10 Be kind to one another with a brother's love, putting others before yourselves in honour;
I give you a new law: Have love one for another; even as I have had love for you, so are you to have love one for another. By this it will be clear to all men that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.
Last of all, see that you are all in agreement; feeling for one another, loving one another like brothers, full of pity, without pride: Not giving back evil for evil, or curse for curse, but in place of cursing, blessing; because this is the purpose of God for you that you may have a heritage of blessing.
I then, the prisoner in the Lord, make this request from my heart, that you will see that your behaviour is a credit to the position which God's purpose has given you, With all gentle and quiet behaviour, taking whatever comes, putting up with one another in love; Taking care to keep the harmony of the Spirit in the yoke of peace.
In this way it is clear who are the children of God and who are the children of the Evil One; anyone who does not do righteousness or who has no love for his brother, is not a child of God. Because this is the word which was given to you from the first, that we are to have love for one another; Not being of the Evil One like Cain, who put his brother to death. And why did he put him to death? Because his works were evil and his brother's works were good. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world has no love for you. We are conscious that we have come out of death into life because of our love for the brothers. He who has no love is still in death. Anyone who has hate for his brother is a taker of life, and you may be certain that no taker of life has eternal life in him. In this we see what love is, because he gave his life for us; and it is right for us to give our lives for the brothers. But if a man has this world's goods, and sees that his brother is in need, and keeps his heart shut against his brother, how is it possible for the love of God to be in him? My little children, do not let our love be in word and in tongue, but let it be in act and in good faith.
He who says that he is in the light, and has hate in his heart for his brother, is still in the dark. He who has love for his brother is in the light, and there is no cause of error in him. But he who has hate for his brother is in the dark, walking in the dark with no knowledge of where he is going, unable to see because of the dark.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Romans 12
Commentary on Romans 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 12
The apostle, having at large cleared and confirmed the prime fundamental doctrines of Christianity, comes in the next place to press the principal duties. We mistake our religion if we look upon it only as a system of notions and a guide to speculation. No, it is a practical religion, that tends to the right ordering of the conversation. It is designed not only to inform our judgments, but to reform our hearts and lives. From the method of the apostle's writing in this, as in some other of the epistles (as from the management of the principal ministers of state in Christ's kingdom) the stewards of the mysteries of God may take direction how to divide the word of truth: not to press duty abstracted from privilege, nor privilege abstracted from duty; but let both go together, with a complicated design, they will greatly promote and befriend each other. The duties are drawn from the privileges, by way of inference. The foundation of Christian practice must be laid in Christian knowledge and faith. We must first understand how we receive Christ Jesus the Lord, and then we shall know the better how to walk in him. There is a great deal of duty prescribed in this chapter. The exhortations are short and pithy, briefly summing up what is good, and what the Lord our God in Christ requires of us. It is an abridgment of the Christian directory, an excellent collection of rules for the right ordering of the conversation, as becomes the gospel. It is joined to the foregoing discourse by the word "therefore.' It is the practical application of doctrinal truths that is the life of preaching. He had been discoursing at large of justification by faith, and of the riches of free grace, and the pledges and assurances we have of the glory that is to be revealed. Hence carnal libertines would be apt to infer."Therefore we may live as we list, and walk in the way of our hearts and the sight of our eyes.' Now this does not follow; the faith that justifies is a faith that "works by love.' And there is no other way to heaven but the way of holiness and obedience. Therefore what God hath joined together let no man put asunder. The particular exhortations of this chapter are reducible to the three principal heads of Christian duty: our duty to God t ourselves, and to our brother. The grace of God teaches us, in general, to live "godly, soberly, and righteously;' and to deny all that which is contrary hereunto. Now this chapter will give us to understand what godliness, sobriety, and righteousness, are though somewhat intermixed.
Rom 12:1-21
We may observe here, according to the scheme mentioned in the contents, the apostle's exhortations,