Paul in Romans 12 is writing to a church that was still new. People were only just beginning to learn what it meant to follow Christ in community with people from Jewish and Gentile backgrounds. Conflicts were bubbling up. People were finding it hard to come together. (Does any of this sound particularly apt for our own modern times?)
So, when Paul says, “Do not be conformed to this word, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect,” he is speaking to a community that is still trying to learn how to best get along with one another.
Paul reminds the Romans that we each are gifted with skills and talents that not only benefit our community, but that are needed. “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,” he writes. We each have our own unique way to “contribute to the saints” or to “extend hospitality to strangers.”
This message is excerpted from the Bible study “Serving with zeal” by Sara Carson in the May/June 2023 Gather magazine. Today we commemorate the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, 1530; and Philipp Melanchthon, renewer of the church, 1560.
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