Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Marks of a Christian | New Testament | Romans 12

Episode Date: August 3, 2023

What areas of your life make it hard for you to act like a Christian? What does it look like to be a Christian? Can you spread the good news of Jesus without saying anything? In today's episode, Tanya uses Romans 12 to discuss 3 marks of a Christian. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Romans 12

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. It's no surprise to you that it's kind of my job to share the gospel. I mean here at 10-minute Bible talks, if I recorded a podcast over a passage of the Bible and didn't point toward Jesus, I might have missed the point of the passage. It's easy to do that here because it's what you're looking for and it's common ground between us. But there are other pockets of my life where that isn't what people expect.

from me. For instance, in my graduate classes at Mizzou, that isn't a place where people expect me to always point out how things were discussing and writing about reflect the beauty of God's creation or the mercy of God. If I did, I think they would roll their eyes at first and then cancel me if I kept going. And even with my kids, even if there's always an awareness that their struggles are opportunities for grace and their blessings or gifts from God, I don't actually say those words all the time. They would also roll their eyes, and I definitely don't want to turn them off of faith by hearing me say one thing and then act like another.

And I definitely have moments where I don't look like someone who believes the gospel. Just let me tell you. I can imagine you have these kinds of situations as well. Friend groups, coworkers, book clubs, teammates, classmates, you have places where you do more showing up than speaking up. So the question for today, can we actually spread the good news about Jesus without saying a word? In Romans 12, Paul talks about the importance of how we show up as believers. We've been given a new life, life in the spirit.

How can we practice living that out in real time? How can we show up in the world authentically? How can we be more winsome than off-putting? Romans 12 1 and 2. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. To be a living sacrifice is to be willing to show up,

to be at God's disposal, to be obedient to him in any area of life. In the rest of the chapter, Paul describes what this looks like as it's lived out. And we're going to go through the rest of Chapter 12 with three practical questions to help us think about the way we can practice authentic Christian living. Number one. What needs mending? Relationships and people are challenging, and we experience fractures even in our faith. communities. One of the marks of a believer is the ability to reconcile. Paul gives us several examples of what this looks like. Verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Verse 16. Live in harmony with one another. And verse 18. As far as it depends on you, live peaceably

with all. It's hard to reach out in reconciliation when you have a problem with someone. So we need to insist first that our hearts be softened. 1 John 419 says, We love because he first loved us. Our hearts are mended toward other people when we remember that Jesus loved us sacrificially when we were incredibly unattractive and unworthy. As we become more aware of this,

we are moved to repentance and our own hearts are softened. And a heart softened by repentance is more aware of areas that need to be mended and better equipped to do the mending. Certainly, there are boundaries to the ways and the amount of hurt we allow people who have hurt us to be in our lives. But to bless those who persecute you is to positively put yourself out to mend and to build up people who you've had problems with. Only the power of the knowledge of Jesus' love for us can enable us to do something so counter cultural.

Number two, who needs served? As members of the body, God takes care of our needs through one another. This looks like feelings that turn into actions. Verse 10. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. This also looks like serving those who are different than us or think differently than us. Christian service isn't about who we think is deserving,

but about who has a need. Verse 20. If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In other words, we have no excuses not to serve someone. How do we do this? Elsewhere in Philippians 2.3, Paul says, Inhumility, consider others better than yourselves.

This means we should listen, understand, and act on the needs of other people, more than we concentrate on our own. When we see Christ as the one who supplies our needs, our feelings of gratitude turn into action that allow us to join with him in meaning the needs of others. Number three, what can I be learning? One of the marks of a Christian is a willingness to learn from anyone and everything.

Paul gives examples of how to be a learner. Verse three, for by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought, but to think with sober judgment. Verse 16. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. And verse 15.

Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Now, our definition of lowly might be different depending on our time and our culture. My definition is tainted by my own sin of pride. But when we think of others as valuable and precious, as valuable and precious as they are, as people created in the image of God, we will be willing to learn from them. Even if we are serving those who need us, we will find ourselves learning from them. When we listen to people, when we learn about their struggles, their hopes, their fears, and their needs, we learn from them.

Christians are called to understand the inner world of another person. There are people much different from us that have much to teach us about God's heart. The gospel enables us to do these things that don't make some to the world that we live in. Jesus' sacrificial love didn't make sense to his culture either. It means he was persecuted and punished in order to demonstrate his love for us. When we love others in a way that is costly, we begin to understand more of what Jesus is like, and others begin to understand more of who Jesus is. Think of the people God keeps putting in front of you. What needs mending? Who needs served? What? What?

can you learn? How can you do whatever it takes to be a living sacrifice today? Before you forget, sign up for the brand new TMBT newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes, and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help you beat the midweek slump and go deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.