Ver. 36. ὅτι ἐξ αὐτοῦ κ.τ.λ. Strictly speaking, the ὅτι confirms the last truth —man’s absolute dependence on God— by making it part ofa wider generalisation. ἐξ αὐτοῦ: from Him, as their source ; δι αὐτοῦ: through Him, as the power by whose continuous energy the world is sustained and ruled; eis αὐτὸν : unto Him, as their goal, for whose glory they exist. A reference of any kind to the Trinity is out of the question. It is a question, however, whether τὰ πάντα means “all things” in the sense of the universe (cf. 1 Cor. viii. 6, Col. i. 16, Heb. ii. 10) or whether it is not limited by the article to all the things which have just been in contemplation, the whole marvellous action of God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge, as inter- preted by the Apostle in regard to the work of redemption (for an example of τὰ πάντα in this sense see 2 Cor. v. 18). I incline to the last view. The universe of grace, with all that goes on in it for the common salvation of Jew and Gen- tile, is of God and through God and to
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XII. τ. ΠΑΡΑΚΑΛΩ οὖν ὑμᾶς, ἀδελφοὶ, * διὰ τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν τοῦ a Ch. xv.30;
2 Cor.x. I.
Θεοῦ, παραστῆσαι τὰ σώματα ὑμῶν θυσίαν ζῶσαν, ἁγίαν, εὐάρεστον
God. To Him be the gldry which such a display of wisdom and love demands.
CHAPTER XII. The distinction of doctrinal and practical is not one that can be pressed anywhere in the N.T., and as little in Paul as in any other writer. It is under practical compulsion of some kind that he develops most of his characteristic doctrines, and he has no doctrines which do not imply a cor- responding practice. Yet the distinction does exist, and the remainder of this epistle, especially chaps. xii. 1-χν. 13, may be properly described as the prac- tical part of it. Not that it is inde- pendent of the other. On the contrary, it is nothing but the application of it. (οὖν νετ. 1.) Christian ethics are relative to the Christian revelation. It is the relations in which we stand that deter- mine our duties, and the new relations in which we are set both to God and to other men by faith in Jesus Christ have a new morality corresponding to them. There is such a thing as a Christian ethic with a range, a delicacy, a flavour, all its own. There is no formal exposi- tion of it here, though perhaps the nearest approach to such a thing that we have in the N.T., but a comprehen- sive illustration of it in a variety of bearings. Paul starts (xii. 1 f.) with a general exhortation, covering the whole Christian life. From this he proceeds to the spirit and temper which ought to characterise Christians as members of the same society, dwelling especially on the graces of humility and love (xii. 3-21). In the following chapter he discusses the duties of the individual to his legal superiors (xiii. 1-7); his duties to his neighbour, as comprehended in the love which fulfils the law (xiii. 8-10); and the urgent duty of sanctification in view of the Parousia. With chap. xiv. he comes to a different subject, and one apparently of peculiar interest in Rome at the time. It is one of those questions in which the claim of Christian liberty has to accom- modate itself to the social necessity created by the weakness of brethren, and the discussion of it extends from xiv. 1- xv. 13, and concludes the “ practical” part of the epistle.
Ver. I. παρακαλῶ οὖν: the reference ‘is to all that has been said since i. 16, but especially to what more closely pre- wedes. Cf. Eph. iv. x, τ Τπα. Π. απ, απ Cor. iv. 16. The οὖν connects the two