Romans 12:5 - Printer Friendly

ESV: so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

NIV: so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

NASB: so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually parts of one another.

CSB: in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

NLT: so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

KJV: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

NKJV: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

Paul is describing how Christians who have been shown mercy by God—which means all saved believers—should live now. What kind of a life makes sense? The prior verse described a human body. It is just one person, but it has many different parts that serve different functions.

Now Paul says that we, as the collective group of Christians, are also a kind of body. We are Christ's body on earth, often referred to as "the church." We are countless different parts in many different places with vastly different jobs, but together we are, by analogy, one unified "being," a single entity with what should be a united purpose.

Paul writes something else about us as part of the body of Christ. None of us exists outside of the body. No Christian is an unattached Christian. We are all members of each other, connected to each other with the purpose of serving each other. This is what God intends to do with us on this side of eternity.

Romans 12:3–8 describes the first responsibility of every living-sacrifice Christian who worships the Lord. The church is like a body: Christ's body. Each Christian has a part to play using the specific spiritual gifts God has given to us. These gifts of grace provide all the power and ability we need to serve each other, but we must still do it, whether our gift is service, teaching, exhortation, mercy, or something else.

In Romans 12, Paul describes the worship of our God as becoming living sacrifices to our God, giving up seeking what we want from life and learning to know and serve what God wants. That begins with using our spiritual gifts to serve each other in the church. Paul's list of commands describes a lifestyle of setting ourselves aside. Our goal as Christians is to love and lift each other up. We must focus our expectation on eternity and wait with patience and prayer for our Father to provide. We must refuse to sink to evil's level, giving good to those who harm us instead of revenge.

Romans 11 ended with a hymn describing God's vast ownership of the universe. Romans 12 begins by asking the question, ''Since He owed us nothing and has given us great mercy, how should we respond?'' The answer is a life of self-sacrificing worship spent in serving the Lord and other believers, refusing revenge and overcoming evil with good. Romans 13 will continue to describe God's intended lifestyle for those in Christ.

The book of Romans is the New Testament's longest, most structured, and most detailed description of Christian theology. Paul lays out the core of the gospel message: salvation by grace alone through faith alone. His intent is to explain the good news of Jesus Christ in accurate and clear terms. As part of this effort, Paul addresses the conflicts between law and grace, between Jews and Gentiles, and between sin and righteousness. As is common in his writing, Paul closes out his letter with a series of practical applications.

Accessed 4/30/2024 9:52:30 AM