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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Romans 12:16 - 12:16
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Condescend to men of low estate (τοῖς ταπεινοῖς συναπαγόμενοι)
Rev., to things that are lowly. Τοῖς ταπεινοῖς to the lowly may mean either lowly men or lowly things. The verb literally means being carried off along with; hence yielding or submitting to, and so condescending. Compare Gal 2:13, and see on 2Pe 3:17, in which passages it has a bad sense from the context. According to the original sense, the meaning will be, being led away with lowly things or people; i.e. being drawn into sympathy with them. Farrar suggests letting the lowly lead you by the hand. Meyer, who maintains the neuter, explains: “The lowly things ought to have for the Christian a force of attraction, in virtue of which he yields himself to fellowship with them, and allows himself to be guided by them in the determination of his conduct. Thus Paul felt himself compelled to enter into humble situations.” On the other hand, Godet, maintaining the masculine, says: “The reference is to the most indigent and ignorant and least influential in the Church. It is to them the believer ought to feel most drawn. The antipathy felt by the apostle to every sort of spiritual aristocracy, to every caste-distinction within the Church, breaks out again in the last word.” Condescend is a feeble and inferential rendering, open to construction in a patronizing sense; yet it is not easy to furnish a better in a single word. The idea, then, fully expressed is, “set not your mind on lofty things, but be borne away (ἀπό) from these by the current of your Christian sympathy along with (σύν) things which are humble.”
In your own conceits (παῤ ἑαυτοῖς)
Lit., with yourselves; in your own opinion. See Rom 11:25, and compare Act 26:8, “incredible with you,” i.e., in your judgment.