Bible Study on Romans Session 21

Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans;

A Bible Study Based upon the Homilies of St John Chrysostom (SJC)

Study Guide – November 19, 2019 – Romans 12.1-3 – Homily 20

Prayer before reading of the Holy Scriptures: Shine within our hearts, loving Master, the pure light of Your divine knowledge, and open the eyes of our minds that we may comprehend the message of Your Gospel. Instill in us also reverence for Your blessed commandments so that, having conquered sinful desires, we may pursue a spiritual life, thinking and doing all those things which are pleasing to You. For You, Christ our God, are the light of our souls and bodies, and to You we give glory, together with Your Father who is without beginning and Your all holy, good and life giving Spirit, always now and forever and to the ages of ages.

Chapter 12, Verse 1

  • Paul tries to persuade people to appreciate God’s blessings. SJC “Since countless blessings come to us from this source, you must show reverence to God’s mercy, you must approach it with humility…and Paul does this in the same was as would someone who might wish to make the recipient of great blessings show proper regard for his benefactor.” (Pg. 1 #2-3)
  • Our reasonable/spiritual service to God is acceptable as opposed to the past sacrifice. Paul invokes Isaiah. SJC “Indeed, many a time and in many a place, God certainly rejects those sacrifices. But he does not refuse the kind of sacrifice of which Paul speaks. Rather, when the bloody sacrifice was offered to God, he asked for this unbloody kind..” (Pg 1, #5)
  • How can our body become a living sacrifice? SJC “Let your eye look on no evil and it has become a sacrifice. Let your tongue say nothing disgraceful and it has become an offering, Let your hand do nothing against the Law and it has become a holocaust. But this is not enough. We must also have good works, so that the hand gives alms, the mouth blesses those who abuse us, and our ears find time to hear the Scriptures.” (Pg. 2, #7)
  • Our sacrifice must be our first fruits. SJC “Therefore, let us offer to God the first fruits of our hands, and feet, and mouth, and all our other members.” (Pg 2, #8)
  • Jewish sacrifice was dead, but our sacrifice is MADE alive. SJC “For this law of sacrifice is new and, therefore, the kind of fire is strange, unexpected, and marvelous. It has no need for wood or combustible material. Our fire has a life of its own and does not destroy the victim to feed its flames; rather, it gives life to the victim which is sacrificed.” (Pg 2, #9)
  • Once we offer ourselves to God for service, we can’t take it back. “Surely, those who present horses for battle have nothing in common with these horses after they have furnished them to those who will ride them in the ranks. You, however, have presented your limbs and members for the war against the devil to fight in those dread ranks. Do not take them back into your own service.” (Pg 2. #11)
  • The Jewish sacrifice had to be clean, so we must also cleanse ourselves and make our body worthy and approved if we are going to present them. SJC “Therefore, since our bodies are going to be presented, and since they are a sacrifice, root out every spot of blame and censure. Why? If our bodies have on them any spot of blame, they would no longer be a sacrifice. A lustful eye cannot be offered in sacrifice, nor can a hand be presented if it has been involved in robbery and fraud. Nor can feet gone lame from making their way to the theater’s sinful spectacles. Nor can the belly enslaved to luxurious living which inflames the lust for pleasures. Nor can the heart filled with anger or erotic passions. Nor can the tongue which utters filth.” (Pg 2-3, #13)
  • We must make a complete inspection of our lives. SJC “If this was the case with the Jews of old, all the more must we, who are not offering irrational animals but our own persons, show greater strictness, and be clean and unblemished in every respect, so that we may be able to say, as Paul did: “As for me, I am already being poured out in sacrifice, and the time of my deliverance is at hand.” (Pg 3, #14)
  • Reasonable or Spiritual – which is it? SJC believed it was more about not being the same as the irrational animals of the OT sacrifice but a life with Christ. SJC “It means a spiritual ministry, a way of life lived after the example of Christ…a service which has nothing about it that is bodily, gross, or visible.” (Pg. 3, #17-18)

Chapter 12, Verse 2

  • We live this life in Christ by being transformed by God rather than conforming to the world. SJC “Be not conformed to this world but be transformed in the newness of your mind.” Surely, conformity to this world is something which is cheap, something which crawls along the ground, something which passes with time. It has nothing in it which is lofty, or lasting, or straight. Everything about it is distorted and perverted. Therefore, if you wish to walk in a straight path, do not fit yourself to the form of the present life. For nothing in it is abiding and firmly fixed.” (Pg. 4, #19)
  • We must constantly renew our lives just like our homes, businesses etc. SJC “This is what we do with our houses. As they grow old, we keep on repairing them. You must do this also with yourselves. Did you commit sin today? Did you make your soul older? Do not despair, do not lose heart! Renew your soul by repentance and tears, by confession and good works.” (Pg. 4 #22-23)
  • Focusing on the world keeps us from knowing God. SJC “Those who are distracted with the things of this world, those who consider wealth a desirable thing, those who pursue power, those who gape after outward glory, those who judge themselves to be great because they have built up magnificent houses and exorbitant tombs, and have herds of slaves, and carry around with them swarms of eunuchs. These are the ones who fail to know what is beneficial for them or what the will of God is. For both of these are one and the same.” (Pg 4, #24)
  • God’s will is ALWAYS for our benefit. SJC “What, then, are the things which God wills? That we live in poverty, in humility of mind, in scorn for glory, in continence and temperance. He does not will that we live in self-indulgence, in tribulation, in unbridled passion, in grief, in dissolution and laughter, and in all the other things which break the laws he has given. But the majority of men look on poverty, humility, despising glory, and temperance as omens of ill-luck; they are far from considering them as beneficial and God’s will.” (Pg. 4-5, #25-26)
  • We must have clear and correct judgment of things. SJC “Even if we do not pursue virtue, we must praise it. Even if we do not avoid wickedness, we must heap reproach on what is evil. We must do this so that, in the meantime, we keep our votes and judgment uncorrupted. For in this way, as we advance along the road of our lives, we shall be able to lay hold of the works which our better judgment demands.” (Pg 5, #27)

