Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

An overview of chapter 12 before we go into the verse by verse study.

What does Romans chapter 12 mean?

This begins a new section in Paul’s letter. As in many of his other epistles, Paul begins Romans with teaching on doctrine and ends with teaching on how we should live because of what is true. This pattern of theory, followed by application, is a hallmark of his writing. Romans 1—11 focused intently on the doctrine of salvation by God’s grace and through our faith in Jesus. Knowing those ideas, how then should those saved by God’s grace live today? How should we respond to the incredible mercy God has shown to us? Romans 12 begins to answer that question.

Since we can never repay God for forgiving our sins and including us in His family, there is only one rational response: worship. By this, Paul does not mean singing a few songs on Sunday morning. He describes our reasonable worship as presenting our bodies, our entire lives, to God as if we are holy and acceptable sacrifices. The difference between this and the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant is that we are to be living, breathing sacrifices, using up our lives in service to God (Romans 12:1).

This will require transformation, Paul writes. We must break free from, rather than conforming to, the me-first way the human world prefers. We must have our minds renewed, to look at the world through God’s eyes, to begin to understand what He wants instead of focusing on what we want (Romans 12:2).

The first investment of this sacrificed life that God asks from us is to serve each other in the church. He has equipped us to do this by giving each believer specific spiritual gifts through His Holy Spirit who comes to live with us. In other words, God has supernaturally enabled us to be able to give to each other exactly what is needed. But we must do it. All together, the church is Christ’s body, with each person serving a specific function that keeps the body going. Our first job is to find our function and to do it, through God’s power, for the good of everyone else (Romans 12:3–8).

Next, Paul paints a picture of a living-sacrifice lifestyle. This comes with a long list of commands; a modern letter or office memo would put each of these in a separate bullet point. Paul begins by saying our love for God and each other must not be faked. It’s not a performance. He writes that everything we do must be motivated by genuine love. As God does, we must learn to hate what is evil and to hold on tight to what is good. We should love each other with the loyalty of affectionate siblings. Our sibling rivalry should take the form of trying to outdo each other in giving honor to one another. We must keep our head in this game—though this is no mere game—loving and giving and serving the Lord with great enthusiasm in the burning power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 12:9–13).

This life of sacrifice will involve our mind, will, and emotions. We must continually acknowledge that our hope, our future in eternity with God, is worth celebrating. The suffering in this life is real, but we know it is temporary. We will be patient as we wait. We will also pray continually to the Father who hears and responds to us through the Holy Spirit.

We may be persecuted. We may have enemies in this life, people who wish to harm us for one reason or another. Christ calls us to follow His example and to refuse to curse them, to repay their evil, or to take revenge. We will let God handle that. Instead, as Jesus said, we will give food and water to our enemies in acts of kindness in order to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:14–21).

Verse by Verse

Verse 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.

A new section of Paul’s letter begins with Romans 12. He has concluded the section dealing with the doctrine of salvation and what it means to come to God through faith in Christ. Now he begins to describe how those of us who are in Christ should live. How should we respond to God’s great mercy to us?

Paul launches into an appeal to his spiritual siblings: his brothers and sisters in Christ. Though he is the apostle sent by Jesus Himself to take the gospel to the world, Paul is also “one of us.” He is a sinful human being saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus. He calls God Father, as we do, making him our brother.

Paul urges us to recognize that God has shown us enormous mercy, described in detail earlier in this letter. The hymn in the previous four verses made it clear that God owes us nothing. Instead of death, though, He has given us life and purpose in Christ. He has forgiven our sins and shared with us the riches of His glory. We deserved none of that. How should we respond?

Paul writes that as the Jewish people offered killed animals as sacrifices to God, Christian should instead offer ourselves, our bodies, to Him as living sacrifices. In other words, the only rational response to God’s mercy in giving us eternal life is to give Him our lives as a sacrifice to use for His purposes right now.

Animal sacrifices under the old covenant sacrificial system had to be set apart from the herd for that purpose and chosen with care to make sure they were acceptable—unmarked and unharmed. As living sacrifices, God has already set us apart for His purposes and declared us acceptable because He sees us in our position in Christ. In other words, we do not have to wait to be better people before we offer our bodies and lives to God. As people in Christ, He will receive the sacrifice of our everyday lives right now.

