Romans 11

11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!

Do I long or the depth and riches of God’s wisdom? Do I yarn for the knowledge of God? Or, do I long for all these temporary transient things that can’t save and don’t satisfy?
 
If I don’t, then trust in His sovereignty, goodness, wisdom, truth and love. Abide in Him and walk in His ways and in His presence!
 
Romans 12

12:1  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ESV

12:1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. NASB
 
(Therefore) Because of everything that has come before this, because God chose us by grace out of this world, because we can accept His kindness, because of the depth and riches of His wisdom and knowledge, because Christ fulfilled the law and has grafted us in, because God is he source, the animator and the reason for all things, we are urged, given an earnest request, summons to do something.
 
Paul pleads, entreats and implores us (by the mercies) to use the strength of God that He gives because of His love to (present) give ourselves to Him. We see other verses like “let the Word of God dwell in you” (Col 3:16), “let not sin rule” (Romans 6:12), and “do not present your members to sin” (Romans 6:13). This implies that there is some type of conscious choice or effort required to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and to allow His leading to control us.
 
Because of these things, Paul pleads with us to voluntarily give ourselves as living sacrifices. To actively do sacrificial works for the cause of God’s kingdom, not just not do sin. We must sacrifice our body’s desires and longing on behalf of God’s kingdom.
 
We must be set apart from the patterns of this world, set apart for exclusive use by God and for worship. We should do so in a way that is (acceptable) according to His standards.
 
Why should we do this? This our spiritual service of worship. This is our spiritual (reasonable, logical, following reason, logical extension of previous standards) service (true and proper worship, reasonable service, service and worship of God according to the requirements of the Levitical law, to perform sacred services) of worship.

12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. ESV

12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. NASB
 
We are not to be conformed: to pattern our life, mind and character on the world, to fashion oneself to the world. We are to be transformed: changed into another form. We will do this by renovating our mind, having a complete change in our mind.
 
This will allow us to prove or test and discern the will of God: perceive, understand thoughts, feelings, purposed and desires, judge, determine, reason, capacity to comprehend spiritual truth, perceive divine things, recognize good and hat evil, judge soberly, calmly and impartially.
 
Being transformed and not conformed will allow us to discern what the will of God is and to test (to see if something is genuine or not) what God’s will is.
 
God’s will is good (upright, honorable), acceptable (pleasing), and perfect (lacking nothing, exactly as it ought to be, finished, complete)

Romans 12-13
13:8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who love another has fulfilled the law.
 
It is our obligation to love others. This fulfills the law. This is not even a command, but an obligation, what we owe, our appropriate payment, what is due.
 
12:9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast (cling, clasp, don’t let go, glue together, cleave to) what is good. Love one another with brother affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. (In honor, give preference to one another, take delight in honoring each other.)
 
So our obligation to love others should be genuine, sincere, without hypocrisy. This is not external niceness, or acts not felt in the heart, or even just kindness. It should exhibit itself in us having tender loving affection and a natural inclination to love our brothers with intense, devoted attachment. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
 
Application
Sadly, even among Christians, myself included, when relationships get uncomfortable, or people become difficult we don’t want to deal with the negativity or tension, so we just pull away. We are not unkind in our attitudes, we just kind of distance ourselves. I always thought this was the appropriate way to do things, to just graciously create distance. I did not want the drama or negativity in my wonderful life. It is not unkind or ugly and does not even create discord.
 
But it seems to me that Christians need to be the ones who have devoted loving connected relationships with each other even across differences and personality preferences. We should be the ones who love those whom society considers difficult to love.
 
It is not about maintaining my comfortable life, but living a radically Christian life and living in the radical love of Christ. (not talking about people who are dangerous or emotionally harmful to you or who are intentionally attacking you – boundaries are appropriate and wonderful.) We need to learn to lean into the hard spaces to love people who are the most broken and to model Christ to them with our love.
 
12:16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
 
I was reading a book, When Helping Hurts, and the author talks about how it is much more effective to have real, genuine, ongoing relationship to help people get out of poverty and dysfunction. And, yes, these are relationships where they also support, encourage and share their skills with you. Not one sided mentoring where you, the one who has it all together, stoops to help the poor lowly helpless one.
 
That is very hard for me to give up my social time with my close friends who are like me, who I click with and who my social time orients around and invest in relationship with people who are not like me, don’t get me, I don’t just immediately click with.
 
But what if Christians really did reach outside their circles to have relationships, yes truly incorporating people into their lives and being a part of the lives of people who are struggling, people in the housing projects, people on welfare, people in dysfunctional families, (in the healthy aspects of their lives obviously not sitting around getting high or anything like that but maybe taking the kids to the park or having lunch etc.)?
 
How would that revolutionize our societies? If we really lived like this would that not turn our societies upside down and transform poverty and racial tensions? And we should not spend all of our time judging their faults, weaknesses and dysfunction. Sure there is a time in all relationships to speak truth and to help with growth, that is what relationships are for. But our energies should not be spent exclusively trying to fix them with our wisdom, but sharing relationship and sharing the gospel. We should look for opportunities to love them, rejoice in and encourage their strengths, and accept what they offer to us in kindness.