1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
Paul identified himself in three different ways:
His rank: slave of Jesus Christ
His office: called to be an apostle
His mission: separated to the gospel of God
All three of these affirmations reflect the subsidiary role Paul played in spreading the gospel. He never put himself above God’s plan for his life. Now we come to Paul’s striking appraisal of himself.
1 Paul,
Paul changed his name from Saul (Jewish name) to Paul during his first missionary expedition. He may have changed his name to facilitate travel in the Roman Empire. Paul was the only biblical writer who gave up his Jewish name for a Gentile name.
Paul was born into a wealthy family. He trained under Gamaliel in Jerusalem, where he amassed knowledge of Jewish law (Ac 22:3). He was the son of a Pharisee (Ac 23:6) and later became a Pharisee himself. Eventually he became a persecutor of the church, killing Christians along the way.
The apostle Paul was the human author of the book of Romans.
a bondservant of Jesus Christ,
First, Paul described himself as a “slave.” Paul was free because he was a citizen of the Roman Empire, yet he declared himself a slave. The word “bondservant” means one who sells himself in slavery to another. The Greek word is the term for an abject slave. Paul used this term in the sense of honor and privilege; it was not drudgery for him to serve the Lord. He viewed himself as belonging to Jesus Christ without reserve. He went from being a slave of Satan to being a slave of the Savior. It was an honor for him to serve the Lord.
Ga 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
PRINCIPLE:
God never calls us to be our own man.
APPLICATION:
God calls us to be women and men of God. As Paul put himself in the same category as the slaves of Rome, so we should put ourselves in the category of people who minister. We are all purchased with the blood of Christ. We owe, therefore, service to the King of kings.
Accepting the role of a slave for Jesus is the antithesis of the autonomy of today’s thinking among Christians. We hang onto a false panacea about freedom. This is a fundamental flaw. When we accept this false value, we become autonomous from God. We need to think of ourselves as the property of God. We should serve Him willingly. We should not view this as servitude but devotion.
Christians are free in Christ (Ga 5:1). This means God blessed us in grace, the grace of provisions by Christ’s death. We are free in Christ but we chose to give our lives to serve Him. Our freedom allows us to sacrificially love to the maximum. A woman loves a man not because he forces her to do so; she loves him because she is free to do so. She serves him because she wants to serve him. This has to do with the capacity found in her soul. The greater the capacity of knowledge from the Word of God, the greater our love for and service of the Lord. This does not come from superficial musical ditties about Jesus.
God does not call us to celebrity in ministry. Many preachers assume this role in the church today. Those in ministry should never elevate themselves above the servant role. Pride brings failure in ministry. Our ministry is by a decision of God, not by our decision.
This is very good. I enjoyed reading it, too. Your statements about belonging to Almighty God and being His property stuck out when I read this. Many people today-myself included-too easily make choices that leave God in the rear view mirror. It’s good to stop and remember that He owns us, and that if we willingly love Him with all our heart, all our soul and all our strength, that we will be in the best state in which our lives can be.
Thanks for the blessing Andy.
What a profound message!!I have been looking for this kind of teaching for a long time. Been to many Churches but none has profoundly explain the book of acts in a manner you do to think that you are only on the 1st verse. Honestly, I observe a lot of Preachers in this modern times who profess to be a servant of Christ now becoming Lord over God’s flock. Most are teaching about giving and offerings, tithing, money matters instead of dealing with the knowledge of God and about God as if God is needing of muney. It is becoming a merchandise!!! Some are selling boiled eggs that they raised during the worship, umbrellas which will be opened and handled nvertedly for the showering of blessing prayer, miracle hanky for healing and all unimaginable rituals on top of the weekly offerings and tithing and thanksgiving etc. Forgive me but I am grieving for this people who are treated like a merchandise. I am hoping that this type of expository teaching will reach them just as it reach me..i am willing to be used by God but i need to learn more from you..God bless
being a christian is like putting a jigsaw together with Jesus holding your hand, and then when you get the picture, it’s pure Gold…well worth your time effort and perseverance….Thank you Jesus!! :-)x
and people like you Grant are to us Christians a gift from God, remain blessed to be a blessing..Paul :-)x
Thank you Paul.
Thank you for speaking the truth concerning our place in Christ. Yes, we are His beloved, and sons and daughters of the King. Yes, we are free in Christ. However, the freedom we have is freedom to OBEY Christ. And obedience yields the fruit of real peace, joy and love.
I am most selfish with my time because I am so “busy” right now. But when my Master interrupts my schedule, what do I say but “Yes, Lord, here am I” ? If he interrupts my day, I have to count on Him to complete that day’s tasks afterward. He has never left my day undone while I’m about His work. Looking back, those times are meaningful to me in so many ways while the tasks I laid down seem so trivial and inconsequential now.
We serve a Loving, Awesome Master Who turns our service for Him into sweet, meaningful work.
Thank you Kara.
Amazing, today was my first day to study ur commentary, P{raise God for your wisdom,
Thank you Bilal. Good to meet you in India.
Praise the Lord for this meaningful yet profound insight! I have ascertained a great deal. God bless you Grant!
Thank you for the blessing Julia.
Looking for good teaching on Hebrews. Will you consider that?
Thanks, Janet
Grant you have been a blessing to my soul, and i am very grateful to you for it, it is always a blessing to hear sound doctorine. Friend in Christ Randall
Thank you Randall
"We need to think of ourselves as the property of God. We should serve Him willingly. We should not view this as servitude but devotion."
These words say it all, how we need this kind of reminder each day, staying focused in Him, because of Him, not us. Loving to serve willingly. Amen
Iam so much pleased with the introductory part of Romans 1:1
It teaches me how God calls his people to serve and we are not called to be our own but we owe service to the King of Kings. He does not call us to celebrity in Ministry . Our ministry is by a decison of God not by our decision. May God bless you so much as you contnue to serve Him thro' this webseit.
Dinah
Dinah, may God bless you in your study of Romans
Please My brother I want all your updates. How can I get the whole Bibile
Arega, thanks for your comment. There are between 8,000 and 9,000 pages of study on verse-by-verse commentary but all expositional studies that I have done are on this site. Because of the detail study I have not done all of the books of the Bible. I am working on Romans presently and have uploaded studies through Romans 14.
Dear brother in Christ,
I thank you so much for this verse by verse commentary. For long time i have been searching online commentary for word to word study and finaly i found your wesite. Really i feel very happy to read your commentary as i get information what i wanted.
Vijayakumar, thank you for your kind words. You expresses the purpose of this commentary very well.