Romans 14:5-12 “Do Not Live Unto Yourself”

This morning I want to start with the middle and work our ways outward on this text. That may seem a little bit strange to us, but it is actually how Greek rhetoric works. The most important things are always in the middle! This is kind of an important idea to consider when reading the New Testament that is all in Greek. For example, if we ask which chapter of the Letter to the Romans is most important, we can discard chapter 1 and chapter 15 to land right in the middle at chapter 8. Of course, chapter 8 is everybody’s favorite chapter—it was meant to be that way when it was written.

Why did they do that? Why did the Greeks put the most important things in the middle? Imagine back to that time when Paul was writing this letter. The person who received the letter would get a scroll equally wound upon to dowels. As he would push apart the dowels to reveal the text, the exact middle of the letter would be exposed. He could therefrom decide if the rest of the letter was worthy to be read! The middle of the text would somewhat serve as the back of the dust jacket on a novel today. You could decide if you want to read more by that little bit.

So, the middle of our text today says: “Live to the Lord.” That is to us today rather strange language. What should it mean to “live TO somebody”? I will address that issue in just a minute. First, however, I want to point out that when we take off the troublesome prepositional phrase, we get a surprise! Paul is telling us, commanding us, to “LIVE.” When I say “Live to the Lord,” the first part of that is the admonition to “live.”

There are of course three words in Greek for every one word in English (ha ha)! This word “to live” does not mean to simply have biological function. It does not mean simply keep your heart beating and blood pumping. It does not mean sleep, wake up, eat, go to bed again. This word “ζωη” (Yes, the popular girl’s name “Zoe”) means more to be full of life. I mentioned Romans 8 just now as the crux of this letter; in Romans 8:2 we read, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. . . .” So here we are talking about the spirit of life, of being alive in Christ.

We are supposed to not just live this life. We are supposed to LIVE this LIFE! I have to be honest with you. I do not understand watching sports on television. Some folks have said to me that it is important to cheer on your favorite team. Well, I hate to be the spoiler on this point, but the players on the field really cannot hear me from the living room couch. It is a lot more interesting and exciting to actually be present at the game to cheer on the players! But, you know what is even more exciting? Actually playing the game. I am admittedly a terrible football player. I cannot catch, throw or kick well at all; however, I would rather play football myself than watch someone else do it on television.

I believe that when Paul admonishes us to “live,” he is telling us to get off the sidelines and get in the game. Sometimes when I would come back late on Tuesdays because of Association meetings in Lihue, I would walk in very late at the game night here at Baird Hall. So, of course, I would just sit down and drink the coffee and eat the dessert and watch others play. The excitement would be in the game. Every Tuesday night there are winners and losers, but at least even the losers can say that they were in the game! Every one can say that at least they did not stay home and do nothing at that time. So, we need not just live, but rather LIVE.

Again, as I noted earlier, it always seems that Greek has three words for every one word in English. So it is with the word for “to die” that also appears in this verse. I want to translate “αποθνήσκομεν” as not just “to die” but rather “to beat death.” This same word and construction is used in John 12:24 when Jesus states: “Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Dying in order to bear much fruit is in fact “beating death.” Is it not?

To be sure, Paul in his letter is not telling us to die. He is not telling us in essence to “drop dead.” Paul is telling us to die unto ourselves in order to be reborn and to bear much fruit for the Lord. Amen to that.

For Christmas my wife Helen gave me an e-book on Kindle that I thought I should read, being a modern theologian. The book is entitled Wrestling with God by Jordan Petersen and has been in the New York Times bestselling list for a few months now. The book is over 500 pages long and extremely erudite with the author quoting Tolstoi, Solzhenitsyn, Jung, Freud, and even Walt Disney. In fact he calls Tinkerbell a “porn fairy.” His writing is extremely Euro-centric, based on centuries old systematic theology, and is boringly dogmatic. I forced myself to read to the end of the book, to the chapter erroneously called “conclusion” in which he states once more the famous quote from Nietzche “God is Dead.” Then in Latin he adds the subtext as an afterthought “Deus est Renatus.” (God has been reborn) (Which in more proper Latin word order should read “Deus renatus est.”

