{"id":1589,"date":"2010-03-16T20:24:04","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T02:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1589"},"modified":"2010-03-16T20:24:04","modified_gmt":"2010-03-17T02:24:04","slug":"romans-613-stand-beside-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-613-stand-beside-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 6:13 – Stand Beside God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 6:13<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And do not present your members <\/span>as<\/span><\/em> instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members <\/span>as<\/span><\/em> instruments of righteousness to God.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

<\/span>We have a choice to use bodies as weapons of unrighteousness or as weapons of righteousness.<\/p>\n

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

The word \u201cpresent<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word paristan\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which literally means \u201cto stand alongside.\u201d The image is of a leader who is challenging his people to step forward and stand beside him. Standing alongside is a sign of unity with the leader and a sign of submission to the leader.<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cmembers<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word mel\u0113<\/span><\/em>, which literally means \u201cthe limbs or other parts of the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cInstruments<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word hoplon<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201can implement or a tool.\u201d It is often applied to an implement of war such as armor or an offensive weapon.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cdead<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek nekros<\/span><\/em>, which refers to a dead body. The interesting thing is that it is expressed here as a plural, so it should probably be translated as \u201cdead ones.\u201d Throughout this chapter Paul uses this word as a plural noun.<\/p>\n

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

When we submit ourselves to our own lusts we are yielding ourselves to them and they become our masters. That\u2019s what Paul is telling us NOT to do. In the second half of the verse, He tells what we should do.<\/p>\n

When Paul uses the word \u201cmembers,\u201d he could be talking about members of our physical body or members of the body of Christ, that is, the church. Based on the context it\u2019s obvious that he is referring to the members of our bodies. However, this does not simply mean the physical parts. It includes the emotional and psychological parts as well. Paul is telling us that we should not yield even part of ourselves, physical or otherwise, to the control of our lusts. When we yield a part of ourselves to our lusts, that part is then used as a weapon of unrighteousness, causing us to sin.<\/p>\n

When he tells us that we should not \u201cpresent\u201d the members of our body, he is telling us that we should not \u201cstand beside\u201d or \u201cjoin in with\u201d our lusts, not even with part of our being. When we do, that part of us which is surrendered is used as a weapon against us driving us further into sin.<\/p>\n

Instead, Paul commands us to stand beside God, as if we were already alive from among the dead ones (which, spiritually we are). Then we are to yield our members as weapons, or tools, of righteousness. When we are fully yielded (submitted) to Him, we will not succumb to our lusts, and God can use us for acts of righteousness and as witnesses for Himself.<\/p>\n

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

Because of our sin nature (our old man), we will never be able to live without sin, but that doesn\u2019t mean that we have to remain in sin and continue our sinful habits. We have a choice to allow our desires to control us or to exercise control over them. <\/span>It all comes down to this. Who are you submitted to, your selfish desires or God\u2019s will?<\/p>\n

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

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

Copyright \u00a9 2010 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

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Truth to Learn We have a choice to use bodies as weapons of unrighteousness or as weapons of righteousness. Behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":[117,118,136,748,749,750,751,752,753,754],"class_list":["post-1589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alive","tag-dead","tag-god","tag-hoplon","tag-instruments","tag-mele","tag-members","tag-nekros","tag-paristano","tag-present"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-pD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}