It’s one thing to love people who love us back.
But what about the person who criticizes us, overlooks us, mistreats us, or makes life difficult? How do we honor others, prefer them above ourselves, return good for evil, and bless those who persecute us?
Romans 12 calls believers to a way of life that is impossible in our own strength.
We’re called to become living sacrifices—not merely through religious service, but in our ordinary relationships. We are to love sacrificially, serve gladly, remain patient in hardship, care for those in need, and overcome evil with good.
How can we possibly live that way?
Today’s readings remind us that God never intended us to live the Christian life through willpower. We need His Spirit, His Word, prayer, and the help of His people. We’ll also consider the danger of becoming comfortable with worldly favor, what Job and Paul understood about perseverance, and why God remains faithful through both the highest and lowest seasons of life.
Welcome to “God’s Word Day by Day,” where I blog through the Bible in a Year. I hope you’ll join me every day. If you’re not already signed up, you can do it here or subscribe and watch on YouTube.
Today’s Readings:
Job 17 & 18
Psalm 95.1-5
Proverbs 23.1-3
Romans 12.1-21
Our Impossible Calling
Romans 12.1-21:
Living Sacrifices
Verse 1 begins, “I beseech you therefore, …”
Paul is saying “therefore”—because of everything I’ve just told you in chapters 1-11, which is the gospel and all that it entails, let these truths change the way you think and act. Then he goes on to tell us of some of the specific ways our salvation should be lived out.
He begins by asking us to offer our bodies as “living sacrifices.”
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (v. 1).
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality (vv. 10-13).
What does that kind of sacrificial living look like?
Sacrificial Living
We’re to honor others and prefer them above ourselves, not with an “if I’ve got to” attitude, but “fervent in spirit”—enthusiastically, joyfully. This is something we should rejoice in doing out of gratitude for all Christ has done for us!
We should gladly serve the Lord, remain hopeful, believe the best of others, be patient when tempted to be impatient, be faithful in prayer, be a giver, and show hospitality to others.
Verses 14 and following up the ante even more! We are to “bless those who persecute us” (v. 14), rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep (v. 15), associate with people of humble means (v. 15) instead of always trying to move up on the social ladder (v. 16), not think too highly of ourselves or get the idea we have arrived (v. 16) and refuse to repay evil with evil but return good to the very one who has hurt us (vv. 17-21).
It’s a high calling—an impossible calling in our own strength.
But God never intended for us to live the Christian life on our own. We were designed to live lives of dependency, dependent on Him and His Holy Spirit. We are to connect to God in prayer, gain strength through Christ and His Word, which is the bread of life (Jn. 6.35), seek His wisdom when we lack it (Jas. 1.2-8), and find refreshment and peace in His presence.
A High View of God
We should also be part of a Bible-teaching church where the mandates of Scripture are lived out. It should be a church that preaches the Word of God with authority, has a high view of God, and takes one-anothering seriously (Jn. 13.14, 15.12; Rom. 12.10, 15.14; Gal. 5.13; Gal. 6.2; Eph. 4.2, 5.21; Col. 3.13,16; Heb. 10.24-25; Jas. 5.16; 1 Pet. 4.8-10).
When we connect with God consistently through His Word and prayer and connect biblically with His body, we will understand what Jesus meant when He said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible (Matt. 19.20).
Today’s Other Readings:
Job 17 & 18:
Stronger and Stronger
In chapter 17, after all his suffering and losses, Job seems sure he’s going to die soon. He grieves the fact that his friends have turned against him, adding insult to injury. But through it all, Job did not turn away from God.
We are left to wonder why God was silent, as He sometimes is in our lives. But, like Job, we must filter everything through the lens of Romans 8.28-29. While Job didn’t have the advantage of reading the book of Romans, he understood the truthfulness of those verses.
In verse 9, he makes this statement, “Yet the righteous will hold to his way, and he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.” Sounds a little like Paul’s words:
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8.28-29).
“… those who love God …” (the righteous) are “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son …” (they will be stronger and stronger).
And the story isn’t over for Job. Soon God will begin to speak … and, as we’ll read about over the next few days, Job will see what he believed come to pass.
Psalm 95.1-5:
The God of Our Lows and Our Highs
1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
5 The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
We should sing and shout to the Lord, the Rock of our salvation! He is God, and there is no other! As the psalmist said here, He alone is God. He is God over all other so-called gods, God of the “hills,” and God of the “deep places.” He is the God of our “valleys,” as well as our “highs”! Praise His name forever!
Proverbs 23.1-3:
The Inducements of Luxury
1 When you sit down to eat with a ruler,
Consider carefully what is before you;
2 And put a knife to your throat
If you are a man given to appetite.
3 Do not desire his delicacies,
For they are deceptive food.
We can be so easily lured by the inducements of luxury and ease or the company of “important” people! The devil doesn’t always need to get us off into some gross sin. All he has to do is get us comfortable or help us to enjoy the favor of wealthy, intelligent, or influential people and then help us see how we might lose it if we take a stand for the truth. It happens on university campuses, in the workplace, in the family, in our friendships, in the social world, and everywhere.
But Jesus said:
If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it (Lk. 9.23-24).
Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven (Matt. 10.32-33).
Lord, don’t let us be lulled into complacency by the comforts of this world and the favor of worldly people. Help us to have an eternal perspective, to hear Your heartbeat, to live with an awareness of Your presence, and to desire to please You.
Coming Up:
In the coming days, we’ll talk about how true worship equals obedience, how to know whether to admonish a sinning brother or sister, and whether spanking is outdated.
I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss any of them. You might also like to check out the latest videos on our YouTube channel.
And if this post spoke to you, consider sharing it on your favorite social media platform.
Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥
Note about this post:
I began blogging through the Bible in 2012 and have done so every year since then. These posts are the product of many edits and additions throughout those years.
A while ago, I read Jen Wilkin’s book None Like Him about the attributes of God. One is His incomprehensibility. In it, she says, “God is incomprehensible. This does not mean that he is unknowable, but that he is unable to be fully known.”
I have found that to be true each year as I’ve gone back through the Bible. Sometimes I find myself feeling as if a passage just appeared there for the first time. I’m reminded that no matter how many times we read through the Bible, we have only scratched the surface. I hope you feel the same.
Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways,
And how small a whisper we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His power who can understand?” (Job 26.14)
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.