11 Be not slow in your work, but be quick in spirit, as the Lord's servants;
For God is true, and will not put away from him the memory of your work and of your love for his name, in the help which you gave and still give to the saints. And it is our desire that you may all keep the same high purpose in certain hope to the end:
Servants, do what is ordered by those who are your natural masters, having respect and fear for them, with all your heart, as to Christ; Not only under your master's eye, as pleasers of men; but as servants of Christ, doing the pleasure of God from the heart; Doing your work readily, as to the Lord, and not to men: In the knowledge that for every good thing anyone does, he will have his reward from the Lord, If he is a servant or if he is free.
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his love, ever taking thought for you in his prayers, that you may be complete and fully certain of all the purpose of God. For I give witness of him that he has undergone much trouble for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hierapolis.
I have knowledge of your works, that you are not cold or warm: it would be better if you were cold or warm. So because you are not one thing or the other, I will have no more to do with you.
Servants are to be under the authority of their masters, pleasing them in all things, without argument; Not taking what is not theirs, but giving clear signs of their good faith, in all things doing credit to the teaching of God our Saviour.
Now we give you orders, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from all those whose behaviour is not well ordered and in harmony with the teaching which they had from us. For you yourselves are used to taking us as your example, because our life among you was ruled by order, And we did not take food from any man for nothing, but were working hard night and day not to be a trouble to any of you: Not because we have not the right, but to make ourselves an example to you, so that you might do the same. For even when we were with you we gave you orders, saying, If any man does no work, let him not have food. For it has come to our ears that there are some among you whose behaviour is uncontrolled, who do no work at all, but are over-interested in the business of others. Now to such we give orders and make request in the Lord Jesus, that, working quietly, they get their living.
And that you may take pride in being quiet and doing your business, working with your hands as we gave you orders; That you may be respected by those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.
Servants, in all things do the orders of your natural masters; not only when their eyes are on you, as pleasers of men, but with all your heart, fearing the Lord: Whatever you do, do it readily, as to the Lord and not to men; Being certain that the Lord will give you the reward of the heritage: for you are the servants of the Lord Christ.
You yourselves have seen that with these hands I got what was necessary for me and those who were with me. In all things I was an example to you of how, in your lives, you are to give help to the feeble, and keep in memory the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, There is a greater blessing in giving than in getting.
The hater of work says, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets. A door is turned on its pillar, and the hater of work on his bed. The hater of work puts his hand deep into the basin: lifting it again to his mouth is a weariness to him. The hater of work seems to himself wiser than seven men who are able to give an answer with good sense.
I went by the field of the hater of work, and by the vine-garden of the man without sense; And it was all full of thorns, and covered with waste plants, and its stone wall was broken down. Then looking at it, I gave thought: I saw, and I got teaching from it. A little sleep, a little rest, a little folding of the hands in sleep: So loss will come on you like an outlaw, and your need like an armed man.
Go to the ant, you hater of work; give thought to her ways and be wise: Having no chief, overseer, or ruler, She gets her meat in the summer, storing up food at the time of the grain-cutting. How long will you be sleeping, O hater of work? when will you get up from your sleep?
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,