This life of worship, then, is the appropriate response to the mercy God has already given to us.

Verse 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.

Paul is urging Christians to respond to God’s mercy, His forgiveness of our sin, and His inclusion of us in His family. The appropriate reaction would be offering to Him our entire lives as a form of living, breathing sacrifice.

Next, Paul writes that we must no longer be conformed to the world. The word “world” is often used in the New Testament to refer to the “world system,” or the way that every human being lives by default. John described this worldly way of living as “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life” (1 John 2:16). By instinct, all of us chase those things in pursuit of happiness and meaning.

Paul tells us to abandon the chase for pleasure, possessions, and status—to stop living like everyone else. Instead, he urges us to be transformed from the inside out. Specifically, he writes that we must be changed in how we think, to have our minds renewed so that we can begin to understand God’s will for our lives.

God may continue to provide us with pleasure, possessions, and status in various forms, but he urges us to learn how to look at life with a new question: What does God want for me? What is truly a good, acceptable, and perfect use of my life for His purposes and not just for my own?

Verse 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.

Paul has written that those of us who have received God’s awesome mercy in Christ should change the way we lead our lives. In fact, he has urged us to sacrifice how we use our bodies and our minds. We should seek to be used by God for His purposes and to see the world through the lens of what He wants instead of just what we want.

Now Paul writes that this begins with seeing ourselves as we really are. By nature, human beings inflate our perception of ourselves. We are ever at the center of our own mind’s eye, always measuring everything we see and hear against the standard of our own perspective.

Paul writes that one of the ways our minds must be transformed is in developing the ability to see ourselves accurately. We must develop “sober judgment,” or an objective eye. We need to be honest with ourselves about what we’re good at and what we’re not.

Paul does not say we must all learn to think of ourselves as terrible and worthless. Instead, he wants us to step away from the funhouse mirror that causes us to see ourselves as big and powerful and important. It takes faith to see ourselves objectively in this way, Paul writes. Why faith? He will go on to show that we must see ourselves truthfully so that we can trust God to do through us what He has gifted us for.

In other words, God has work for each of us to spend our lives doing in service to His church. An inflated view of ourselves will only get in the way of the truly powerful things God intends to do through us.

Verse 4: For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function,

Paul is describing how living sacrifices live. He has urged Christians—all who have received God’s mercy because of their faith in Christ—to offer their everyday lives to God as an ongoing act of worship. Previous verses made clear that this will require transformation of our minds and perspective so that we can see and understand what God wants and be used by Him to get it done.

Now, though, Paul begins to get into what our specific jobs in this sacrificial lifestyle might be. It turns out that God’s purpose for Christians is that we will spend our lives serving each other in specific ways. His analogy here applies broadly to each local congregation, but it also includes the worldwide church in general.

Paul uses the familiar analogy of a human body, something he develops in more detail in 1 Corinthians 12:12–31. Bodies are a unified whole, containing one person. But that unified body is made up of many different parts that serve wildly different functions from head to toe. Paul will show in the following verses that the church, meaning all Christians, is similar in that we are the body of Christ.

Verse 5: so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Paul is describing how Christians who have been shown mercy by God—which means all saved believers—should live now. What kind of a life makes sense? The prior verse described a human body. It is just one person, but it has many different parts that serve different functions.

Now Paul says that we, as the collective group of Christians, are also a kind of body. We are Christ’s body on earth, often referred to as “the church.” We are countless different parts in many different places with vastly different jobs, but together we are, by analogy, one unified “being,” a single entity with what should be a united purpose.

Paul writes something else about us as part of the body of Christ. None of us exists outside of the body. No Christian is an unattached Christian. We are all members of each other, connected to each other with the purpose of serving each other. This is what God intends to do with us on this side of eternity.

Verse 6: Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;

Paul is building a metaphor to describe the first purpose of every Christian. He is showing what it looks like to sacrifice our bodies and minds in service to God as a response to His great mercy to us.

