Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 44:2 (NA 1993)
Article: Worship And Ethics In Romans 12
Author: David Peterson

TynBul 44:2 (1993) p. 271

Worship And Ethics In Romans 12

David Peterson

Summary

What is the link between worship and ethics in Romans 12? Käsemann rather too easily proposes that the mystical tradition of Hellenism is the main inspiration for Paul’s thinking and ignores the biblical theological background to Paul’s argument and the wider context of Romans. The first two verses of Romans 12 proclaim a reversal of the downward spiral depicted in Romans 1. A new kind of service to God is made possible by the saving work of Jesus. Renewal of the mind is a critical aspect of this, enabling Christians to discern the will of God and do it. Paul does not present a system of casuistry in the rest of Romans but various exhorations and examples consistent with the fundamental perspectives of 12:1-2.

Ernst Käsemann’s brief essay ‘Worship and Everyday Life. A Note on Romans 12’ was first published in 1960.1 With characteristic flair, he set out to demonstrate that in Romans 12 a new stage in Christian ethics is introduced. By ‘ethic’ he meant ‘a system of morality developing logically out of a single nucleus’.2 Everything in the passage is oriented around the theme of worship, which is introduced in the opening verse:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercies, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your understanding worship. (Rom. 12:1, my translation)

What Käsemann calls ‘spiritual worship’ (τὴν λογικὴν λατρείαν) embraces ‘the total action both of the individual Christian and the Christian community and sets the paraenesis within a firm theological framework’.3 With such an argument, Paul shows us what it means to live under the righteousness of God. The exhortations that follow in Romans 12-15 are ‘pointers towards

TynBul 44:2 (1993) p. 272

the worship which at that time was necessarily something new, which had to be recognized as such and then practised’.

Sacred times and places are superseded by the eschatological public activity of those who at all times and in all places stand ‘before the face of Christ’ ...