Chapter 12, Verse 3

  • “By the grace given to me” = These are God’s words, not mine.
  • Paul is speaking to ALL to make his words easier to hear, so people won’t feel singled out. SJC “And in this way he makes his discourse inoffensive, because he sets forth his lessons as given to all–even to those who are not required to heed them, so that those who are required may more easily accept such reproof and correction.” (Pg. 5, #30)
  • Paul calls us to a humility of mind. SJC “For when Christ went up to the mountain and was about to weave the tapestry of his moral instruction, he made this virtue the beginning of his discourse and set this as the basis of his teaching when he said: “Blessed be the poor in spirit.” (Pg. 6, #31)
  • Wisdom is not for our ego. SJC “We did not receive wisdom to use it to make us haughty but to make us men of moderation….To show, then, that the man who lacks moderation cannot be sober, that is, cannot be of sound and healthy mind, but that such a person is bewildered, out of his wits, and more crazed than any madman, Paul has called humility of mind moderation.” (Pg. 6, #33-34)
  • Faith is given as a gift from God and is different for everyone. SJC “And here he is calling faith a gift. And when he said: “God has apportioned,” he offers solace to the man who has received less and checks the pride of the man who has received a larger share. For if God apportioned the gift, and this is not due to your own achievement, what reason do you have to feel conceited?” (Pg. 6, #36)

Life Application – We must not live a conceited life

  • We are blessed according to God’s will “For God himself has made all men and, in like manner, he cares for all of them. And as his giving has come from his loving-kindness, so also does the quantity he gives. He showed his goodness with respect to the chief point, namely, the giving of the charismatic gifts. Is he likely to betray or fail you in the measure of the gifts he gives? For if he wished to dishonor you, he would not have given any gifts at all.” (Pg. 7, #38)
  • Recklessness leads to foolishness “Such are those who rate themselves high in wisdom and then fall into the ultimate recklessness. For nothing makes a person so foolish as recklessness does. This is why the prophet calls the barbarian a fool. “The fool will speak foolish things,” he says. But so that you may learn of his foolishness from his very words, listen to what he says: “I will set my throne atop of the stars of heaven and I shall be like the Most High. I shall grasp the world with my hand like a fledgling bird and carry it away like abandoned eggs.” (Pg. 7, #40)
  • Foolishness leads us away from God  “For recklessness goes beyond any proper bounds and departs from what is reasonable. Hence, it is called foolishness, since it makes men both fools and false pretenders. And if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then surely not to know the Lord is the beginning of folly. If, then, to know God is wisdom and not to know him is folly, and if not knowing him comes from reckless arrogance (for the beginning of haughtiness is not to know the Lord), then reckless haughtiness is the extreme form of folly.” (Pg. 7, #43)
  • Being foolish by choice leaves no excuse “Like the madmen and fools, they stir men to laughter; like them, they are unpleasant and annoying. They are out of their wits as are the madmen and fools but, unlike them, no one feels pity for them. They are mad, just as the madmen are, but no one offers an excuse for them. Hatred is all that men feel for them. Although they have the failings of both madmen and fools, they are deprived of the pardon and excuse shown to those whose ailments come from disease or nature. They are ridiculed not only for the words they speak, but for their whole posture and appearance.” (Pg. 8, #46)
  • Reckless men are weak “For the man of reckless action has to be in every respect a man of weakness. His haughty recklessness is in no way a healthy condition. Just as bubbles are easily burst, so, too are they easily destroyed. If you do not believe me, give me a bold and reckless man and you will see that he is more timid than a hare, even in the most insignificant circumstances. The flame which leaps up from twigs immediately sets them on fire and turns them to ashes. However, solid logs do not easily catch fire; for a considerable length of time they fend off the flame which is burning around them.” (Pg. 8, #50)

Send Off – Practice Humility of Heart!“Since we have learned this, let us practice humility of heart. Nothing is more powerful than this virtue; it is stronger than rock, more solid than steel; it puts us in a place of safety which is more secure than the walls of any city protected with turrets; it is high enough to ward off any engine of war with which the devil might assault it.” (Pg. 9, #51)