Amy Boucher Pye

Category: Romans

  • Weekly Devotional: God’s call (14 in Romans series)

    Statue of St. Paul
    “Statuette of St. Paul” by Unknown is licensed under CC BY 3.0 

    I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done –by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. Romans 15:14–22 (NIV)

    As Paul wraps up his letter to the Romans, he adds the longest of his closing remarks in any of his letters – partly, scholars think, because he had never visited this church before. He tells of upcoming travel plans and implores the church to support his missionary efforts. Note his laser-like focus on what he perceives as God’s calling on his life – that he’s a “minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles” (v.16). He has, with God, determined what his unique mission is in life, and all that he does reflects that calling, as powered by the Spirit.

    Have you considered what your special calling is from God – what your mission is in life? When we have a sense of what this is, we can more easily say “yes” or “no” to requests that we receive. Of course sometimes we need to help out at church or in the community when it’s outside of our immediate calling and gifts because of the needs and lack of resources – such as me and the children’s ministry at church. But we feel most alive when we are doing what God calls us to do – whether that’s providing meals for the homeless or leading a business or running a toddler group.

    If you’d like to explore this issue more, I highly recommend Os Guinness’s book The Call (Nelson, 2003). In a series of short chapters and engaging stories, he examines not only our calling, but the One who calls us and loves us.

    Now to him who is able to establish us in accordance with Paul’s gospel, the message he proclaims about Jesus Christ, to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen (after Romans 16:25–27).

    Prayer: Giving Father, loving Son, and comforting Holy Spirit, thank you for your never-ending love for me. May I live and love and learn and bring you glory, now and always.

  • Weekly Devotional: The weak and the strong (13 in Romans series)

    “Court Gavel”by bestlawdir is licensed under CC PDM 1.0

    You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. Romans 14—15:13 (NIV)

    Some friends of ours are Christians who have come to Christ out of their Hindu background. Having been vegetarians their whole lives, they continue the practice of not eating meat – but as one of them says, “Of course, now that we follow Christ we could eat meat if we wanted to.” I appreciate the way he states the matter – although he no longer is under the laws of Hinduism, he now neither is forced to eat meat nor forced to abstain. He has freedom in Christ.

    Paul was concerned about the division in the church at Rome, mainly between the Gentile and Jewish Christians and how the former were looking down on the latter for sticking to their lifelong practices of following the Jewish dietary laws. Paul has words of exhortation to both parties – to the Gentile Christians he says stop showing contempt, and to the Jewish Christians he says don’t judge those who eat everything. After all, God alone is our Judge and we should leave the pronouncements to him.

    We might find ourselves falling into bad habits of judging in little, subtle ways – perhaps we don’t shop on Sundays but we know other who Christians do. Or we hold to a doctrine of belief that others disagree with, and we’re certain that we are right and they are not. Whatever the matter, we can follow Paul’s instruction to seek the kingdom of God, which is filled with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (v.17) as we “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (v.19).

    For reflection: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful” (Colossians 3:15).

  • Weekly Devotional: The clothes of Christ (12 in Romans series)

    The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Romans 13:11–14 (NIV)

    Although Paul’s conversion story was dramatic, as we explored last time, we see in his writing that he acknowledges the continuing process of sanctification that followers of Christ engage in throughout their lives. Paul uses the active forms of verbs when describing that we put on the new self and take off the old self in Ephesians 4:22–24, as he does here when saying that the Roman Christians should “clothe themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ” (v.14). Just as we get dressed daily, so should we “put on” the clothes of Christ.

    Do you ever consider what these clothes may be? We see in verse 12 they are described as the “armor of light” that we can don as our culture becomes increasingly dark and troubled. Paul gives us other images of Christ’s clothes in his letter to the Colossians, for he says, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12).

    Let’s consider some of these. When we put on compassion, we’re putting ourselves in someone else’s shoes – the roots of the word, after all, mean “to suffer with.” Kindness is obvious, but easy to withhold, for example when we fear our act of kindness might be rejected or misunderstood. Can we wear this virtue without worrying about how it will be perceived? Humility is neither viewing ourselves as nothing nor as too much – we see that we are made in God’s image and so are priceless, but we also know we are sinful and need his grace and mercy every day.

    I invite you to wear the most beautiful clothes ever!

    Prayer: Lord Jesus, I want to take off the rags of bitterness and anger and put on the royal robe that you give me. I know I am your beloved child; help me to live out of that identity this day.

