Be Still And Know

Romans 16.3-5 NLT 'Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in the ministry of Christ Jesus. In fact, they once risked their lives for me. I am thankful to them, and so are all the Gentile churches. Also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home.' This final chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans contains greetings to a number of specific people, and this gives us a fascinating window on the early church. We find that the Roman church was incredibly diverse in terms of race, social rank and gender. We can see in the following verses that it was composed of people from a Jewish and Gentile background. Some of the people have names that were common amongst slaves but alongside them we meet people like Aristobulus who, many scholars suggest, was the grandson of Herod the Great and friend of the Emperor Claudius. Particularly notable is the fact that of the 26 people named, nine of them were women. It’s also interesting to note that six of these women are described in terms of t

Romans 15.30 NLT 'Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me. Do this because of your love for me, given to you by the Holy Spirit.' It is an incredible privilege to belong to the Christian family. As soon as you become a Christian you have brothers and sisters who are part of your new worldwide and eternal family. I treasure that moment recorded in Acts 9.17 when Ananias went to meet Saul after his encounter with Christ on the Road to Damascus. Ananias knew of Saul’s violent reputation and he was clearly surprised at the news that he had met the Lord, but we read that Ananias went into the house where Saul was staying placed his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul.” What a miracle! In today’s verse Paul speaks of the way in which his brothers and sisters could join him in his struggle. There is no doubt of their love and respect for Paul and I am sure that they were eager to do whatever they could to support him. Paul tells

Romans 15.23-24 NLT 'But now I have finished my work in these regions, and after all these long years of waiting, I am eager to visit you. I am planning to go to Spain, and when I do, I will stop off in Rome. And after I have enjoyed your fellowship for a little while, you can provide for my journey.' Paul’s love for the church in Rome is very clear and he can’t wait to visit them. I love the way in which he sets out his strategy so clearly. He was always looking to develop the mission of the church and so, having paid them a visit, he then aimed to go to Spain to preach the gospel. And in order to enable that mission to succeed he would be looking to the Roman church to support him in this. These few verses give us an insight into Paul’s heart and his plans, but, as we all know, it didn’t work out in the way that he had hoped. His first task was to go to Jerusalem in order to take the money that he had collected for the relief of the famine victims. He knew that that would be a potentially dangerous jour

Romans 15.13 NLT 'I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.' Hope is a slippery word and so we need to be quite clear what Paul means by it. Normally when we use the word ‘hope’ there is a maybe in our voice. That is to say, we are not confident about something. So when I say that I hope it will be sunny tomorrow, you know that I mean well and would love to think that it might be sunny, but I also realise that it might not. Or if I say that I hope that the train will arrive on time, once again you will know that I’m not absolutely sure that that is what is going to happen. In order to understand Paul’s use of the word hope, we need to get rid of any suggestion of doubt, because he was absolutely confident that the future was secure in God’s hands. His future hope was built on the solid rock of Jesus’ death and resurrection. He doesn’t have any trace of doubt tha

Romans 15.5-6 NLT 'May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' You don’t need to be a genius to work out why Paul so often speaks about the issue of unity! It is clearly because he knew how hard it was to achieve. If the early church had always enjoyed harmonious relationships he could have kept quiet on the subject. His continual reiteration of the message of unity was because he knew that it was the demanding daily work of the church – and it still is! I am often struck by the fact that it is often very small issues which cause huge disputes in churches. It’s just the same in marriage. When I’ve had the privilege of walking with couples who have encountered difficulties almost always when I ask them to trace back to the original dispute they fall about laughing at the absurd triviali

Romans 14.1 NLT 'Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.' In every generation there are issues on which Christians have different opinions. You might care to dream of a world in which such tensions don’t exist but, I’m afraid that here on earth, that will never happen. So the question is what to do with those disputes and particularly in relation to young Christians. Paul offers very strong and practical advice. He is desperately concerned that such issues shouldn’t be a stumbling block to those who are weaker in the faith. He encourages his readers to respect one another’s different opinions and not to make a big issue of it. The two areas of tension in the Roman church concerned food and the celebration of special days. Those from a Jewish background had some very strict rules about their food and the sabbath. They were absolutely convinced that they were right, and clearly had no willingness to negotiate. Paul said that what matte

