Now that we’ve wrapped up these last sections of Paul’s Letter to the Romans, it’s time for our final targum, which is an explanatory paraphrase of the text.
For the earlier targums, see:
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[12.1-2] I exhort you therefore, my siblings in Christ, on the basis of God’s compassion, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, set apart for God. This is just the kind of sacrifice that is pleasing to God and the kind of worship that follows from everything we’ve been discussing about how God has ordered things.
So instead of being conformed to ‘the way the world works’, be transformed to the way of God’s Kingdom as revealed in the life and teaching of Jesus. This involves a complete renovation and restoration of how you understand the world, so that you are better able to discern what God is working in your life, and live in a way that is good, pleasing, and perfect.
[12.3-8] With this in mind, by God’s grace I encourage all of you not to focus on lofty ideas or achieving big things, but to focus instead on how best to manage what is before you: the nitty gritty of your lives and your life together as a community, with each considering how they might put the gifts God has given them to the most faithful use. The church is like a body: there are lots of different parts, each with a different function. Not only do we all have a role to play, but we are also all dependent on each other, with different gifts, all given by the same Spirit. If you are a prophet, prophesy faithfully. If you love to serve others, by all means serve. If you are a teacher, then teach. If you have the gift of encouragement and exhortation, then encourage and exhort. If you have the privilege of being in a position to share what you have, then do so generously. If you are a leader, lead diligently. And if you have the gift of mercy, then show it with a cheerful heart.
[12.9-21] The love in your community must never be hypocritical. Hate what is evil, and hold on tightly to what is good. Show one another the genuine affection of siblings. If you’re going to be in friendly competition, may it be in who can show the most honour to others. Don’t hold back when it comes to living out your faith; live as though the spirit — and the Spirit! — in you is boiling over! Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient when problems arise. Persevere in prayer. Treat the needs of God’s holy ones as if they were your own. Seek out ways of welcoming and providing for others, especially those you don’t know or who aren’t in a position to give back. Bless those who persecute you. You heard me right: bless them, don’t curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. As much as possible, find a way to come to consensus. Don’t set your sights too high. By that I mean don’t think the little things and the people this world overlooks are beneath your attention or care. Don’t act as if you have all the answers. (You don’t.) Don’t repay evil with more evil. Instead, think about how to do right by everyone. As much as it is in your power, live in peace with everyone. Don’t take justice into your hands, but leave it to God. (As the Scriptures tell us: “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the LORD” !) Instead, feed your enemy when they are hungry; give them something to drink when they are thirsty. A genuine display of goodness brings shame on those who do evil. So don’t let evil get the better of you, but overcome it with good.
[13.1-7] Part of overcoming evil with good means showing deference to governing authorities. At the end of the day, God is the ultimate authority, God has placed them in authority over us, for some purpose that exists beyond both them and us. or the most part, rulers will mind their own business if you mind yours and do what is right. If you keep your head down and don’t cause trouble, you should have no need to fear them. (Remember what I said: we are more than victorious in Christ and no earthly power can touch us where it really counts.) But if you cause trouble, you’ll have reason to be afraid: authorities don’t go through the trouble of violence without reason. But when they do, they do so in some mysterious way as God’s agents, establishing order even if not justice. So, show the authorities due respect and obey the law, both to avoid God’s wrath and to ease your own conscience. Likewise, pay your taxes, for the taxman too ultimately operates under God’s authority when he does his job. The point is not to seek out trouble; in this world, trouble enough will find you. Owe nothing to anyone: pay your taxes to the tax agency, revenue to your patrons and investors, respect to leaders, and honour to those to whom honour is due.
[13.8-14] I said ‘owe nothing to anyone’, but the only debt you’ll never pay off is the debt of love. For if you truly love someone, you’ve fulfilled God’s law. In fact, the commandments — ‘You will not commit adultery,’ ‘You will not murder,’ ‘You will not steal’, and so on — are summarized in the saying: ‘You will love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour. In fact love acts to your neighbour’s good, and is therefore the manifestation of God’s laws. Listen, you know the clock is ticking on this world and its ways. It’s time to wake up; the time when our salvation will come to fruition is already closer than it was when we first came to trust in Jesus. The night is almost over and dawn is fast approaching. So it’s time to cast off the things we did in the darkness and clothe ourselves in the armour that belongs to the light. So let us live with the decency that belongs to daytime, with none of the drunken revelry, bed-hopping, loss of control, arguments, or rivalry. Put on instead our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and stop making excuses to give in to the passing appetites and fancies of the body.
