Romans 12: Concrete Faith

After spending loads of ink on deep theological treatments of sin, salvation, Gentiles and Israel, Paul gets very practical about the Christian faith in the twelfth chapter of Romans.

You may have heard of the book, "Everything I Needed To Know I Learned in Kindergarten?"  I've seen similar treatments of this passage called, "Everything I Needed To Know I Learned in Romans 12."  And it's true!  This is one of the most handy, useful, quotable sections of the Bible - and that's saying a lot!

In this chapter, we get direction on such concrete issues as:

• being a living sacrifice (vs. 1)
• transformation rather than conformation (vs. 2)
• attitude (vs. 3)
• living as the church (vs. 4-5)
• spiritual gifts (vs. 6-8)
• how to live and love (the rest of the chapter!)

It is a good idea to return to Romans 12 from time to time in your spiritual walk to see how you are doing in living out the ramifications of the gospel that Paul wrote about in the earlier chapters.  A good understanding of the faith, with a grasp of its wisdom and principles, is a fine thing.  But if not accompanied with its natural expression and outflow in our lives, it is not what it was meant to be, and certainly not all that it could be.

Are you a Christian?  Live it out!