Wright agrees with the majority: Romans 12:14-21 shifts to a concern with outsiders, and evidently to a kind of outsider that has an impact inside. He now addresses how the community of faith should respond to its opponents and persecutors.
The answer in one crisp clause: "Bless those who persecute you." Which is from Jesus (Matt 5:43-48). And which is not heard enough in the Church today and which is vital for following Jesus. We are to learn to respond to our enemies -- however defined here -- with charity and grace and hope, and not with vituperative and vitriolic cursings. Nothing embarrasses me more as a Christian than how I see some respond to those with whom they disagree.
Make every effort to live at peace with everyone; not always possible, but at least try.
Vengeance is not a personal matter; it is from God. Wright implies the courts can take care of this, too. Just don't take the law into your own hands. Instead, feed a hungry foe, give drink to a thirsty one.
The implication in all this is that love unleashes a cycle of embracing grace in our world. Do it, Paul says.
The critical factor is this: try this -- see what happens when you meet opposition with grace and goodness instead of retaliation and vengeance.
Tom can write, and I love this: "if someone in the next street dies, they should be prepared to sympathize and join the funeral procession, and if someone is celebrating, they should throw their hats in the air as well" (714).
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Scot,
Thanks for continuing to challenge the thinking of the comfortable church. It's so good to be reminded of the difference and the fullness between Matt. 5 (personal relationships) and Rom. 12 (corporate communities). There is no "escaping" or hiding from your enemies, be they individual or communal.
We've been going through the Sermon on the Mount and this question of love/hate has been challenging. Thanks for your faithful work.
Scot,
I so much agree that this is not heard often enough in the Church today, and that it is vital for following Jesus.
At a loss here, is a deficit in our identity. We fail to identify with other eikons. And we fail to identify with Jesus in loving our enemies. This is at the heart of our faith, which is incarnate and grounded in Jesus.
Thanks for all the rest here, too. Good stuff.
I just read Wright's "Paul for Everyone" on this section and the next. Not enough meat in it, though...
...I was looking for how he connects the end of ch 12 with 13 (some say that since we submit to governmental authority since they are the ministers of God's wrath against evil then it is okay for us to therefore be in government issuing wrath while still a Christian, others would say that since we are not to avenge, we should not participate in the vengence that is of the govt).
Also, I was looking to see his take on how the tax collection issue raised in 13:6-7 might make sense of how and when we must "submit to the governing authorities" in 13:1-5.
We are to learn to respond to our enemies — however defined here — with charity and grace and hope, and not with vituperative and vitriolic cursings.
Amen!
Brad
Bob,
I heard N.T. Wright recently on one of the downloads from the N.T. Wright page seem to indicate to me, in what he was saying, that Christians can participate in the work of the state, and that, indeed, they must. But that this work is exceedingly difficult, and one in which faith can be (but not of necessity) compromised. -At least that is what I remember, and took away from it.
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