All Christians together are meant to operate as a single human body. Since we are all in Christ, by definition, we are Christ’s body on earth. We are to function in the world as a single entity. That does not mean, however, that God intends for each of us to be exactly the same. We are not robotic. We serve wildly different functions just as all the different parts of a human body serve different functions. Our job is to serve our function, in service to each other, in the power of God. Paul describes our differing functions in the body with the word “gifts.” In the church, we usually call these the “spiritual gifts.” These gifts are given to each believer through the Holy Spirit to use in our specific service to and in the church. We might describe each of these gifts as the supernatural ability to perform or fulfill a specific function that our fellow members in the church truly need.

Spiritual gifts should be understood to be different than talents or abilities, as the list of gifts Paul provides in the following verses will make clear. Three other lists of spiritual gifts are found in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 12:8–10, 28–30; 1 Peter 4:11; Ephesians 4:11).

Paul writes in this verse that God intends for us not just to have these gifts of grace but to actually use them. He begins by saying those with the gift of prophecy should use it in proportion with their faith. In other words, proclaiming a prophecy from God to the other members of the church is an action that requires faith that the message has been given by God.

Beliefs differ about some of the spiritual gifts listed. Prophecy is one of those, sometimes referred to as the “sign gifts.” Some believe the gift of receiving and delivering messages from God to the church was intended only for the era before the Bible was completed and available to churches. Others feel prophecy and other sign gifts continue to be given to individuals today.

Verse 7: if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;

Paul has described an amazing thing every Christian is meant to do. In fact, this is the first thing Paul describes when launching into how we should live in response to God giving us mercy in Christ. Every Christian receives God’s Holy Spirit when we come to faith in Christ. The Spirit brings with Him spiritual gifts that God intends for us to use to serve each other in the church. Each of us is given different gifts to use for different purposes, but our universal command is to use those gifts according to the will of God.

Paul lists two more of those gifts in this verse. The first is the gift of serving. This gift of service, sometimes called “helps,” is the ability to step in and meet the practical needs of individuals or the church as a whole. People with the gift of service often don’t realize that it is, indeed, a gift. They assume that everyone can zero in on what another person needs help with and to provide that help at the right time and in the right way. They’re wrong, though. The body of Christ could not function if those with the gift of service neglected their role in the church.

The second gift mentioned is teaching, and its one that most of us think of as a primary role in the church. It is the supernatural ability, in the Spirit, to make clear to a diverse group of hearers what God’s Word means. The early church relied heavily on Spirit-gifted teachers to help believers understand the truth, just as we do today.

Verse 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.

Paul is urging those who have received God’s mercy through faith in Christ—all Christians—to use the spiritual gifts they have received through God’s Spirit to serve each other in the church. So far, Paul has listed the gifts of prophecy, service, and teaching. He seems to be saying that each of these are given to different people, not that every person would have all these gifts.

The gift of exhortation is the Spirit-enabled ability to build someone up by challenging him or her to do better. This passage includes strong exhortation from Paul himself. The church needs exhorters to keep all of us on the right path and moving forward.

Contribution, sometimes called the gift of giving, has to do with money. It is the ability to see the financial need and to step in to help meet that need. As Paul writes here, it requires generosity. Giving generously does not require that someone be wealthy. Often Christians of very limited resources are the most generous in the church as they are led by the Holy Spirit to exercise this gift.

Paul lists leadership as a separate gift from teaching, though often in the church we expect the same person to have both gifts. This often isn’t the case. Sometimes called the gift of administration, this is the supernatural ability to call others to follow in the best direction for the group. Paul urges those with this gift to use it with zeal or enthusiasm. Spirit-gifted leaders help to set the energy level for the entire group.

Finally, Paul lists the gift of mercy. This is a powerful gift when exercised in the Holy Spirit. It involves the ability to reflect the mercy God has shown to us on a personal level. Someone with the gift of mercy does not express to others that their wrong choices are okay, but that they are forgiven and accepted in Christ. Another view of this gift is that it involves ministering to the less fortunate. In either case, Paul urges this gift to be exercised with genuine cheerfulness.