  • Weekly Devotional: Submitting to authority (11 in Romans series)

    A court gavel.
    Photo: “Court Gavel” by bestlawdir is licensed under CC PDM 1.0 

    Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Romans 13:1–10 (NIV)

    This passage has sparked much debate over the years. Namely, when Paul calls for obedience to the government authorities, does he therefore imply that we need to obey a tyrant such as Hitler and Stalin? The agreed answer is “no” – although Paul calls for the Roman Christians to be “subject to the governing authorities,” he doesn’t have in mind that they move outside of God’s laws and practices in their obedience.

    I find it interesting that so much ink has been spilled on the exception to this rule, rather than us discussing what submission to the state means. We need just and good governments in the world to exercise authority, and perhaps in the West we take for granted all the good that we have in our governments – especially when we can so easily see the failings in our political systems. But to live in a country where the rule of law is observed, where individuals are presumed innocent until found guilty, where education and health and safe roads and so on are provided through our taxes, is a gift we often overlook.

    How can you pray for your government today in its local and national expressions? Or the ruling authorities of other countries, which you know to be corrupt or bankrupt? Perhaps you could become involved in local affairs, or with a national political party. Christians will fall along the whole spectrum of political commitments, but we should be voicing our views and embodying God’s truth as we try to make the world a better place.

    Prayer: Father God, you are the fairest Judge and you rule with wisdom and grace. May those in authority over us exercise your wisdom and justice.

  • Weekly Devotional: Love in action (10 in Romans series)

    Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Romans 12:9–21 (NIV)

    When my husband and I were first married, we had some dear friends around for dinner. When I popped to the kitchen to grab the green beans, my husband served Steve some sparkling water. Well, he thought he was pouring sparkling water, for that’s what the bottle said, but when I walked back into the room I exclaimed, “That’s the radiator water!” Our car was old and we needed to carry water with us to top up the radiator; somehow the bottle for the car had made it to the dining-room table. Steve said with a smile, “I see you are heeding Paul’s exhortation to practice hospitality! You may need more practice!”

    We all need practice at living well, don’t we (and I hasten to add that the water we served was clean, although not sparkling). Paul’s instructions in just these few verses are those we can hold close to our heart as we seek to live godly lives. He tells us to love each other, honoring our neighbors above ourselves; to serve the Lord with enthusiasm and passion; to keep our joy strong and to pray faithfully; to open our homes and share with those who are in need; to bless, rejoice, mourn, be humble, and to live peacefully with everyone.

    I wonder how our cultures would change if we could implement even a small percentage of these commands. Truly the world would then know we are Christians through our love in action.

    Might you choose one or two of Paul’s instructions to practice today? Perhaps, too, you might be inspired to memorize this passage.

    Prayer: Lord God, you give us the resources we need to live well, including these practical instructions. May I take them to heart today, that I might live for your glory.

  • Weekly Devotional: Transformed, not conformed (9 in Romans series)

    Photo: Alpha Stock Images – http://alphastockimages.com/.

    Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1–8 (NIV)

    In chapter 12 we reach another of Paul’s pivotal words – “therefore” – and this one is grand for it signifies a change from him exploring the great theological concepts we’ve seen in this letter to their practical implications. What does it mean, then, for us as Christians to be sinners saved by grace? How then shall we live?

    To please God we offer our bodies as living sacrifices, and we are not to conform to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We may know this passage well, but do we fully understand it? One interpretation of offering our bodies has to do with the sacrifices required in the Old Testament. Now with Jesus taking away the curse of our sins, we can present ourselves as living sacrifices in the place of the dead animals once offered up. Part of our humble sacrifice can be made through Paul’s exhortation in verses 3 and following – don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought, and remember that the body has many members who all need each other.

    And our transformation begins through the renewing of our minds, for our thoughts and our beliefs shape our behavior. As God’s Spirit lives within us, he ushers in changes to the way we think and approach the world. For example, whereas before we may have been defined by fear or anger, now we can feel comfort and peace. Of course, transformation is a life-long process, and we won’t feel perfect peace all of the time. But moment by moment, bit by bit, the Lord works in our minds, hearts, and souls. As we center our thoughts on him, we are changed.

    Prayer: Lord Jesus, mold me and shape me; make me anew. Renew my mind, that I might bring you glory.

  • Weekly Devotional: Our wise God (8 in Romans series)

    Photo: flickr, Church Iglesia.

    Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” Romans 11:33–36 (NIV)

    This learned and wise apostle shows his humility in this doxology as he concludes his teaching on how Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ. He quotes from the prophet Isaiah when he poses the questions of who can know the mind of God or be his counsellor (Isaiah 40:13), and note the questions he poses in this passage, for they are rhetorical. No one can know God’s mind – and yet, the Lord has revealed himself through Christ Jesus. Through him we see an embodiment of God’s wisdom.

