3_15_3-2 Romans 12 Responses

A Responsive Reading of Romans 12

from The Message translation of the Bible

LEADER

Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life —

ALL

and place it before God as an offering.

LEADER

Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.

ALL

Fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out.

LEADER

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity —

ALL

God brings the best out of you. God develops well-formed maturity in you.

LEADER

The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us —

ALL

Not by what we are and what we do for him.

LEADER

Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around.

ALL

Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body.

LEADER

So since we find ourselves fashioned into excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts —

ALL

Let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be.

LEADER

Without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other.

ALL

Without trying to be something we aren't.

LEADER

If you preach, just preach. If you help, just help. If you teach, stick to your teaching.

ALL

If you give, give. If you lead, lead. If you serve, serve.

LEADER

Love from the center of who you are.

ALL

Don't fake it.

LEADER

Be good friends who love deeply.

ALL

Practice playing second fiddle.

LEADER

Don't burn out. Keep yourselves fueled and aflame.

ALL

Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times. Help needy Christians. Be inventive in hospitality.

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