Main news for 22 November 2017

King James Version (en)

Romans, Chapter 12, verse 16

⁹ Love, and many other duties, are required of us

¹⁶Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.

NOTES

Describing the life of the Kingdom and of those who share in it, Paul emphasizes a very...

Describing the life of the Kingdom and of those who share in it, Paul emphasizes a very important feature of our age, the age of the coming Kingdom, which, as it is revealed in ever greater fullness, includes more and more new inhabitants.

Earlier, speaking about the ways God acts in the world, the apostle, referring to the Torah, drew his readers' attention to the fact that God can act even through those who oppose Him; but in that case it was already an action not of God's love, but of God's power. Now the picture, at first glance, changes: the action of God's love is quite obvious, and Paul describes its manifestations in considerable detail and vividness, both in relations among brothers and in the relations of Christians with those who do not yet know the Kingdom (vv. 9-18).

But the apostle does not mention manifestations of the action of God's power like those Paul speaks about when referring to texts from Exodus. On the contrary, he forbids revenge, undoubtedly following here the teaching of Jesus Himself, and proposes putting it off until God Himself directly manifests His power and carries out His judgment (vv. 19-21). But judging by everything Paul says about the Kingdom and the Savior's return, one must think that the final judgment over God's enemies, and therefore over the enemies of the faithful, is postponed until the end of time.

At first glance it may appear that in this way God exposes His people to attack, since in that case the faithful will not soon have to wait for God's judgment. On the other hand, such a way of acting in our fallen world is evidently the only possible one. Indeed, one can speak of God's final judgment only when a person is in the Kingdom or before the face of the Kingdom, and of the Kingdom revealed in all its fullness.

Of course, God already sees every heart. But the history of the Kingdom is only beginning; it has not yet been revealed so fully as to transform to the end our world, which is still not free from sin. This means that the earlier history, in which the choice of a path meant only the choice of a path, has not entirely ended. The old world has ceased to be the only reality of history, but it still makes up a certain part of it. Therefore every choice made by a person in this dual and divided world cannot be considered final, unless we are speaking of those who have chosen the Kingdom and gone their way to the end. Everyone else still has, until the Savior's return, a chance to change his mind, to change his decision and his choice.

Then they must also be given time to use this chance. By postponing His judgment, God gives them time so that all the possibilities for the salvation of each person may be used to the end. For those who are already in the Kingdom, the path of salvation is open. Now the time has come for them to think about those who do not yet know this path, so that the Savior may truly be Savior for everyone who can still be saved.

Speaking of relationships among the faithful, Paul advises them to follow the example of those who in those days were commonly called "the poor" or "the humble." Once, eight centuries before the coming of the Messiah, in the time of Isaiah of Jerusalem, this was the name given to the prophet's followers, who gave rise to an entire religious movement. Its participants called themselves "the poor" or "the humble," although the issue was usually not their material condition but their spiritual state. These people considered their main goal to be preparation for meeting the Messiah, whose imminent coming Isaiah spoke of.

They called themselves "the poor" and "the humble" because they understood that only by renouncing everything one has in this world and completely giving oneself over to God's will can a person hope to enter the Messiah's Kingdom. And Paul, addressing his fellow believers, calls them to the humility of which the "poor" of the pre-exilic age had already spoken. What does the apostle understand by humility when the issue is one's attitude toward a neighbor, toward a fellow member in Christ? First of all, what in Russian translation is called, not very successfully, "being of one mind." One might think that the issue is shared views on one or another question.

In reality the corresponding Greek expression means "to think of another in the same way." And the issue is, on the one hand, not to single anyone out or give anyone preference, and on the other hand, not to place oneself above others either. Such a call may seem impossible to fulfill: people are different, and these differences cannot be ignored. But Paul does not call us to ignore the difference between people. He proposes only not to single some out over others, not to place some higher and others lower on the basis of a person's abilities or personal merits.

And in this sense not to give preference to oneself either, "not to be proud of oneself," as the apostle says. Indeed, true humility consists not in considering oneself lower than everyone, but in ceasing to evaluate both oneself and others. Of course, we are all different, and these differences must be seen. But it is not worth trying to determine who is more significant in God's eyes, who is higher and who lower in this respect. God Himself can determine this when the need arises. And we can do His work perfectly well without thinking at all about how much higher or lower we are in His eyes compared with any of our neighbors.

Nothing is more contrary to our everyday life than this text of the apostle. Unfortunately, this is true even of everyday Christian life...

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