Now that you have decided to preach on Romans 12:1-2 and read it in a number of translations and have read all of Romans, you are now redy to do what we call “delineating the passage.” This is the process of choosing where to begin and end; what are the starting verses or words/phrases and what are the ending verses or words/phrases.
Our chosen passage is Romans 12:1-2 because for whatever reason we believe to be a good text. Maybe it was assigned or maybe you are praching throught he book of Romans and it is next. Or maybe it is just a feeling or sense that God wants this to be your chosent text.
It would seem that we are done. But it is a good idea to make sure that verses 1-2 are really the best places to begin and end. Since the chapter begins with v. 1 it seems logical that it is a good beginning point. But that is not always the case. I have preached on Isaih 53 and when doing so I studied and realized that the men who originally added the verse and chapter references may have gotten that one wrong; it is not a good idea to ignore the end of chapter 52. The same could be true for Romans 11. So fire up your Bible Study program and point it to Romans 12:1. I usually back up by a whole chapter and read it. In the case of Chapter 11 it ends with what sounds like a concluding thought.
Paul says, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:36, HCSB) For future note, all quotes will be from the HCSB unless otherwise noted. Sound like an end to me. Then in Romans 12:1 it begins with the word “Therefore.” Any time you see the word “therefore” in the scriptures you need to ask what is it there for? Cute huh? I didn’t make it up and I don’t remember where I heard it first. But there is a clear transition in thought from chapter 11 to the beginning of chapter 12. But the word “therefore” links the previous with the next. But what? If you do some study you will find that most scholars see Paul’s transition from the theoretical and theological to the practical at this point. It is a kind of fulcrum. If you are studying a different passage you may have to do some studying at this point to make sure you see what you are dealing with. But looking at the verses before our passage it seems quite clear that we have a clear transition meaning a new starting point. That leads us to be quite certain that Romans 12:1 is a good starting point for our text delineation.
Next time we will discuss whether or not to end with v. 2 or not.
