Romans 1:1-2

Passage

Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, while having been a called apostle set apart into the good news that He announced with certainty through His prophets in the Holy Scripture prior to doing His will …

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Again we start a letter of Paul.  Again we see that Paul describes himself as a slave (doulos – “δοῦλος”).  There is no humbler position with which to begin a letter.  Paul is voluntarily disposing of his free will.  For Paul, it is better to be counted as God’s slave than a free man without God.  In fact, I believe that Paul would rather be counted as God’s slave than as a person who knows God but who still exerts his free will.  For Paul, there is no better time in life than humbly doing the bidding of the Master.  That is the key to Paul’s success.  He is humbly submitted as God’s slave.

How submitted to God are you?  Would you describe yourself God’s slave?  How much of your life is spent balancing the fulfillment of your desires rather than the fulfillment of God’s desires?

Second Thought:

Paul has been set apart.  I’m going to do a little Greek here.  Grammatically, that is a participle – a verb that has been manipulated so as to also take on aspects of a noun.  But more importantly, that participle is in the perfect tense and the passive voice.  This means that the action began upon Paul in the past, it continues into the present, and it will continue into the future.  Only one being in the world can act upon someone else in the past, in the present, and into the future: God.  Paul is declaring that it is God who has called him and set him apart.  This is a very important point.  As Christians, what I want to do isn’t important.  In fact, what I think God wants me to do isn’t even important.  What God actually wants me to do is what is important.  It is not my job to guess or to think what God wants.  It is my job to listen to God, hear His call into my life, and then become obedient to His call.  As Christians, we need to do a better job teaching others how to actually hear God’s will upon their life.

How often do you act in full confidence that you know God’s will?  What are the biggest obstacles to hearing God in your life?

Third Thought:

Paul also tells us that God took the time to announce what He was up to in this life.  God brought the Hebrew people upon them so that they could be a witness into the world and so that He could raise up a Messiah out of them.  The prophets attest to God’s work.  Yet, so often we don’t hear God’s testimony.  We want to make scripture about how we believe it should be applied.  We want to hear in scripture what we bring to scripture.  As Christians, we need to check our presuppositions at the door and allow God’s Word to speak into our lives rather than having our lives speak into God’s Word.

When you study God’s Word, how often do you find yourself trying to validate your own life by what you read?  How often do you truly sit down with God’s Word with a blank slate and just listen to the Word while being challenged by it?  In those times, what do you hear?

Passage for Tomorrow: Romans 1:3-4