Sermon Tone Analysis

Wenstrom Bible Ministries

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday November 11, 2009

www.wenstrom.org

Romans: Romans 12:14-Paul Commands Romans To Continue To Bless Those Who Persecute Them And Do Not Curse

Lesson # 421

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 12:14.

This evening we will study Romans 12:14 and in this passage Paul commands the Roman believers to continue to make it their habit of blessing those who persecute them and do not curse.

Romans 12:14, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”

“Bless” is the second person plural present active imperative form of the verb eulogeo (eu)logevw) (yoo-log-eh-o), which appears twice and in both instances, the word is used with the Roman Christians as its subject and those who persecute them as its object and means “to ask (God the Father) to impart a benefit” upon those who persecute them.

It stands in direct contrast with the verb kataraomai, which means “to curse.”

Paul repeats this word in the imperative mood in order to emphasize this command with his readers and this command is reinforced by the prohibition that follows forbidding them from cursing their enemies.

This command echoes the Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching in His Sermon on the Mount Discourse (Matthew 5:43-45; Luke 6:27-28).

Paul is combining these two accounts of our Lord’s discourse on the mount.

The Father bestows abundant blessings on those who reject His existence (atheist) and those who reject His Son as Savior.

Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ practiced this teaching Himself interceding in prayer for those who crucified Him (Luke 23:33-34).

Stephen also practiced the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ to bless those who persecute you by praying for those who were stoning him (Acts 7:54-60).

Interestingly, Saul of Tarsus who later became the great apostle was a witness to this intercessory prayer by Stephen.

In fact, Paul was the ring leader of this execution of Stephen.

Paul himself also practiced blessing those who persecuted him (1 Corinthians 4:11-13).

The Holy Spirit produces in the believer the capacity to bless those who persecute him, which is an expression of God’s love in their life.

The believer who comprehends and acknowledges and accepts by faith the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God that he is the object of God’s love will receive the capacity to love others, even the obnoxious who persecute the believer (Romans 5:5; 1 John 4:16).

It is only when the believer realizes and accepts by faith the extent to which God loves him that he can in turn love like God and bless those who persecute him.

This gives the believer the capacity to love others as God has loved the human race and bless those who persecute him.

In each instance that the verb eulogeo appears in Romans 12:14, it is in the present imperative form, specifically, it is a “customary present imperative,” which denotes that the Roman believers’ must be characterized as those who bless those who persecute them.

Paul’s statements in Romans 1:8 and 15:14-15 indicate that they were characterized as such or in other words, this was indeed their characteristic behavior.

Therefore, the present imperative form of the verb indicates that Paul is commanding the Roman believers that they must “continue to make it their habit” to bless those who persecute them.

The Roman epistle itself does not suggest that the Roman believers were undergoing persecution at the time Paul wrote to them.

However, statements about Christians and their treatment by secular historians does indicate that they did face persecution from both unsaved Jew and Gentiles, though not on the scale that they would be subjected to in the next decade at the hands of Nero.

The private secretary of the emperor Hadrian, Suetonius wrote that in A.D. 49 Claudius had “expelled from Rome Jews who were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus” (Life of Claudius 25.2).

Pomponia Graecina, the wife of the Roman general Aulus Plautius who commanded the British expedition in A.D. 43 was acquitted on the charge of embracing a “foreign superstition,” a reference to Christianity (Tacitus, Annals 13.32).

The majority of Romans in the first century viewed Christianity as simply another disgusting Oriental superstition, such as the historian Tacitus.

Tacitus writes, “Christus, from whom the name (Christians) had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular” (Annals XV, 44).

Paul’s statements in Romans 1:8 and 15:14-15 suggest strongly that the Roman believers were blessing those who persecuted them.

Romans 12:14, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”

“Those who persecute” is composed of the articular accusative masculine plural present active participle form of the verb dioko (diwvkw) (dee-o-ko), which means “to persecute.”

Persecution is the suffering or pressure, mental, moral, or physical, which authorities, individuals, or crowds inflict on others, especially for opinions or beliefs, with a view to their subjection by recantation, silencing, or, as a last resort, execution.

Dioko is used of persecution in several places in the Greek New Testament (Matthew 5:10-12; 10:11-23; 23:34-36; John 5:16, 20; Acts 7:52; 9:4-5, 22:7-8, 26:11, 14, 15; 1 Corinthians 4:12; 15:9; 2 Corinthians 4:9; Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:6; 2 Timothy 3:12).

There were several methods of persecution which were employed by the Jews, and also by the heathen against the followers of Christ.

Men would revile them and would say all manner of evil against them falsely, for Christ’s sake (Matthew 5:11).

There would be contempt and disparagement (John 8:48; Matthew 10:25).

Christians would be forcibly separated from the company and society of others and expelled from synagogues or other assemblies for the worship of God due to their loyalty to Christ (Luke 6:22; John 16:2).

They would be illegally arrested and be executed.

Jesus often forewarned them of the severity of the persecution which they would need to encounter if they were loyal to Him (John 16:2; Matthew 23:34).

Serious persecution of the Christian church began with the case of Stephen (Acts 7:1-60); and his lawless execution was followed by “a great persecution” directed against the Christians in Jerusalem.

Three of the books of the New Testament bear the marks of that most cruel persecution under Nero, the second epistle to Timothy, the first epistle of Peter and the Revelation of John.

Romans 12:14, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”

“Do not curse” is composed of the negative particle me (mhv) (may), “not” and the second person plural present active imperative form of the verb kataraomai (kataravomai) (kat-ar-ah-o-mi), “do curse.”

In Romans 12:14, the verb kataraomai means “to curse” and stands in direct contrast with the verb eulogeo, which means “to bless” in the sense of the believer asking God the Father to impart a benefit upon those who persecute him.

Therefore, kataraomai means “to curse” in the sense of the believer asking God the Father to bring disaster or adversity or evil upon those that persecute him.

Since, they are the beneficiaries of God’s grace and have been loved by God when they were His enemy (Romans 5:6-8; Ephesians 2:1-9) and are now the object of His love, Christians are obligated to possess the same attitude towards those who persecute them and act accordingly by blessing them rather than cursing them.

In Romans 12:14, the meaning of the verb kataraomai is negated by the negative particle me, which has the force of a general precept and makes no indication as to whether or not the action of cursing is going on or not.

The Roman epistle itself does not suggest that the Roman believers were undergoing persecution at the time Paul wrote to them.

However, as we noted earlier with our study of eulogeo earlier in the passage, statements about Christians and their treatment by secular historians does indicate that they did face persecution from both unsaved Jew and Gentiles, though not on the scale that they would be subjected to in the next decade at the hands of Nero.

Paul’s statements in Romans 1:8 and 15:14-15 indicate that the Roman believers were not cursing those that persecuted them.

Therefore, he issues this prohibition along with the two commands so as to protect their fellowship with God and their testimony to the unsaved community that they lived in the midst of.