The Practical Wisdom of the Twelfth Chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Romans
This way of living in the world demands a courageous effort from us.
The scriptures are meant not just to be read, to be contemplated, and prayed over; they are meant to change our lives. They are meant to change our whole being, body, mind, and soul. Ultimately, they are meant to be made manifest in our daily thoughts, words, and deeds. One of the most succinct teachings about the Christian life can be found in chapter 12 of Paul’s Letter to the Romans. In 21 lines he gives us a wonderful little catechism on the basic elements of how to live a Christian life.
The first two lines we are told that we Christians are to clean up our own lives first, in body, mind, and soul. Paul recognizes the power of the world and its manifold ways to tempt and seduce us in our bodies, minds, and souls. These worldly ways and habits are the cause of our own suffering. He suggests that there is a way to change these habits and ways in ourselves. He writes that we are, “to be transformed by the renewing of [our] minds”. How do we even begin to accomplish this “renewing of our minds” and this ‘transformation’? We must learn the skills of discernment, so that we can be more able to “discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” We do that, of course, by studying the scriptures, and by practicing their wisdom in our daily lives and by asking God for the grace to help us to develop the great virtue of self-control.
Prudence, wisdom, and discernment are gifts of the Holy Spirit. When we begin the hard work of transforming our lives, the Spirit gives us wisdom and prudence, that is the ability to recognize what is really the moral good, as opposed to what ‘appears’, or ‘seems’ to be good. The more we gain insight into the wisdom of God, the more we are challenged by our conscience, and we grow more able to choose to seek and to do those things that are truly moral goods, rather than those things that ‘seem’ good because they appeal to our immediate appetites or desires. When choosing the real moral good involves either short term or long term sacrifices, the virtue of prudence strengthens our ability to choose the moral good more habitually. It is in developing such virtues that we find more confidence and more enduring happiness.
Paul doesn’t deal only in the theoretical; he proposes very practical ways to live out the Christian moral life. He begins by proposing a very great challenge indeed. He writes that we are not “to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.” Why? Because in Christ we are “one body”. Because of this, we are to be faithful to one another, to minister to one another, to teach and to exhort, and to give to one another with diligence and compassion. And how do we do this?
Paul tells us very clearly that our love for one another should be “genuine; that we are “to hate what is evil, and hold fast to what is good.” He says that we are to have mutual affection for one another, and that we ought to “outdo one another in showing honor” to one another. In doing this ardently we are serving God, as well. We are to become selfless enough and so charged by genuine love that we can “rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer, contribute to the needs of others, and be hospitable to all.
In this passage, Paul also tells us that, as followers of Christ, we are to bless those who treat us wrongly. We are challenged to associate with the lowly, and to practice humility, to resist the desire for revenge, to always conduct ourselves with nobility and as far as it is possible, to live peaceably with all. In a world that praises haughtiness, and self-concern over concern for others, we are asked to live lives of contradiction to those worldly ways. In a world that is torn by war, fraught with divisions of every kind, at every level, in every institution, we are called by God to be compassionate to our enemies and even to care for them when they are in need. In short, to live as a Christian in the world we are admonished to consciously do all that is right in the light of God’s wisdom and in doing so to “overcome evil with good.”
We can see in this passage that this Christian way of life is not easy. It requires us to practice very difficult things. This way of living in the world demands a great deal of courageous effort from us. In terms of worldly thinking, these ways may seem too hard, impractical, even foolish. Truly, the wisdom of God is not the wisdom of the world, but it is the only wisdom that can save the world from its foolishness.
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