1. Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard Sunday, July 20, 2014 Romans 1 & 2
Thorny Issues
Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Romans 1 & 2

2. Irony in interpretation
16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are (I Corinthians 3:16-17).

3. Another example
Genesis Perhaps the most glorious and radical message in all of literature is flattened into an anti-science declaration
An ancient way of saying what God has done, how this God is superior to all the systems of Gods, how everything He has made is good, and the place of humans as His ambassadors in this setting

4. Practical intent
Very rarely, if ever, do we find passages in the Bible that are abstract, intellectual, theological in focus; rather, they tend to include these aspects while trying to give practical advice or directions about living
Philippians 2—the best example

5. Employs rhetorical technique
Focus on enemy nations in order to help the acceptance of a message to the real intended receivers
Amos—the best example

6. Galatians-shock Is message mainly theological or practical?
Are chapters 3 and 4 the issue or is it chapter 2?
Which is closer to Paul’s motivation to write?
Exactly in line with the Book of Acts . . .

7. These ideas help with Romans, too
The only non-trouble letter?
Or, is the trouble the lack of theology?
Or, is the trouble exactly the same as that faced in the Galatian churches?

8. Historical situation
Roman historian Suetonius in The Lives of the Twelve Caesars: Jews expelled from Rome during reign of Claudius (AD 49-51) for arguing over someone named Chrestus
However, they started back within a few years, still feeling morally superior to the Gentiles and reluctant to accept them into full fellowship

9. Watch how Paul deals with them!
Oh, those Gentiles they are idolaters! And they have sex in every direction, indiscriminately, even going against natural inclinations! And they disobey their parents!
Step Two, like Amos before him, is to get to what he really wants to say: “What about you!?!”; “You, therefore, who judge another, do you not judge yourselves?!”

10. Romans 1
Unfortunately used as the key passage to reject people of different sexualities from full fellowship in church
Ironically, it is not a careful exposition about the rightness or wrongness of different sexualities; rather, it’s a set-up to get the people who feel morally superior off their high-horse
The rest of the theology in the letter is a back-up to this, explaining why we can’t reject others (we did nothing to earn this grace ourselves)