Summary of Romans, Chapter 12

Paul urges them in view of God's mercy shown to them that they make their bodies a living sacrifice which is holy and pleasing to God in spiritual worship. They should not try to be like this world, but instead deeply change themselves in spiritual renewal, so as to come to know God's will, to know what is good, well-pleasing and perfect.

He says to them in virtue of the grace given him, that is, in view of his authority as an Apostle that each should not rate himself higher than what he really is. They should learn sound judgment in their self-estimate. God has given each one an assignment and the graces (charisms) that are needed for it,in the measure of (charismatic) faith. For just as there are many parts in a human body, each with its own function, and all are necessary to form a living body, so also in the Church God has given various functions to different ones, as members of one another.

So they have differing gifts, according to the charism given each one. For example, the charism of prophecy should be used according to the analogy of faith (in line with the right faith). He who has the charism of ministering, should use it for ministering. He who has the charism of teaching, should use it for that purpose. He who has the charism of giving exhortations should use it as intended. The one who is moved to give, should give without counting the cost; the one who is given the gift of presiding should use it in concern for those over whom he presides. He who shows mercy should do so cheerfully.

Love should be true, without pretense, so as to hate evil and adhere to good. They should love one another with the love of brotherhood, in giving honor, trying to outdo one another. They should not be sluggish in taking care, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in our hope, being patient in tribulation, persevering in prayer, sharing with the holy ones in their need, pursing hospitality.

They should bless those who persecute them: bless, and not curse. They should rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, being in agreement, not thinking lofty things, but associating with the lowly. They should not be wise in their own estimation.

Let them not return evil for evil, but provide good in the sight of all men. And if it is possible, be at peace with all, not seeking revenge, but leaving room for anger. For Scripture says: Righting wrong is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him a drink. By doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good.

Comments on Chapter 12

Paul has just finished a very difficult exposition, as we have seen. Now he settles down, in an almost conversational way, to a moral exhortation which flows from what he has already said.

So, in view of the mercies, the special favors God has given them in calling them to full membership in the Church, they should deeply transform their lives, to make the use of their bodies a spiritual sacrifice. This is the language of 1 Peter 2:5. It means that by doing God's will in all things we have the interior disposition that is required in joining ourselves with the sacrifice of Jesus in the Mass. His interior disposition on the cross and on the altar was and is obedience to the Father (cf. Romans 5:19). Ours should be in line with His. Then we live according to the ways of Christ, and not according to the ways of the world. In their use of creatures, all should be directed to God. This is what detachment means, using creatures only in such a way as to direct their use to God. Then their spirit will be renewed and so made capable of knowing what is good, which is God's will. For detachment from creatures increases one's spiritual perception. In Romans 1 he described the progressive decay in what we called a spiral, into blindness and following the way of the world. Now he urges quite the opposite.

Of course he also would say that a politician should not try to keep his faith from influencing him. That would be conforming to this world.

Using his apostolic authority he tells them not to think more of themselves than what they really are. He is speaking in the context of charismatic graces -- those given for the benefit of the community, not directly for personal holiness. Paul spoke more fully of these charisms in 1 Corinthians 12, and used the comparison of the body, which he gives more briefly here. When he speaks of the "measure of faith" he does not mean the kind of faith that justifies, but rather charismatic faith: the faith which itself is as it were injected into a soul by God, so that the soul becomes confident that if it asks for some special things, even a miracle of healing, it will be given. Certainly he does not mean that God sparingly doles out the graces needed for salvation and holiness. The Father has accepted the infinite price of redemption, and so has bound Himself to offer graces without limit on His part -- the limit is really our own rejection or lack of rejection. It is not good to say that God gives "sufficient grace" to be saved. This implies doling it out. The infinite price of redemption forbids saying that. Please recall the comments on Galatians 2:20. No, Paul is in a very different category here, the charismatic category. In his day even miraculous charisms were normal for all Christians. Today, non-miraculous charisms are still to be had: the grace of being a good parent, a good teacher, a good speaker, etc. Vatican II, in Lumen Gentium §12 warns against rashly seeking the extraordinary charisms.

Prophecy, as we saw in 1 Corinthians 12 means the gift of giving a moving discourse to the community. But he wants it used according to the analogy of faith, i.e., expressing thoughts in line with what faith teaches -- they must not claim a special line to the Holy Spirit and then use that to contradict the teaching of the Church.

The remaining lines of this chapter are very general exhortations to doing good. Only a few things need explanation.

He wants them to rejoice in hope, that is, to take strength from looking forward to the glorious life with Christ that awaits them in the world to come.

He wants them to be at peace with all -- but adds, if it is possible. Some persons have such diverse mentalities that the most that can be done is to agree to disagree. However, before giving up to that extent, we are encouraged to make a sincere try to get to know the other. Not always, but sometimes, a pleasant surprise is waiting.

The quotation from Deuteronomy 32:35 (which follows the Palestinian Targum reading more closely than it does the Hebrew) is often misunderstood because of the frequent use of the translation "vengeance." Linguistically this is unfortunate. The Hebrew here has nqm, the Aramaic of the Targum nqmta. It has a special meaning of the executive intervention in action by the supreme authority to make things right -- whether that requires favorable or unfavorable action.⁴² There are two very different things. One is to seek revenge, which is morally wrong, and God of course does not do it. It is to will evil to another so it may be evil to him -- the opposite of love, which wills good to another for the other's sake. A very different thing is to will that the moral order, disturbed by sin, be righted. God Himself does that. But He wants us to leave it to Him, for it is so easy to slide over the line between a desire for the rebalancing of the objective order, and immoral vengeance. A sinner as it were, takes from one pan of the scales of the objective order what he has no right to. The scale is out of balance. The holiness of God wants it rebalanced. The sinner can begin to rebalance by giving up some other pleasure in place of the one he has stolen. But even one mortal sin is an infinite imbalance (the Person offended is infinite). So no creature could fully right it. If the Father wanted a full righting only an Incarnation could do it. That is what He did.⁴³ A line from Rabbi Simeon Ben Eleazar⁴⁴ helps: "He [anyone] has committed a transgression. Woe to him! He has tipped the scales to the side of debt for himself and for the world."

The probable meaning of heaping coals of fire on an enemy by doing good to him is that this will make him ashamed. This is the view of Sts. Augustine and Jerome.