Romans 1: 9-11 “A Christian Mind”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁹for God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Gospel of His Son, how unceasingly I am making remembrance of you upon my prayers, ¹⁰praying always if somehow now at last I will be granted a successful journey in the desire of God to come to you, ¹¹for I am longing to see you that I might give to you some spiritual gift into your establishing.

Here we go again. This is exactly why I study the Bible. On the one hand, Paul may be saying something important, and we need to understand his point. We need to understand exactly what he is saying – and, by the way, what he is not saying. Thus the importance of digging as deeply as we can into the text – to be sure we know those things to the best of our ability; but, it is also true, “He who walks with the wise will be wise.”  There is enormous benefit to simply sitting at Paul’s feet and watching what he does, listening to what he says and learning all we can from his example. He is wise, we are not. He has the mind of Christ. We want more of it.

Pardon me if I belabor this point, but, if Paul were alive today and if he came to our church, even stayed in our home, would we not learn from his life as much as from his preaching? What I mean is, as great as it would be to listen to him teach and preach, wouldn’t it be great to just observe what he does? We could learn so much just by watching how he responds to people, how he deals with situations, listening to how he thinks, what is important to him and what is not. Yes?

Well, he has come to our church and he does stay in our house – it’s called the Bible. Here in this book, we not only get his “points,” we also can do exactly that – watch how he responds to people, how he deals with situations, listen to how he thinks, what is important to him and what is not, and learn from him. The Bible itself allows you and me to “walk with the wise” and thus become wise(r). Yes, it is a book of exegetically defensible “points” but I believe it is more than anything else, a book of discipleship – a book that opens to us the very heart of God and allows us to live all day every day like Mary – sitting at Jesus’ feet and learning from Him.

What strikes me most about the verses before us in Romans is that they draw back the curtain of Paul’s heart and show us his mind, show us how the mind of Christ plays out in the mind of a true Christian – and give us tons and tons of food to grow on. This is also the main reason I type these silly blogs. When I feel like the Lord has taught me something, I want to record it somehow, so I can come back later and be reminded. Hopefully He seals these things to my heart and allows me to weave them into the very fabric of who I am, but, on the other hand, I am a forgetful sinner, so it helps me to be reminded later of what He has taught me.

And so, without further ado, what do I see?

I love that Paul can say, “God is my witness.” The plain simple fact is that no one really knows what goes on behind those eyes of yours. We can talk to each other, listen to each other, watch each other, but we’re all very aware that no one really knows what is going on behind our eyes, in our mind, in our heart – except the Lord. Man, of course, can only look on the outside; it is the Lord who looks on the heart. When, then, we can say, “God is my witness, that I …,” what we’re saying is, “This is the truth. You may or may not be able to see it. You may be wondering what I’m really thinking…but, with God as my witness, here’s the truth.” Paul can say, “I really do pray for you. I really do long to see you. I really do want to do you good,” and it’s true. Lord help us all to be more real from our hearts, so that what we too say, who we say we are, is true. God knows. May what God knows be the “truth” about ourselves we try to communicate!

This is further supported by Paul’s explanation of who he is – he is someone who serves God literally “in my spirit.” His service was not something external, like it had been all those years of being a Pharisee. He’s put behind himself the service only “to be seen by men.” I love when he says, “I care not at all if I am judged by men. In fact, I don’t even judge myself – but God is my judge.” Then he says that what it is he does is “in the Gospel of God’s Son.” In particular, Paul has been called to be an Apostle. That is his “job” that God has given him.

Many translations insert the word “preaching,” so it reads, “In preaching the Gospel of His Son,” but actually it is literally just “In the Gospel of His Son.”  I want to elaborate on this later, but, in a sense, all Christians live their lives “in the Gospel of His Son.” For each of us, we have to insert the “–ing” of whatever it is God has given us to do. As I’ve often said, whether you or I are a butcher, a baker, or a candlestick maker, as Christians, it is our task to do it all “in the Gospel of His Son” – living out Jesus wherever the Lord has placed us, doing whatever He’s given us to do.

And what does Paul do? He prays for people. What a blessed privilege we have as believers to pray for people, to take their problems, their needs, their very lives, their very souls, before the Throne of the Universe, and plead for them. And how very often is it true that is all we can do? Literally. There is much we can do and should do for others around us, but it is also seemingly too often true that what they really need is utterly beyond us…but we can pray for them! Paul did. We should.

And what is on Paul’s mind? He wants very much to come and see these people and for what reason? To give them a gift, to help them be “established.” This is another place where the “Christian mind” really jumps off the page at me. We live in a world of politicians who feign great concern for us just to get our votes so they can go Washington and get rich. We are barraged by advertisements and salespeople who feign great interest in us but only because they want to sell us something and get our money. It seems everyone “wants” something. Even churches can really be about recruiting people to fill all their volunteer spots. But into that world of lies and pretense comes the genuine Christian mind. “I really want to give you a gift. I want to help you be more established.”

This is a wonderful thing for Paul and we should pause and not take it for granted. He really did. He really did want to give them something. He really did want to help them. And it wasn’t about his bank account or anything else. That is a Christian mind – the mind of Christ, who came “not to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many,” who came “that the world might be saved through Him.” Like Jesus, one of the wonderful things about being a Christian is knowing that God will take care of us. We of course have to be responsible and certainly should expect to have to work for our living, but we have the privilege to do that in a sort of reckless abandon, sincerely seeking to do good to others.

Paul was doing good to others in his full-time ministry, but you and I have the privilege of doing the same at our jobs and, in fact, all day every day everywhere we go, everything we do. Every person’s “job” is in some way “doing good” to others. In some way, others are counting on me. They need me to do my job and they need me to do it well. For myself, I’m an engineer. My villages and small cities need me to help them figure out the problems with their infrastructure and then help them choose good solutions. Someone needs to care about them and actually try to help them. Too many engineers use those situations as a chance to “sell” them something and to run up their own fees. They don’t really care whether what they do actually helps the community, as long as when it’s over they’ve got more money in their account.

I’ve been following those guys around my whole life, coming into communities where they’ve been sold junk, and often the community’s biggest problem is all the trouble caused by the last guy who they thought was helping them. That is so sad, but it of course isn’t just engineers. It’s lawyers and mechanics and doctors and furnace repairmen and butchers and bakers and candle-stick makers. We’ve all felt the pain. We all know how hard it is to find someone we feel we can trust. We need them to do us good, but all too often we find that apparently wasn’t their intentions.

Into that world the Lord has placed His people. We have the privilege of going there with the mind of Christ, with a sincere desire to do good for others, to do our job faithfully and skillfully and to the best of our ability because others around me are counting on me to do it. And in that world Christians really can shine like lights in the world. Other people may not want to hear about your faith but they’ll see when you sincerely care about them. And then perhaps the Lord might even light a spark in their hearts that perhaps, just maybe, you have something they want, something that makes you different!

As we would listen to Paul here in Romans chapter 1 and pause to ponder his words, he reminds us that, no matter what we do, we can do it with the mind of Christ, to sincerely seek to do good to others. It will make you and me different, very different, but may that difference be one way the Lord can open people’s hearts, soften hard hearts, and make a way for the Gospel.

Paul may still be "just" introducing himself and this letter to these people he's never met, but you and I can learn tons just by listening to what he says. His very words are teaching us what it is to live the mind of Christ – to have a Christian mind.