[14.1-3] When divisions come up over personal beliefs, be sure to set them aside and offer genuine and loving welcome to those who are ‘weaker’ in terms of understanding the ramifications of our freedom in Christ. While one person’s good-faith beliefs allow them them eat anything, another’s might lead them only to eat vegetables, for concerns about where the meat comes from. If you are happy to eat the meat, don’t look down on somebody who doesn’t; and if you are uncomfortable eating the meat, don’t judge someone who eats it. Both of you are welcome in God’s household.
[14.4-9] Remember how I said we have become like ‘slaves’ to God? Well, who are you do judge someone else’s slave? Both the ‘eater’ and ‘abstainer’ will stand or fall before our master, and our master alone. And both will stand, because our Lord will see to it. In the same way, one person will honour certain days as holy, while another person won’t. Leave each to their personal convictions. The one who honours the day honours it for the Lord’s sake. The one who eats meat eats it for the Lord, since they give thanks for it. And the one who abstains abstains for the Lord and gives thanks to God too. We have all given our lives to Jesus our Lord: None of us lives for ourselves or dies for ourselves anymore. Whether we live or die, we do it for him, for we are his. Christ died, and Christ lives, so that he might be the Lord over the dead and the living.
[14.10-12] Or remember how I said we are like adopted children in God’s family, standing under God’s Fatherly authority? Well, why are you judging your beloved sibling in Christ? Every one of us stands in before our Father’s judgment seat. (As it is written: “I live, says the LORD, and so every knee bends before me, and every tongue will praise God.”) So then, each of us will be called to account for our own attitudes and actions.
[14.13-23] So then, let us stop judging each other, but commit to not putting a stumbling block in our beloved sibling’s path. Listen, I am fully convinced by my faith in my Lord Jesus that the whole idea of ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ is off-base. But if someone believes something is ‘unclean’, then it is ‘unclean’ for them. And if you insist on eating food that grieves your brother or sister, you’re not showing them love. Don’t cause your sibling, for whom Christ died, be ruined because of a meal! So don’t let your opinion about what is good, no matter how right-minded it may be, turn into something bad. God’s Kingdom isn’t about food and drink, but about justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit! Keep your eyes on those goals, and act accordingly. Anyone who serves Christ in this way will be praised by both God and people alike. So, let us all pursue the things that promote genuine peace and build up each other and our community. Don’t let food destroy God’s work. Again, yes, all things are ‘clean’, but the more important issue is to do right by your sibling and not to trip them up. So it’s best not to press the matter around them. Keep your good-faith beliefs with integrity before God. Blessed are those who don’t let their proper judgments of right and wrong become their condemnation! And if your good-faith scruples make you hesitate to eat meat of unknown provenance, by all means do not eat it; if you do, you too will condemn yourself by it, since you’ll be acting against your own conscience and therefore not in good faith.
[15.1-6] Those of us who are strong in faith ought to lift up the weaknesses of those who aren’t, rather than please ourselves. Instead, let each of us please our neighbour, for their good and building up. Our Lord Jesus Christ didn’t please himself, but let himself be insulted for our sake. This example is for our instruction, so that by perseverance and the Scripture’s exhortation we might have hope. May the God of perseverance and exhortation grant you to live in harmony, in alignment with Jesus’s example, so that together you might glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with one big beautiful voice.
[15.7-13] Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for God’s glory. Again, Christ came as a servant among his Jewish people to fulfill God’s wonderful promises to Abraham that non-Jews would be blessed by his descendants and come to glorify God, in God’s mercy and grace. The Law, Prophets and Writings speak in one voice about this:
“Therefore I will confess you among the nations
and sing praises to your name.” (Psalm 18.49
And
“Rejoice, o nations, with his people!” (Deuteronomy 32.43 LXX)
and
“Praise the LORD, all you nations,
and let all peoples praise him!” (Psalm 117.1)
and
“The root of Jesse shall come,
the one who rises to rule the nations.