    I love the writing of Dallas Willard, who was a philosopher and one concerned deeply with spiritual formation before he died a few years ago. When giving a talk at a church or at a conference, he would ask audiences who was the smartest man in the world. People would trot out answers such as Albert Einstein or other known thinkers, and Dallas would eventually say, “But why aren’t you saying Jesus?” Dallas wanted to change people’s thinking and help them to realize that Jesus was and is the smartest person ever, and that he continues to be our teacher as he dwells within us.

    We can become wise through the study of God’s word and world, and through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. For the Lord has created us to think and to exercise our discernment, and he will lead us into all wisdom. Whether or not we have a university degree doesn’t matter when we know that we have the best and smartest teacher ever giving us individual tutorials!

    Prayer: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thank you that you teach me how to live. Help me to exercise my mind, that I would think Christianly about the world and my place in it.

  • Weekly Devotional: Christ is all (7 in Romans series)

    A chain broken in two.

    For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10.1–17 (NIV)

    I wonder how Paul felt when he came against his people’s unbelief of Jesus as the Messiah. He could understand their reluctance – after all, he had been united with them in disbelief previously – and yet now that he knows the riches of Jesus as the Savior he must yearn for them to understand and believe. He writes to the predominately Gentile church, which had Jewish believers too, to remind them that all are one in Christ. There is no dividing wall; no division between them any longer (see Ephesians 2:14). As he says in the letter to the church at Colossae, “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Colossians 3:11).

    Today in the body of Christ we don’t have the divisions of Jew or Gentile, but we face different issues that divide. For instance, as an American living in Britain, I often am flummoxed when I come across statements of class divisions in society or even in the church. They stand out to me as foreign, and I find them difficult and sad. Whereas in America, many people point out the problems of racial disunity as a sort of besetting sin. Whether we are influenced by class or race or another issue in the country in which we live, we can work together for unity as we cling to Paul’s words that the “same Lord is Lord of all” (v. 12).

    How could Christ working through you help you to dismantle any dividing walls in your church or community?

    For reflection: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience… And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3:12, 14).

  • Weekly Devotional: Our new self (5 in Romans series)

    For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Romans 6:1–23 (NIV)

    The apostle Paul speaks often in his letters about the old self and the new self, as we see here in Romans. It’s not surprising, for his conversion was so radical – one day he was persecuting the new church to the point of death, and the next he was blinded while traveling to Damascus as he encountered the risen Jesus. He turned from a murderous antagonist to the gospel to one of its biggest proponents.

    Paul tells the Roman church that no longer do they need to be slaves to their old life of sin, but now, empowered by the Holy Spirit, they can live out of the new self. No longer do they have to be at the mercy of sin and wickedness, for they live united with the resurrected Jesus.

    We might read this and lose heart, thinking that we never will win the battle with the besetting sin we face, whatever it may be. But God transforms our character day by day as we seek to live for him, and often we may not even be aware of the subtle changes that are happening within us. For example, I remember years ago in my weekly small group when we each named how we noticed God working in and through the members of the group. I was surprised and heartened to hear some of the lovely things people said about everyone.

    We can be encouraged to know that no longer are we tied to the things of sin, but that Jesus dwelling within us makes all things new. We who have been baptized into Christ Jesus live a new life.

    For reflection: “You were taught … to put off your old self … to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness” (Ephesians 4:22–24, abridged).

  • Weekly Devotional: The hope of glory (4 in Romans series)

    Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1–11 (NIV)

    “Therefore.” Paul uses this word in his letters to signify a change or a climax or a conclusion. Here in the letter to the Romans, he uses it to signal that he’s moving from his discussion of how people find redemption through Jesus to the benefits of living as those who are transformed and redeemed. We who have “peace with God” now can “boast in the hope” of God’s glory – our salvation is assured and we are free to embrace life empowered by God’s Spirit living within us. No longer do we need to be shackled to the ways of sin. And all of this through Christ’s death – he who died not only for good people, but for the ungodly.

    We hold onto the hope of glory, which helps us when we suffer and things go wrong. Because we live in a fallen world which is not as God intended it, we experience pain and the death of loved ones and disease and betrayal and so on. The Lord redeems our pain, and through our suffering we learn to persevere, our character is strengthened, and we find hope that does not disappoint.

    And yet sometimes some Christians seem to put such a positive spin on suffering or pain that they almost seem to welcome it. Yet how can we rejoice in cancer or heartache or any of the horrible things we experience and witness on a regular basis? I believe the Lord doesn’t send these things to us, but when they happen in this fallen world, he’s right there with us, holding us and helping us.

    Today, know the assurance of the Lord that he will never leave you and that through Jesus’ sacrifice you are his redeemed one whom he loves.

    For reflection: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley,I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).