Commentary for (Romans XII:1-3; Matthew X, 37

Oleksandr Zhabenko

🇬🇧 Glory be to Jesus Christ! 🌞

Dedicated to Emma Kok.

(Romans XII:1-3)

Romans XII, 3 – εμερισεν – ‘emerisen’ (from μεριζω) - ‘distributed, divided into parts’.

This is a theologically rich passage, so the reading is brief and concise.

Paul teaches about reasonable service (ministtry) to God, which, in addition to the mind, unites the whole person in his life. In particular, the body is mentioned directly.

The apostle also calls God’s will good, which brings joyful satisfaction and is perfect, complete. If a person performs this reasonable service, then they will know God’s will, God’s grace, God. Cognises also means unites. This is generally a reference to the blessed life of believers through Christ.

Paul also teaches humble wisdom, to have a sober and true opinion about oneself and everything.

To the measure of faith – a humble person has a more or less stable opinion of themselves, knows themselves well, in particular through self-discovery. But most of all, their perception changes… through the cognition of faith, through the cognition of the truth of faith, through the cognition of God and His actions in life. These are the most important degrees of freedom in the language of physics. Therefore, the measure of a person’s opinion of themselves is their faith, the degree of their faith, its depth, its implementation in their own life and in the lives of others. Similarly, in true love, a person begins to associate themselves, to connect with this love, and it becomes their primary measure of themselves.

(Matthew X, 37 – XI, 1)

Matthew X, 37, 40 – ‘εμε’ – ‘eme’ – ‘Me’.

Part of the reading was read on All Saints’ Sunday:
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Matthew X, 39 – ‘εμου’ – ‘emou’ – ‘Me’. Here Christ says that whoever seeks to have (get, find, build, etc.) their life outside the Gospel, like the prodigal son in the parable, will destroy their life. But if someone loses something of their own for the sake of doing God’s will, for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of Christ, they will keep it for eternity in the best sense, which will be explained further on.

What a person does for the sake of God, they will never lose. God will repay a hundredfold for every genuine good done in His name, according to the Gospel. Even if a person later renounces, the good done in God will not disappear or be rejected, but God will reward the person in one way or another. This, as I wrote earlier, does not mean that the person will necessarily be saved, but it does mean that God will not forget or despise that actual good. For Matthew, who speaks several times in the Gospel about ” Heavenly possessions and rewards, treasures”, this was personally meaningful as he was a former financial worker (in modern terms).