Thurs.’s Devo - The Fulfillment

Read: Romans 11-13
Paul asks the question, Has God done away with his people? His answer is a resounding, No. God always has a remnant. When Baal worship had taken over the land, God had 7,000 of his prophets hidden away. Even now and even in the time of Paul there was a remnant of Jewish believers. God has given the Jews a spirit of blindness that they can’t see the truth, but there are always those seekers who break out and see. The Jews are the first fruit and when they become holy, the whole plant will be holy. We are the wild olive branch that have been grafted in. Olives produce oil which stands for the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So we, that have the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God have been grafted in to the true branch of God at the place where the wild and unbelieving Jews were broken off. But the root is Jewish. If we want to abide in the olive tree then we have to humbly walk with God, not judging the unbelievers. If we don’t continue in his goodness we will be cut off. (He is talking to the Gentile nation, not the individual.)
In Chapter 12, Paul talks about the gifts of prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhorting, giving and administration. Paul always follows up teaching on the gifts with a call to love. First Corinthians 12 is all about the gifts and First Corinthians 13 is all about love. Paul sums it up in verse 21 by saying, “overcome evil with good.”
In the last chapter, Paul gives us the hierarchy. God is the only power and everyone under him is subject to him. We don’t have to fear rulers over us if we are obeying the law because our leaders are subject to God. We have to trust God not the leader.
Paul establishes that we are to obey God above all else. In this he is showing how we obey the first few commandments. Then, he teaches that to love our neighbor as ourself takes care of the other commandments. To love God and our neighbor is to fulfill the law. Jesus was the fulfillment of the law and he said the same thing.
Lord held us to put on Jesus and not give any forethought for our flesh.