This content was excerpted from the Made to Multiply Bible Study week one.
In the book of Romans, Paul masterfully crafts a treatise for Christian understanding. Sin, judgment, the human spiritual condition, the sovereignty of God, the responsibility of faith, and the future glory of the redeemed are a few of the weighty topics Paul takes up in this letter. Paul also gives practical insight for how a follower of Jesus should live their lives in obedience to Jesus and addresses the need for unity among those who were a part of the church at Rome. Yet the kind of life that Paul advocated for in this book stood in opposition to the Roman world the early Christians lived in.
Paul wrote the book of Romans around AD 58. A decade before, Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome due to civil unrest (AD 49). Many scholars believe that it was the spread of Christianity in Rome amongst the Jewish community, which started with the new converts from the birth of the Christian church on the Day of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2, that led to this agitation. It was not until the death of Claudius in AD 54 that Jews were allowed to come back. Only a few years after this book was written, in AD 64, Emperor Nero ignited hatred against the Christian church after a fire decimated the city of Rome. He blamed the Christians for the fire, which led to widespread persecution of the church in Rome.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. But
If your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
For in so doing
you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.
Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.Romans 12:14-21 CSB
Can you imagine reading these verses as the society you live in rains down hatred upon you? Paul instructed the reader to bless while the world was cursing. Paul instructed the reader to live in harmony while the world was seeking to destroy. Paul encouraged the church to be peaceful while the world waged war against it. What was happening in Rome during the first century was at complete odds with God’s design for humanity.
God’s original design afforded every human being unfettered access to His beautiful presence. There, one can find peace, understanding, and love. However, as we take inventory of the world around us, God’s original design is not what we experience. Instead, we are greeted with pain, suffering, and distance between us and the presence of God. Sure, we catch glimpses of His beauty all around us. Paul said in Romans 1:20a, “For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world.” We catch His beauty when we observe the created world around us: Its order. Its originality. Its landscape that leaves us in awe. However, as we interact with each other and the inevitable erosion of our societal constructs, we realize that this cannot be what God had in mind from the start.
Paul clued his Roman readers in on this brutal fact in Romans 5:12: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.” Adam’s sin tainted God’s original design. Therefore, all of us are born into a broken world with a warped flesh that is far from God. Humanity’s only hope for reconciliation is Jesus.