Romans 12.10-Paul Commands His Readers To Be Affectionate With One Another And Regard One Another More Highly Than Themselves
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday October 29, 2009
Romans: Romans 12:10-Paul Commands His Readers To Be Affectionate With One Another And Regard One Another More Highly Than Themselves
Lesson # 415
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 12:9.
This evening we will study Romans 12:10 and in this passage Paul commands the Roman believers to continue being affectionate with one another and regard one another more highly than themselves.
Romans 12:9, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”
Romans 12:10, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.”
“Devoted” is the nominative masculine plural form of the adjective philostorgos (filovstorgo$) (fil-os-tor-gos), which is a compound word composed of adjective philos, “beloved, friendly” and the adjective storgos, “affection,” thus the word literally means “affection between friends or family.”
The adjective pertains to love or affection for those closely related to one, particularly members of one’s immediate family.
Now, the adjective philostorgos appears only once in the Greek New Testament, namely here in Romans 12:10 where it means “affectionate” and refers to the affection for members of the body of Christ.
This affection is produced by the Holy Spirit in the believer who obeys the command to love his fellow believer as Christ loved Him (John 13:34).
Thus, it is the direct result of the believer operating in the agape, “divine-love” of God and is an expression of it.
As we noted in our study of agape in Romans 12:9, the word in this passage means “divine-love” since the believer’s love for God and his fellow believer is the result of the believer responding by faith to the love God has demonstrated toward him through the Son and the Spirit and expresses itself in obedience to God.
Therefore, philostorgos denotes affection for one’s fellow Christian that is the direct result of operating in agape, “divine-love” and responding by faith to the love God has demonstrated to him through the Son and the Spirit by being obedient to the Lord’s command to love one another as He loved all men.
“To one another” denotes that there is to be a mutual exchange between the Roman believers in that they are to be affectionate towards one another.
This exchange between the Roman believers with each other is the proper, appropriate and obligatory response by them to each other since all of them were created by God, according to His image, redeemed at the Cross and fellow members of the body of Christ.
This mutual exchange is the result of the Roman believers experiencing fellowship with God by operating in God’s love towards one another and is an expression of that love.
Romans 12:10, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.”
“In brotherly love” is the articular dative feminine singular form of the noun philadelphia (filadelfiva) (fil-ad-el-fee-ah), which is a compound word composed of the noun adelphos, “brother” and a root of philia, “friendship, love,” thus the word means “brotherly love” or “love for a brother, sister or other near kinsman.”
This word is related to the adjective philostorgos, “affectionate” that we saw earlier in our study of Romans 12:10.
Philadelphia appears only six times in the Greek New Testament where it denotes the affection expressed among Christians for each other who are related to each other by regeneration, i.e. spiritual birth (Romans 12:10; 1 Thessalonians 4:9; Hebrews 13:1; 1 Peter 1:22; 2 Peter 1:7 twice).
This affection for his fellow believer is the result of the believer obeying the Lord’s command in John 13:34 to love one another as He has loved the believer.
This is an expression of the (agape) love of God in the life of the believer since the believer’s love for God and the body of Christ is the response by faith to the love God demonstrated towards the believer through the work of the Son and the Spirit (1 John 4:16; Romans 5:5).
The believer’s agape, “divine-love” is the production of the Holy Spirit in the sense that the Spirit produces this love in the believer who obeys His voice, which is heard through the teaching of the Word of God.
Affection for other believers is the direct result of agape, “divine-love” being reproduced by the Spirit in the believer who is obedient to the Spirit’s voice, which is heard through the teaching of the Word of God (Galatians 5:22-23).
It is an expression of God’s love in the believer towards his fellow believer.
Therefore, this is affection is motivated by the believer’s love for God in response to God’s love for him and empowered by the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
Paul is saying in Romans 12:10 that affection between believers should characterize their relationship and fellowship with each other.
When believers outwardly express affection for one another it demonstrates to the world that they belong to Christ.
John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Outward affection between believers is a badge of discipleship as well since it demonstrates that they are obeying the Lord’s command in John 13:34 to love one another as He has loved them.
It is a mark and characteristic of Christian fellowship.
Romans 12:10, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.”
“Give preference” is the nominative masculine second person plural present (deponent) middle participle form of the verb proegeomai (prohgevomai) (pro-ay-geh-om-i), which means “to regard more highly than yourself” and is used with the reciprocal pronoun allelon, “another” indicating that Paul wants the Roman believers to regard one another more highly than themselves.
One reason why believers are to regard one another more highly than themselves is that all believers have the indwelling presence of the Father (Ephesians 4:5), Christ (Colossians 1:27) and the Spirit (Romans 8:11).
It teaches the principle that Christians are to regard one another more highly than themselves since their treatment of other believers reflects their treatment of Christ.
Another reason why believers are to regard their fellow believers more highly than themselves is that this imitates the Lord Jesus Christ subordinating His interests to the best interests others.
This the verb proegeomai, “to regard more highly than yourself” refers to subordinating ones’ self interest to the best interests of others.
The incarnate Son of God Jesus Christ became a human being and died a substitutionary spiritual and physical death on the cross in the interests of sinful humanity (Philippians 2:5-8).
Humility is expressed by the believer who regards his fellow believer more highly than himself and subordinates his interests to the best interests of his fellow believer (Philippians 2:3-4).
When a believer regards his fellow believer more highly than himself he is imitating the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ who subordinated His interests to the best interests of sinners.
If Christ subordinated His interests to the best interests of all believers by becoming a human being and dying a substitutionary spiritual and physical death, then the Christian is obligated to operate this way towards his fellow believer.
The believer, who regards his fellow believer more highly than himself and thus subordinates his interests to the best interests of his fellow believer is not only humble but also has a servant’s mentality.
Therefore, the verb proegeomai, “to regard more highly than yourself” in Romans 12:10 refers to subordinating ones’ self interest to the best interests of others.
This word indicates that Paul wants his readers to have a humble servant’s mentality as their Savior did.
The Lord Jesus Christ taught His disciples this principle of subordinating their interests to the best interests of each other (Matthew 20:20-28; John 13:1-17).
Romans 12:10, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.”
“In honor” is the articular dative feminine singular form of the noun time (timhv) (tee-may), which means “honor” in the sense of demonstrating respect toward one’s fellow believer.
To respect someone in our context is to esteem the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or trait or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or trait.
Believers are obligated to honor their fellow believer in the sense of respecting them or in other words esteeming their worth and excellence as a fellow member of the body of Christ whom Christ died for and indwells.
Therefore, in Romans 12:10, Paul issues two more commands in addition to the three he issued in Romans 12:9.
These two commands are related to the believer’s horizontal fellowship or in other words, his relationship with his fellow believer.