The nations will hope in him” (Isaiah 11.10)
So, may the God of hope fill you all with the joy and peace of faithfulness, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
[15.14-29] I’m actually confident about you, my beloved siblings: that you know what’s what and know how to live and are fully able to teach each other about it. I recognize that I’ve expressed myself forcefully at times in this letter, but it’s really only been as a reminder, through the grace given to me by God in my Christ-appointed ministry to non-Jews. I consider this to be a priestly service to the gospel, and you the faithful among the nations to be my thanksgiving offering, acceptable to God and set apart for God by the Holy Spirit. It is only in Jesus, then, that I boast about my ministry. The only thing I’d be so bold about is what Christ has done through me: and that’s you, who live (even though you are not Jewish) in faithful obedience to him. In word and deed, by signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit, I have proclaimed the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem and as far as the Balkan coast. If I have any ambition, it’s to continue this ministry where no one else has proclaimed Jesus before, in order to full fill the Scripture: “Those who have never been told of him shall see and those who have never heard of him shall understand” (Isaiah 52.15).
It’s this ambition that has prevented me from coming to you in person so far. But now, having completed my ministry in this region, I’m planning on visiting you on my way to Spain. I genuinely hope to visit with you for some time on this journey, and then for you to send me on to Spain. But before that, I have to go to Jerusalem to deliver the funds raised in Greece and Macedonia on their behalf. They were pleased to do this, and indeed saw it as their duty: since they, as non-Jews have come to share in the spiritual blessings rightfully belonging to Jews, the least they can do is to bless them in material ways in thanks. But as soon as I have delivered the collection to Jerusalem, I will set off for Spain, by way of Rome and of course, you. And I know that when I do get to see you, it will be with Christ’s full blessing.
[15.30-33] Please, beloved siblings, pray with and for me by our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the Holy Spirit, that I won’t come to any trouble from those in Jerusalem who don’t share our faith in Jesus, and that my ministry to Jerusalem may be well-received, so that by God’s will, I may come to you safely, with joy, and be refreshed in your company. The God of peace with you all! Amen.
[16.1-16] Before I go, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who serves as a deacon of the assembly in Cenchrae: welcome her in the Lord as befits God’s holy ones, and help her with whatever she needs, for she has been the patron of many here, including me. Please pass on my greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life. I, along with all the non-Jewish assemblies, am forever grateful for them. Pass on my greetings to the assembly that meets in their house too. While I’m at it, please also pass on my greetings to: my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert for Christ in the province of Asia; Mary, who has worked hard for your behalf; Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Israelites who were in prison with me, and who are prominent among the apostles, and have been longer than I have; Ampliatus, whom I love in the Lord; Urbanaus, our coworker in Christ; and my beloved Stachys; Apelles, who is approved in Christ; those who belong to Aristobulus’s household; my fellow Israelite Herodion; the faithful among the household of Narcissus; Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the world; the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord; Rufus, chosen in the Lord and his mother (who has also been a mother to me); Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermans, and all who are with them; Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all of God’s holy ones with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the assemblies in Christ send their greetings.
[16.17-20] I urge you, beloved siblings, to watch out for anyone trying to create dissent or hindrances, against anything you’ve been taught. Avoid them. Such people aren’t serving the Lord Christ, no matter what they may think, but only their own appetites. They deceive those who don’t know any better through smooth talk and flattery. Be on guard, for everyone has heard about your faithful obedience. Therefore, I rejoice over you and don’t want you to be led astray. Rather, I want you to be wise in what is good and guileless in what is evil. It won’t be long before the God of peace will crush the deceiver under your feet. Be confident in that, and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
[16.21-27] My coworker Timothy sends his greetings, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, fellow Israelites. I Tertius, who am transcribing the letter, also greet you in the Lord, as do: Gaius, our host and pasron, Erastus the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus.
Now to God, who is able to strengthen you by the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, by the great Mystery long-hidden, though witnessed by the prophets, but now revealed in full even to non-Jews by the command of God’s eternal plan: to bring about faithful obedience — to this only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever!
Amen!
Matthew Root 