Verse 9: Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

In Romans 12, Paul is describing what it means to live the Christian life. How should we respond to God’s great mercy toward us? Paul’s first response is that we should figure out what spiritual gift or gifts God has given to us, then actually use those gifts to serve other Christians in the church.

Now he begins a list-like section of quick commands about how Christians should lead their everyday lives. We all know that we should love each other, but Paul’s instruction is that our love must be genuine or sincere. In other words, Christians are not called to fake an attitude of love for each other, but to find ways to express God’s love meaningfully, as an extension of God’s love for us and ours for Him.

Next, Paul uses a strong word often translated as “hate” or “abhor.” This is the Greek term apostygountes, which implies a dislike or revulsion towards something. Proverbs 6:16–19 describes seven things God hates, using the equivalent Hebrew term. None of these hated things are people; all of them are sin. Christians, too, are called to learn to hate what is evil, meaning sin. This is especially true of sin that brings harm to the innocent. This is one of the ways we need to be transformed to think like God (Romans 12:2). Hating evil, especially the sins that intrigue us, does not always come naturally.

Finally, Paul commands us to hold fast to, or cling to, what is good. Again, it can sometimes be hard to know what is truly good. We must learn to see the world through God’s perspective, to deeply invest our time and energy in securing and keeping what is truly “good.”

Verse 10: Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Paul is giving a list of short commands to those who are in Christ. He is describing what it means to live as a self-sacrificing Christian. In the previous verse, he wrote that our love for each other must be sincere or genuine.

Now he writes of love as a kind of devotion to a sibling. We must love each other with a brotherly affection. The Greek word used here inspired the name of a city in the United States: Philadelphia, self-described as the city of brotherly love.

Those in Christ are truly brothers and sisters. God adopts us as His children, welcoming us into His family. That family includes everyone who knows God as Father. Brothers and sisters, of course, don’t always get along. In most families, however, they share a loyalty and sense of belonging that surpasses most normal friendships.

Paul’s second command in this verse urges us to compete, in a sense. We’re told to outdo one another in showing honor to each other. If each of us acted on this, every person in the body of Christ would always feel deeply honored by the others and would never be satisfied that we are honoring one another enough. We would be motivated to continue asking, “How can I show more honor than he showed to me?”

Verse 11: Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

In the previous verse, Paul commanded Christians to seek to outdo each other in showing honor to one another. Now he writes that we must not be lazy in our enthusiasm. The two commands may well be related. Paul is urging us to be energetic in our attempts to give honor to each other. It may be that he is urging us to live with zeal or enthusiasm, in general, to remain focused, intentional, and positive about our purpose in treating each other well in the body of Christ.

He ramps the idea of enthusiasm up another notch by adding that we must be fervent in spirit; we must keep our spiritual fervor. The Greek word here is zeontes, related to the root word for “life,” and the phrase could literally be translated that we must be boiling in our spirit. This could either mean that we must keep up our own spirits or that we should be set on fire by God’s Spirit in us. In either case, this is a clear call from Paul to avoid allowing ourselves to become bored or tepid as we pursue our purpose as believers.

There is an appropriate target for this energy and enthusiasm: serving the Lord. That’s the final command in the verse. Connecting that together, Paul is urging us to be “all in,” both spiritually and emotionally, when it comes to serving the Lord and serving each other.

Verse 12: Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Paul continues to describe our lives in Christ in a series of related short commands. The three commands in this verse are key to the emotional and spiritual well-being of every Christian.

The first command to Christians is to rejoice in hope. Often, we resist instruction about what we should feel: that we should change our attitudes to be joyful. The idea here, though, is more about declaring ourselves as having reason for joy. It’s not a command to be happy, but to have the right perspective on our situation. We should agree with God that our hope is worth rejoicing over. What hope? Paul is referring to the hope of the redemption of our bodies and being united with our Father forever once our adoption is complete (Romans 8:23–24).

