Transformed Minds and Bodies

Romans 12:1-15:13

Transformed Minds and Sacrificed Bodies 12:1-21

Submitting to Authorities and Human Obligation 13:1-14

Accepting the Weak in Faith 14:1-15:13

Explanation: This unit presents us with what the transformed mind that is not under the power of sin and the Law. This is especially true for 12:1-21, although we can presume that the attitudes expressed in the rest of the unit follow as well. Chapter 12 gives us a series of ethical injunctions that all fit together as an attitude of love that loves that which is good and hates that which is evil. Chapter 13 would have been particularly relevant to a Roman audience at the central of Roman authority. Paul encourages the Roman Christians to be respectable, law-abiding citizens. Chapter 14 is worded in such a way as to show that the tensions Paul encountered at Corinth were also at work in the Roman community, namely, disagreement on what exactly a Christian might or might not do in relation to Sabbath observance and purity laws. As in Corinthians, Paul advocates a kind of mutuality that accepts those who disagree with us and looks out for them.

Patterns and Themes

• Romans 12:1-2 give us a general statement that is played out to a great extent in the rest of the section.
• The renewed mind that Paul speaks of in 12:2 is generalized in the command to love, which is the fulfillment of the Law (13:10). This principle generalizes the entire ethics of this final section, and the exhortation to love recurs throughout the section.
• It is possible that the final section 14:1-15:13 is a more particular discussion of what Paul is thinking in 12:3-21, although this is not certain. In this case, the way in which some Christians are thinking more highly of themselves than they should is in thinking themselves superior because their consciences are “stronger.”