The point is still, through the rebirth of Jesus Christ, we can beat death, so live unto the Lord today!

Now finally as to what it means that we “Live TO THE LORD.” Let me begin on this point by saying that if you have the NIV version of the Bible open it says “Live FOR the Lord.” King James says “Live UNTO the Lord.” Now I have to reverse what I have said about Greek always having three words for every English one. There is no Greek word here at all! It literally says in Greek, “Live the Lord.” Not “to,” not “for,” not “unto”; it simply says “live the Lord.” Why does our Bible put in the word “to”? And, more importantly, how are we to understand it?

Okay, there is no “to” in the Greek of this particular text, but the word “Lord” is in the dative case. I apologize that this sermon is turning into a grammar lesson. “Dative” means “giving” from the Latin casus dativus. When I say, “I give the book to John,” John falls into the dative case because he is receiving the book. The book is given to him. The person to whom something is given is naturally in the dative case.

“Live the Lord” therefore means “Live your life giving it over to the Lord. It is almost as if you could interchange the words “give” and “live.” Giving yourself over to the Lord in this life is “living the Lord.” Live every moment of everyday giving your life over to the Lord in all that you do. Live to the Lord! What a great message!

Now let us jump back to the beginning of this passage. I promised you that we would do the whole reading! Some judge one day to be better than another while others judge all days to be alike. In that time, some of the Christians were of the Jewish background and others were pagans coming freshly into the new faith. Well, of course the Jews had this understanding that Friday evening from sunset was the Shabbat, or Sabbath. Pagans would have still thought that all the days were the same. So, the question came up as to what day the new church should have as its primary day of worship.

Friday evening marks the time of death for Christ. Sunday morning marks the time of Resurrection. Which way was it finally decided? Anybody know? Of course, Sunday morning became over time the designated day for Christian corporate worship. And, this was actually not made official until Emperor Constantine the Great decided the issue in favor of Sunday in the Fourth Century. It took 300 years of argument to finally make the official day.

Behind this was another issue that must be recognized. In Paul’s time when he is writing this letter to the church in Rome, worship of the Lord would have been on every day, not just Friday or Sunday. Paul believed wholeheartedly that Jesus would come in his lifetime. He wanted to be found in worship of the Lord in that moment. Yet, as the days and weeks, and years passed on, the early believers who had sold all their possessions discovered that they had to go back to work in order to eat. Even Paul himself went back to tent making to survive. If you have to work to eat, that means that you cannot just worship God all day long!

Really what we have then is the understanding that some people could perhaps devote themselves fully to worshipping Jesus all day long, but the vast majority of folks had to live on as always. Paul is saying, go ahead and make a living. Just remember that you live to the Lord at the same time. That is exactly where we are today. Because we have such busy lives, we designate just certain times to the worship of the Lord. Yet, we “live to the Lord” still, giving ourselves over in all we do to Christ.

The second part of verse 5 is a strangely profound remark from Paul. He says, “Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.” When I read that, my mind went immediately to the last line of the book of Judges: (Judges 21:25) “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.” To be sure, that was not considered a good thing back then. Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.”

Paul is telling the church in Rome; however, that he expects them to have opinions. He wants them to have opinions among themselves. He affirms a multiplicity of ideas within Christ’s church. We do not all have to think exactly the same! But, we do need to be convicted in our hearts of our beliefs.

Indeed the worst tragedy for the church would be if people had no opinions at all. It is indeed perhaps better to have a wrong opinion than no opinion at all. Revelation 3:14-16 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘. . . .I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm. . .I am going to spit you out of my mouth!’” Whatever you feel in your heart, feel it so with conviction.

Then Paul writes, if you are going to eat, do so with conviction in honor of God. If you are going to fast, do so with conviction. If you are going to live, then live with conviction. If you are going to beat death, then beat death with conviction. All of this can be summed up nicely with the words : “Live to the Lord.” That is our calling today. We shall not live unto ourselves but rather LIVE to the Lord.

Amen.