The next command is to be patient in tribulation or affliction. This becomes much easier if we are keeping the other two commands. Those who see their future worth celebrating and who pray to the Father continually will have a much easier time being patient during hardship. Paul is not downplaying the genuine pain of those experiences. Life can be unpleasant, and not all moments are happy moments. Yet Paul has pointed out that the struggles of life on earth are not worth comparing with the glory to come (Romans 8:18). So, we wait with patience (Romans 8:25). The final command of the verse also connects with Paul’s thoughts in Romans chapter 8. We’re commanded to be constant in prayer, or to keep praying continually. During any time of suffering, while waiting for what we’re hoping in, we should pray. Prayer brings a connection with our Father through the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:26–27). He hears, understands, and helps in response to even our clumsiest attempts to communicate with Him.

Verse 13: Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

So far, Paul has written generally that Christians must be devoted to each other. They should show brotherly affection and honor to one another. The two commands in this verse describes practical ways we can do that.

First, Paul writes that we must contribute to the needs of other believers. The practice of the church in its earliest days was for wealthier Christians to sell their belongings to meet the physical needs of Christians who were not as well off. Not only did these acts of sacrificial giving demonstrate sincere service to God, they demonstrated to other believers and the watching world that these Christians practiced what they talked about.

In the same way, we are commanded to show hospitality to each other. The world can be a cold, lonely, and dangerous place. One hallmark of the Christian community is that it is meant to offer safe and welcoming spaces to believers through the hospitality of other believers. Traveling from town to town in Paul’s day was always a risk. Christians welcomed by other genuine believers as they passed through or arrived in a new town were protected from thieves, weather, and violence. We’re called to provide the same service to each other, in the contexts of our own individual cultures.

Verse 14: Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

Here, Paul begins a new set of commands detailing what life in Christ on this side of eternity is supposed to look like. Taken together, it paints a picture of the Christian life. Followers of Jesus should be seen as those who love and take care of each other, in powerful and self-sacrificing ways.

This new command, however, can also be applied to how Christians interact with unbelievers. Paul echoes the direct teaching of Jesus: Bless those who persecute you and don’t curse them (Matthew 5:44). It’s possible that Paul is referring to persecution for the sake of Christ, but the same principle applies to any situation where we are treated badly.

The normal human instinct, of course, is to do the opposite. We feel the natural desire to curse those who hurt us and to avoid doing good for them at all costs. Christians who follow Paul’s teaching here, instead, will stand out in almost every culture. They will also be imitating both Jesus’ words and His example, as He carried this principle even to the extent of praying for the well-being of His enemies (Luke 23:34).

While it’s true that this makes a powerful statement to unbelievers, Christians can also practice this with each other. Sometimes other Christians don’t follow Paul’s teachings. We can become hurtful to each other in big and small ways. Nothing communicates sincere love back to a brother or sister who is being hurtful than doing good for them and refusing to strike back at them.

Verse 15: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Of all people, Christians should be masters of empathy, according to Paul. He commands those who are in Christ to be submissive to each other even in our emotions. Nothing communicates sincere love and concern for another person more powerfully than recognizing and joining in their highs and lows. We show love by empathizing with their seasons of celebration and allowing ourselves to feel broken with them in their seasons of heartache.

Jesus Himself powerfully modeled this in John 11:33–35. He was deeply moved and wept with Mary and the others after Lazarus had died. Jesus knew He would raise Lazarus from dead, but that did not keep Him from joining in the sadness of those experiencing the loss.

Saved believers have been shown great grace by God (Romans 3:23–24), who experienced our temptations and suffering (Hebrews 4:15–16). Just as Christians, who have been shown great mercy, ought to be merciful to others (Romans 11:30–31; Ephesians 4:32), so too should they reflect God’s empathy through compassion for others.

Verse 16: Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

Paul has previously commanded Christians to love and honor each other. The command in this verse carries a slightly different idea. Harmonizing with others musically requires each one to adjust his or her own pitch, not to perfectly match each other but to be compatible and pleasant when put together.

Paul is not instructing Christians to all be exactly alike in every behavior and opinion. In chapter 14, he will discuss the fact that Christians will inevitably have matters of differing opinions. Rather, he is commanding believers to adjust to each other in a way that produces pleasantness and order. This requires a level of mutual submission: a willingness to make different choices that will allow us all to get along together.