Romans 13.11-12 NLT 'You know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armour of right living.' In this life everything is limited by time. You might want to have another day to complete your revision but when the examination day comes, there is no more time. You might have lots of worthy things to do but the aeroplane won’t wait for you. You may be a great athlete and keen to do some more training, but when the starting pistol is fired, there is no more time. Paul wanted his readers to have a clear understanding that their time was fast running out and so they needed to be on their toes, ready to serve God here and now, and not to put it off. It would seem that Paul, in common with most of the early Christians, was expecting Jesus to return at any moment. However, the fact is that whether we die, or the Lor

Romans 13.1 NLT 'Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.' Our society has a high level of cynicism towards those in authority. There is a widespread suspicion of the motives of those with political power, and the media takes every opportunity to shoot politicians down in flames whenever they slip up. But the apostle Paul would encourage us to look at our politicians with spiritual eyes and to remember that all authority on this earth ultimately comes from God. Therefore, it is vital that we pray for those in authority and play our part as good citizens, obeying the laws of the land and showing our willingness to support the life of the community. But I can hear you asking a very big question, “What should we do if the governing authorities command us to do something that is contrary to God’s law?” Paul doesn’t address this issue and it might well be because, at this stage, he hadn’t encountered any

Romans 12.17-18 NLT 'Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honourable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.' The Christian life involves a complete rewiring of the way in which we think and live. It involves a total revolution in our lives because when someone does something evil to us the natural reaction is to retaliate. Everything in us makes us want to hit back. We want justice and we don’t want our attacker to think that they can get away with it. But Jesus’ way is different. He calls us never to take revenge but to leave that to God. Our job is to feed our enemies when they are hungry and to give them a drink when they are thirsty. We are to go out of our way to bless them and help them, and that is tough. That’s not the way we are naturally inclined to act, but it is the way of Christ and it is the way of peace. Paul wasn’t unrealistic. His life brought him into conflict with many people and he had no illusions that his teaching wou

Romans 12.9-10 NLT 'Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honouring each other.' Napoleon once said, “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I founded empires; but upon what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon love.” It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of love. Without love there can be no church, no blessing, no joy, no future worth having. Everything depends upon love and here Paul is concerned that the Christians in Rome didn’t make do with a phoney love. He recognised that it is possible to pretend to love other people. We can do it by being superficial and merely polite with others, glancing over the surface of their lives without really engaging with them and their needs. What Paul longed for was for deep, compassionate, sacrificial love which would totally transform their life together. It is interesting that P

Romans 12.7-8 NLT 'If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.' In three of his letters Paul talks about the gifts that God has given to Christians, and each list is very different. Here and in Ephesians chapter 4 and 1 Corinthians chapter 12 he makes it clear that every follower of Christ has been given a unique gift from God which is vital for the church, the body of Christ. God gives his gifts according to the needs of the church, and I am quite sure that if Paul were writing today he would be keen to add the gift of helping with public address systems and digital technology. The Holy Spirit gives just the right gifts to his church to enable it to be effective. The point that Paul is making here is that, once you have found your

Romans 12.3 NLT 'Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.' It is vital for all of us to have a true understanding of ourselves. If we go around with an inflated view of our own importance, the whole of life will look distorted. Relationships will be damaged, and we will add layers of difficulty to everyday life. But it is just as damaging to have too low a view of ourselves. If we go into the day feeling that we are unimportant and don’t count, then we are liable to be steam-rollered by the smallest of difficulties. What we need is an accurate understanding of who we are and that’s what we gain by faith. As we place our trust in God we learn that we are made in his image and that we are of infinite worth. Nothing that we do is unimportant when we know that the Holy Spirit is filling us and directing our actions. The

Romans 12.2 NLT 'Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.' Every day our thinking is being shaped by our society. Most of the time we are totally unaware that this is happening but there is no way that we can avoid being influenced by the expectations and standards of the people around us, by the information and views that we receive through the media, and by ingenious and attractive advertising. We won’t swallow all of it whole, but there is no way in which we can be immune from those many powerful influences. As J B Phillips put it in his famous Bible translation, we need to resist the world’s attempts to squeeze us “into its own mould”. The apostle Paul said that what was needed was for God to transform us by changing the way we think. This is incredibly radical but without it we will continue to be the same as we have always been.

