Root of Change
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God..." (Rom. 12:1)
Paul stirs up their sense of gratitude because that’s where true change begins: in the heart; otherwise, we will have nothing more than mere external reformation (e.f., Matt. 23: 27-28). Gratitude is allied to love which is supernaturally produced (Gal. 5: 22) and aroused/evoked in us by the sense of God’s loving us first (Rom. 5:5; I John 4:19). And love is the root of which obedience is the fruit. Nevertheless, although love and gratitude towards God by reminding ourselves of God’s mercies (Ps. 103:1-5). We have here once again the mystery of sovereign- monergistic- grace and human responsibility.
If change begins with supernaturally produced love and gratitude in the heart, which we nevertheless are responsible to stir up again and again, it follows that we must guard against that which kills our sense of gratitude towards God, namely, bitterness because it tends to magnify our pain and our sense of being injured by God, it drags the pain of the past into our present, and it blinds us to the mercies of God which are greater than all our miseries. Beware of bitterness because it is in essence unbelief, unbelief in the goodness of God. And if we do not believe that God is good (on the emotional and not only on the intellectual level), we will not love God; and if we will not love God we will love the world instead. For the heart was made to love; it cannot help loving. And if it will not love the true God, it will love other gods instead (I John 2:15-17). Bitterness is a prelude to backsliding.
Paul stirs up their sense of gratitude because that’s where true change begins: in the heart; otherwise, we will have nothing more than mere external reformation (e.f., Matt. 23: 27-28). Gratitude is allied to love which is supernaturally produced (Gal. 5: 22) and aroused/evoked in us by the sense of God’s loving us first (Rom. 5:5; I John 4:19). And love is the root of which obedience is the fruit. Nevertheless, although love and gratitude towards God by reminding ourselves of God’s mercies (Ps. 103:1-5). We have here once again the mystery of sovereign- monergistic- grace and human responsibility.
If change begins with supernaturally produced love and gratitude in the heart, which we nevertheless are responsible to stir up again and again, it follows that we must guard against that which kills our sense of gratitude towards God, namely, bitterness because it tends to magnify our pain and our sense of being injured by God, it drags the pain of the past into our present, and it blinds us to the mercies of God which are greater than all our miseries. Beware of bitterness because it is in essence unbelief, unbelief in the goodness of God. And if we do not believe that God is good (on the emotional and not only on the intellectual level), we will not love God; and if we will not love God we will love the world instead. For the heart was made to love; it cannot help loving. And if it will not love the true God, it will love other gods instead (I John 2:15-17). Bitterness is a prelude to backsliding.
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