their Messiah.
What might be said about Christians in the church of St Giles and St George, Ashtead?
VERSES 11-12
Does your daily experience of God match up to what Paul is saying here?
“If we are joyful in hope, faithful in prayer, full of the Spirit and patient in affliction, we will find there is nothing wrong with God’s signal to us at all.” (Phil Moore)
VERSES 13-18
Life in the family of God should be marked by: (Reflect on each of these qualities)
Generosity – can mean share in people’s needs and sufferings, or share our resources (cf Acts 2.42ff).
Hospitality – Love for fellow believers should also lead to care for strangers, in a world where inns were few and far between – and were often unsavoury places.
Bless those who persecute – here Paul is echoing the words of Jesus. We should want our enemies welfare, and pray for it – tough teaching!! When Paul wrote this letter he was not talking about abstract theory, but about real and often savage persecution of Christians. Even in the 50’s Tacitus wrote that the whole human race detested Christians. And just a few years after Paul wrote, Emperor Nero launched a brutal persecution against Christians in Rome.
Sympathy – love never stands apart from other people’s joys or pains.
Harmony – since we have a renewed mind we should share the same basic convictions and concerns. Without this we cannot live in harmony.
Humility – Few kinds of pride are worse than snobbery. Jesus mixed freely with social rejects and so should we.
“Christian churches would be happier communities if we all loved one another like this.”
PRAYER
Pray for Christians living in difficult situations that they may show the love of Christ both in word and in deed.
Pray that as a Christian community in Ashtead we may show the love of Christ in practical ways.
Pray for our church leaders that they may lead us faithfully.
Pray for your group – to what extent does it live out the challenges in today’s study?