Romans 12.1 NLT 'And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.' We use the word worship in a wide variety of ways. Sometimes we use it to refer to a church service and at other times we use it for a part of the service which is called “a time of worship” which normally consists of prayers and singing. Here Paul is using the word in a much bigger way. He is talking about us giving our whole lives to God as an act of worship, and he suggests that this is the only fitting response to a God who has done everything for us. Paul has absolutely no thought that we could worship God for a while and then get on with our own life, as if we could divide up life into different compartments. Our whole life needs to be focused on worshipping God. Paul invited the Christians in Rome to offer their worship to God as a living and holy sacrifice.

Romans 11.33-36 NLT 'Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back? For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.' Paul has spent three chapters agonising over the issue of his people, the Jews. He is desperately keen that they should follow Christ and receive the gift of salvation. But Paul acknowledges with pain that they have, to a large extent, rejected the offer of new life in Jesus. I love the way in which he ends this part of the letter. He does so in worship by celebrating the greatness of God’s riches, wisdom and knowledge. In the previous chapters he has given the best of his mind to setting out the dilemma and his thinking about the situation. But, at the end of the day, he knows how real are the limits of his und

Romans 9.2-3 NLT 'My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.' These are amazing words. The apostle Paul was proud of his Jewish heritage, and was absolutely passionate that his Jewish brothers and sisters should share in the wonder of knowing Christ as their personal Saviour. But look at the language he used. He was willing to be cursed forever if it meant that the Jewish people could find salvation. This is incredibly strong language and shows very clearly that it meant everything to him. He knew that the Jewish people were in an incredibly privileged position. They had been chosen to be God’s adopted children. God had revealed his glory to them, made covenants with them and given them the law. They had Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as their ancestors and Christ himself was a Jew. They had every advantage and Paul couldn’t cope with the pain of seeing them reject J

Romans 8.38-39 NLT 'And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.' When I lived in India I got to know an elderly missionary who had lived in the area for a very long time. She had asthma and found that the tropical climate was very helpful for her condition so when she retired she stayed in India and continued to have a powerful ministry. Whenever I said goodbye to her, she would come out onto her veranda and wave and she always used the same words. She would say “No separation.” It was an unusual greeting but what she was celebrating was that when we become Christians nothing can separate us from God’s love. Even if we travel away from ou

Romans 7.24-25 NLT Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. It’s a great privilege when someone shares their inner struggles. It isn’t easy to talk about the battles that go on in our lives, but here Paul let it all pour out! Here this mature Christian leader and brilliant teacher admitted that, although he wanted to do what was right, he often found himself doing the precise opposite. He recognised that there was a power inside him that encouraged him to be a slave of sin. It was an agonising dilemma and it left him feeling very miserable. But here he celebrated the fact that sin didn’t have to have the last word. And the answer was Jesus. By looking to Jesus and placing his trust in him he could find the liberty that he craved. The problem with sin is that it keeps knocking at the door of our lives. However long we may have been a Christian it keeps having a go, trying to find a foothold in ou

Romans 5.1 NLT 'Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.' Everyone will agree that it is desirable to find inner peace. Go along to any book shop and you will find dozens of books that will offer you a quick route to inner tranquility. They will give you a wide range of suggestions from those that encourage you to change your diet, minimise your exposure to conflict or start meditation. None of those things are necessarily wrong but they won’t get to the heart of the problem which is that, as human beings, we fundamentally lack peace because our lives are not right with God. It is only when that relationship is sorted out that we can begin to experience God’s gift of peace. Here Paul celebrates the fact that that is precisely what Jesus has done through dying on the cross. When we are at peace with God, Paul declares that the door is flung open to all of God’s other blessings. The person who find

Romans 4.20 NLT 'Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God.' Paul is absolutely clear that faith is all important for those who want to be put right with God and he uses Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, as the supreme example. He trusted God completely even when life was tough and there was little encouragement. It all began with God calling him to leave his home together with his family and set off on a journey into the unknown. When God promised Abraham, as an old man, that he and his aged wife would have a son, he trusted God even though all the evidence pointed in the opposite direction. I love verse 18 of this same chapter which reads, “Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations.” That’s faith! – total confidence in God. Now let’s bring this up to date. Let’s talk about today, because God is calling you and me to be people of faith ami