James Nisbet Commentary - Romans 1:9 - 1:9

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James Nisbet Commentary - Romans 1:9 - 1:9


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

MARKS OF SPIRITUAL SERVICE

‘God … Whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son.’

Rom_1:9

Here is a remarkable expression—‘Whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His son.’ St. Paul was a model servant. We profess ourselves to be Christ’s servants. Let us take a lesson from this great exemplar of acceptable service and seek to follow him as he followed Christ. In these words St. Paul strikingly describes the character of his service. Let us notice, first, its marks. They are indicated in the expression to which I again call your attention, ‘with my spirit.’ It occurs in one other place only in the New Testament, viz. in Php_3:1, where true Christians are described as those who worship God in the spirit. We shall see that it is full of meaning.

I. It was a willing service.—The Lord Jesus Christ will have no compulsion. There are to be no pressed men in His service. There are some persons who are religious, so far as their religion goes, by necessity, the force of circumstances, the force of public opinion, which still considers a profession of religion a respectable thing. But that is not serving God with the spirit. St. Paul was no such unwilling, reluctant servant as that. His was a voluntary, free-hearted service. There were very few inducements in St. Paul’s day to serve God in any other manner except with the spirit. A man attempting to do so would very soon find he had chosen a rough and unpleasant path.

II. This service was intelligent, as opposed to a merely mechanical routine.—There is a very great danger of our falling into a mere routine. The very familiarity with holy things may breed contempt of them before we are aware. The most spiritual duties may come at last to be almost mechanically performed. The only safeguard is to be renewed in our spirit by daily contact with the Holy Spirit of God. St. Paul, at any rate, was no unintelligent worker. How wonderfully he had grasped the great problems of sin and salvation this Epistle is a witness. What a range of spiritual truth does he unveil!

III. It was priestly service.—An examination of the original helps us here. The thought of ‘adoration’ is in the Greek word. It is a liturgical word. It brings before us the idea of the Temple and priestly service. The service St. Paul was rendering to God in the Gospel of His Son was priestly service. The priest of the Old Testament exercised his office in perpetually offering the same sacrifices which could never take away sins; but the true spiritual priest of the New Testament exercises his office in proclaiming the finished work of Christ on Calvary, and the good news of salvation through His merit, freely offered to all them that believe. This thought of priestly service carries with it the idea of the dedication of the body as God’s truest temple. It is a mighty step onward in Christian experience to have learnt what it is to be God’s temple.

—
Rev. E. W. Moore.