When Paul and Silas brought the gospel to the Jews in Berea, “they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). The Bereans examined the Scriptures daily to know whether Jesus was indeed the Christ.

As you pray today, praise God for His holy and righteous wrath against evil and for His goodness in delivering you from His wrath. Believing on Christ, you can know that He died on the cross as an acceptable sacrifice for your sins. In our justification, He has given us His righteousness—even we who once suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. Let

“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.” Bondservant is an improvement, but I think the proper translation should read, “Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.” The Greek word that Paul uses here is doulos. A doulos was not a hired servant who could come and go as he pleased. A doulos was a person who had been purchased, and once purchased he became his master’s

Sigmund Freud asked why it is that people are so incurably religious. He claimed that we have invented God to deal with things in nature that we find frightening. This is where Freud missed the point. If people are going to invent religion to protect them from the fear of nature, why would they invent a god who is more terrifying than nature itself

What truth is being suppressed? Paul tells us: because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them (v. 19). The truth that every human being suppresses is the truth of God, what God reveals of Himself in nature to the whole human race.

What are you called to be? To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints (v. 7a). That is your vocation.

In Old Testament times, the Jews greeted one another the same way they do today: Shalom aleichem, “Peace be unto you.” The response to the greeting was Aleichem shalom, “Peace also to you.”

Paul moves quickly from his own call as an Apostle to the call shared by every Christian in the church at Rome and by every Christian in every church in every age. The Bible calls them elect, “the called-out ones.”

The word for saint in the New Testament is the word that means “sanctified one,” one who has been set apart by the Holy Spirit and called inwardly by Christ to Himself.