Devotional Romans 12: Spiritual Gifts and Brotherly Love Reflection on Romans 12: how to use your talents to serve God, the importance of not falling into hypocrisy, and the command to love one another. Topics: Devotional, New Testament.

Devotional Romans 12: Spiritual Gifts and Brotherly Love

Today’s devotional is in the book of Romans, chapter 12, and this is what happened.

Synopsis: In this chapter, in his letter to the Romans, Paul exhorts them to offer their bodies as living sacrifices to the Lord and to love one another.

Observations

These were my observations:

1. We all have different gifts and we should use them to serve God. This is a realization that we come to perceive over the course of life: that we all have abilities and inclinations for certain things and others for different ones. And, contrary to what many think, we do not choose our gifts or talents. It was God who created us all with a purpose and, to carry out our purposes, gave us talents to facilitate our mission (Exodus 31:3–5 and 35:31–35). Furthermore, our talents also serve to help us more easily identify what we are good at, keep cultivating it, and serve God with that talent. Paul warns the Romans that everyone should use their talents to serve God and not to exalt themselves (Romans 12:6–8). For if we do not nourish our talents, we can also lose them. This is what happened in the parable of the talents. The servant who did not multiply his talents had his taken away and given to the one who knew how to manage his talents better (Matthew 25:14-29). Therefore, we must discover what our talents are, multiply them, and put them at the service of God.
2. Love one another with brotherly affection, respecting and honoring each other. When Paul said this in his letter to the Romans, it was not a suggestion. This is the second most important commandment according to Jesus. For that was what Jesus said when asked by a Pharisee expert in the Law which was the most important commandment of all (Matthew 22:34–40). This means that if we truly love Jesus (and, consequently, God), we must keep His commandments (John 14:15). This is even more important in our day, with wars, enmity between relatives, the pursuit of destroying an ex-partner, etc. This type of conduct is not worthy of someone who identifies as a Christian. For a Christian has a conduct that is different from the typical conduct of the world. A Christian receives the Holy Spirit and demonstrates it in their conduct through the fruits of the Spirit (Acts 2:38, Galatians 5:22–23). In other words, as Christians we live by the Spirit and we must walk by the Spirit as well; we must not go around satisfying the desires and passions of the flesh (Galatians 5:24–25). There are two reasons not to satisfy the pleasures of the flesh. First, satisfying the desires of the flesh leads us into sin, and sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2). Second, when we identify as Christians and do not follow the example of Jesus Christ, we drive others (new believers and non-believers) away from God through hypocrisy (Romans 2:23–24). Therefore, we must seek to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit, forgive those who offend us, and love even our enemies so that we may be true Christians.