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“Love is (to be) unpretentious!” (hē agape anypokritos, Romans 12:9). This is the opening salvo of Paul’s stage-direction to the Roman believers living the improvisation of divine faithfulness as a troupe of “saints” (Romans 1:7) (...)

When Christ’s great emissary to the nations pivots from expounding the extraordinary good news message about the justice and mercy of God, Paul turns our attention to body-language. This body-language matches the appropriate mind-set for (...)

Like any other Pauline letter, Romans 12:9-21 focuses on the humanization of the gospel and the church. According to Paul, the gospel affirms all human beings and its preaching in the church must equip people (...)

The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans is both a countercultural and counter-political document. It points to the global renaissance of a human family whose identity, frame of perception, and discipleship are based on God’s (...)

We love because…. Perhaps the first thing to keep in mind when preparing to preach on Romans 12:9-21 is a word from 1 John: “We love because he first loved us” (4:19). While Paul is (...)

We Belong Together Sin, in the singular, is a power in Paul’s thought. It is the bully on the playground that enthralls everyone, gathering devotees, terrorizing would-be opponents into silence, enslaving all. Sin vies with (...)

Just as Paul cannot help breaking out in poetic tribute to love in his famous love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, after beginning the subject of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, so also he does (...)

While the argument of the letter to the Romans opened with a preoccupation regarding God’s anger (1:18-32), this section of the letter opens with an embrace of God’s mercies. What are the mercies to which (...)

One could probably preach on this passage for months without much repetition, except for its grounding in the mercies of God. So, what follows will attempt to describe some key elements and implications for living (...)

At first glance, Paul’s appeal to his audience to “present your bodies as a living sacrifice” for “your spiritual worship” might sound like he is demanding an esoteric or mystical kind of devotion. But a (...)