{"id":1078,"date":"2009-07-19T19:48:03","date_gmt":"2009-07-20T01:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2009-07-19T19:48:03","modified_gmt":"2009-07-20T01:48:03","slug":"romans-18-world-renowned-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-18-world-renowned-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 1:8 – World Renowned Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Romans 1:8<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Living as a Christian in the midst of paganism takes faith.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The word \u201cfirst<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek pr\u014dton men<\/span><\/em>. The word pr\u014dton<\/span><\/em> is an adverbial form of a word that means \u201cforemost in time, place, order, or importance.\u201d So we might easily interpret this as \u201cof primary importance.\u201d However, the word following pr\u014dton<\/span><\/em> is men<\/span><\/em>, which is often translated as \u201con the one hand\u201d and is usually followed by a secondary clause indicated by the Greek word de<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201con the other hand.\u201d The use of men<\/span><\/em> with the word proton<\/span><\/em> indicates that Paul means to say \u201cBefore I say anything else, I thank God for your faith.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cspoken of<\/span>\u201d is katangell\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which is composed of kata<\/span><\/em>, used as an intensifier, and angell\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto declare a message.\u201d Put together the word means \u201cto proclaim loudly or to announce with celebration.\u201d It\u2019s not something that is just casually mentioned, but proclaimed!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Having completed the salutary portion of this epistle to the Christians in Rome, Paul now says a prayer of thanksgiving for them. He is thankful to God, through Jesus Christ, that the faith of the Roman Christians is a world renowned faith. Imagine that, a group of people with such a strong faith that it has been celebrated through the known world. Now that\u2019s a witness!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Notice that it is God (the Father) that Paul prays to through Jesus (the Son). Paul does not pray to<\/strong> Jesus, but through<\/strong> Jesus. The Greek text is very clear that Paul is thankful to God through Jesus Christ. In the book of Matthew, when Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray, he instructed them:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father<\/strong> in Heaven, Hallowed be Your name. (<\/span><\/span><\/span>Matthew 6:9<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span>)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We know that God listens to the heart, not to the words. But when someone begins their prayer with \u201cDear Jesus,\u201d I suspect their intentions are good, but they are misinformed or uninformed. We are to pray to the Father, not the Son. There is a distinct order set-up within the Godhead with the Son willingly submitting himself to the Father and the Spirit willing submitting Himself to both the Father and the Son. It serves as an example to us of how we are to submit to authorities both within the church and in civil government. Therefore, though the Father and Jesus are equal, God has set-up a specific order. We should be directing our prayers to God the Father in the name of Jesus (with His authority) or, as Paul says it, through Jesus.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The primary subject of Paul\u2019s prayer here is the faith of the Roman Christians. What we often overlook is that the Christians in Rome were living in one of the most pagan, Christian-hating societies that ever existed. To live a life of Christian faith in the midst of that society took a lot of faith.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The world we live in today is becoming more and more like first century Rome every day. Everywhere we look we see signs of pagan humanism and a bias against true Christianity. To live in a world like this, submitted to the one true God, takes faith and not just a little bit. How strong is your faith?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world. Truth to Learn Living as a Christian in the midst of paganism takes faith. Behind the Words The word \u201cfirst\u201d is translated from the Greek pr\u014dton men. The word pr\u014dton is an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[204,415,416],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-faith","tag-prayer","tag-renowned-faith"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-ho","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}