To live in harmony requires humility from everyone involved. It’s not surprising, then, that Paul’s next instruction is that we not be haughty or arrogant and stuck up. He makes clear what he means with a follow-up command: associate with the lowly. In other words, don’t think of yourselves as being too good to hang out socially with anyone else at all.

One of the reasons Christianity attracted so many followers in its early days was that women and slaves and people of low social standing were all welcome to come to faith in Christ. The result was that people who would never associate anywhere else in Roman culture found themselves in relationship with each other in the church. Paul commands those on the upper levels of society to leave any class rivalry out of the church.

His final command in this verse is that Christians must never be wise in our own sight. This is not the same as saying that we are never wise. The idea is that we should not accept our own opinion as the final word. We submit to the word of God, as well as to the input and ideas of others.

Verse 17: Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

Paul continues, in a list of commands, to describe what Christians should expect life in Christ to look like. Taken together, Romans 12 is a pretty thorough picture of what it means to follow Christ on this side of eternity.

Paul now comes to what is a difficult command for many people, including Christians. It is absolutely the example Jesus set for us, however. Paul declares that we must resist our natural human instinct for revenge and refuse to ever pay back evil when evil is done to us. This would be true whether the person who hurts us is a believer or not.

Instead, Paul tells us to be thoughtful when evil is done to us. He seems to suggest we see that moment as an opportunity to demonstrate that, in Christ, we are honorable people. We cannot, after all, display the love and forgiveness of Christ until we have the opportunity to forgive. When we do, we make a powerful statement that we are choosing to live in service to God instead of to ourselves.

The following verses will expand on this idea, including the claim that doing good for one’s enemies is a far more powerful response than attempting petty revenge.

Verse 18: If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

How do Christians live together and in the larger world? How should they live as people offering their entire lives in sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1–2)? That’s the question Paul has been answering in Romans 12. Now Paul follows the command of the previous verse, which was to always act honorably.

As believers, we should live peaceably with all people. This would include our siblings in Christ, as well as unbelievers. Another way to read this command might be, “Never let yourself be the reason for an un-peaceful relationship with another person.”

This is not a statement of total pacifism or complete apathy, however. Paul gives two clear conditions: “If possible” and “so far as it depends on you.” This command recognizes that conflict is sometimes unavoidable. Some people are just not interested in making peace with us. There is such a thing as an appropriate time and place to disagree, to dispute, or even to fight. Not every action that makes others happy is something good, or something God would want us to do.

What does it require to live this way? For one, of course, we must be willing to admit our wrongs, to apologize, to make things right, and to forgive. This is where the idea of “so far as it depends on you” comes into play. Our own ego, pride, desires, and prejudices should never get in the way of living peaceably with others. First and foremost, that means we ought not do “wrong” things to or towards other people.

Not all conflict is related to wrongdoing, however. Sometimes, it’s simply a question of two sides who disagree about an issue with no absolute answer. In those cases, maintaining the peace may require us to be willing to yield, to be moved, on an issue we care about.

The Bible is clear, however, that on matters of bedrock conviction, we must take our stand with grace, mercy, and integrity (Hebrews 10:23). When making “peace” is possible only by compromising the truth, or the commands of God (Acts 5:28–29), then peace is simply not possible, and the choice no longer depends on us. That stance might result in our own suffering or persecution. Paul has shown that it always matters more that we represent Christ well than to come away with an outcome we find favorable (Philippians 4:11–13).

Verse 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.”

Paul has just written that Christians must not repay evil for evil (Romans 12:17). Now he expands that idea to make it even more clear. Those who follow Christ are commanded to never avenge themselves, to never “get even.” Whether the hurt comes from fellow believers or from unbelievers, revenge is simply not a legitimate option for us.

For a change, Paul gives us a reason for this command, and it’s a bit surprising. After all the other instructions to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others, we might expect something similar. Instead, Paul writes that we should refuse to take revenge because God is much better at it than we are. In a sense, Paul implies that taking our own revenge may dilute God’s opportunity to avenge us in His great anger against those who harm us.

Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 32:35 to show that God has always declared His intention to take vengeance on those who wrong others. A desire for justice for ourselves and those we care about is not wrong. Paul simply wants us to trust God’s timing and power to deliver justice as He sees fit.

How do we respond to this idea? On the one hand, we might be concerned that God will show mercy to those who harm us instead of giving them what they deserve. After all, He has shown great mercy to us. Isn’t that what God does? The truth is that God executes justice for every sin, including ours. For those in Christ, God’s anger was poured out on Jesus on the cross. Someone suffered for those sins: Christ. He experienced what we deserved. Those who refuse to receive Jesus’ death in their place for their sin will suffer the consequences for that sin themselves for eternity.

With that punishment in mind, perhaps we will hesitate to wish for God’s vengeance on our persecutors. Perhaps not. In either case, God says to us, “Trust me to handle revenge and justice for all who harm you instead of seeking it yourself.”

Verse 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.”

Paul now adds to the difficulty of the previous verse. There he wrote that Christians must quit the work of seeking revenge against those who harm us. Why? As God’s children, that’s our Father’s work, and He’s better at it than we are. Instead of seeking petty revenge on our own terms, we should leave justice to the omnipotent God of the universe.

One reasonable way to interpret Paul’s command would be as an instruction to avoid and ignore those who harm us. If we can’t get even, at least we can stay away from them. However, Paul now reveals that this is not the path of those who follow Christ. Instead, we are called to active, positive, and generous engagement with those who harm us. Rather than simply ignoring our enemies, we ought to seek to do good for them and to them.

This is not meant to be taken as a command to stay in a situation in which someone is actively physically harming us. Retreating from violence or avoiding a physical abuser is not being discouraged here, at all. If we can take steps to avoid future injury, that is the right and wise thing to do. God is not commanding us to welcome any kind of abuse.

Even though we’re not being commanded to “embrace” abuse, this is still a hard teaching. In quoting Solomon’s words from Proverbs 25:21–22, Paul’s description of how to respond to evildoers is galling, even infuriating, at first. At the same time, there is a certain ruthlessness about it, spiritually speaking. We are called to bring down fiery conviction on our enemies by being relentlessly kind in seeing and meeting their basic needs. As we do, two things happen. One, we reflect God’s own mercy to us who were once His enemies (Romans 5:10). Second, we show both that we do not deserve to be treated poorly and that we are stronger than those who harm us.

The description of “heaping burning coals” is a reference to Proverbs 25:21–22. In Egypt, there had been a custom to carry a pan of burning coals on one’s head as a sign of repentance. Kindness and forgiveness to those who abuse us, ideally, will make them ashamed of themselves, and hopefully bring them to repent. The strongest, most powerful response to persecution and hatred is to love your enemies.

Those who choose to do good to their enemies create the opportunity Paul describes in the following verse.

Verse 21: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12 is very much a description of what it means to lead the life of a living sacrifice to God. If we’re honest with ourselves, it sounds very difficult. Most of Paul’s bullet-point commands in the previous verses have to do with setting ourselves aside. It’s tough for us to do this for the good of our fellow Christians, let alone for our enemies. Difficult or not, Paul is calling us to live as Jesus did.

Now Paul comes to the final command of the chapter. In essence, he commands us to be strong in our conviction to live in this way. We are not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good. Paul seems to have in mind the idea that we are overcome by evil when we join in and give it back, when we sink to evil’s level. That just results in more sin, more pain, and an endless cycle of revenge and hatred.

In other words, evil wins when we live first for ourselves, our rights, and our own good, instead of the good of others.

If we are strong in Christ, however, we have a great opportunity to overcome evil by continuing to do Christlike good. Evil won’t be annihilated from the world on this side of eternity. That ultimate victory over evil is scheduled for some day in the future, at the hands of God (Revelation 20:11–15). All the same, evil can be defeated any time Christians stand up and give back good to those who do wrong to them. Evil struggles to stand against courageous and sacrificial love.

Paul will continue this thought in the next verses as he transitions to the relationship between Christians and earthly government.