Romans 12:11

Then when he says, in carefulness, he shows the qualities surrounding charity's love of God. First, he starts with reason's attentiveness when he says: in carefulness, not slothful, when it is a question of worshiping God: he has shown you, O man, what is good; …

This is an argument most sweetly cogent. There is the mercy that is in God and the mercy that is from God--mercy in the spring and mercy in the streams: both are included here; but especially gospel-mercies (mentioned ch. ix. ), the transferring of what the Jews forfeited and lost by their unbelief unto us Gentiles ( Eph. iii.

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Not slothful in business,....

(5.) Continuing instant in prayer. Prayer is a friend to hope and patience, and we do in it serve the Lord. It signifies both fervency and perseverance in prayer.

Not slothful - The word rendered “slothful” refers to those who are slow, idle, destitute of promptness of mind and activity; compare Mat 25:16. In business - τῇ σπουδῇ tē spoudē. This is the same word which in Rom 12:8 is rendered “diligence.” It properly denotes haste, intensity, ardor of mind; and hence, also it denotes industry, labor. The direction means that we should be diligently occupied in our proper employment.

Another reading--"serving the time," or "the occasion"--which differs in form but very slightly from the received reading, has been adopted by good critics [LUTHER, OLSHAUSEN, FRITZSCHE, MEYER]. But as manuscript authority is decidedly against it, so is internal evidence; and comparatively few favor it. Nor is the sense which it yields a very Christian one.

THE harmony of Scripture is admirable. Everything is proportionate and balanced. He who weighed the mountains in scales has had a clear eye to the adjustment of truth in His Word. Within these pages you find a sufficiency of doctrine, for it is the basis of practice. You read abundance of promise, for it is the support of perseverance. But, you meet, also, with frequency of precept, for it is the spur and guide of holiness. We could not afford to dispense with a verse of Holy Writ.

THE harmony of Scripture is admirable. Everything is proportionate and balanced. He who weighed the mountains in scales has had a clear eye to the adjustment of truth in His Word. Within these pages you find a sufficiency of doctrine, for it is the basis of practice. You read abundance of promise, for it is the support of perseverance. But, you meet, also, with frequency of precept, for it is the spur and guide of holiness. We could not afford to dispense with a verse of Holy Writ. The removal of a single text, like the erasure of a line of a great epic, would mar the completeness and connection of the whole. As well pluck a gem from the high priest's breastplate as erase a line of Revelation. Absolutely perfect are the proportions of inspired Truth and it is noteworthy that practical Truth has the greatest prominence. It has been remarked by an able Divine that for every exhortation that we have in the New Testament to pray, we have five commands either to work or to give. While the doctrinal part of Scripture is exceedingly full, the practical part is not one whit less copious, and, indeed, the proportion which, in Christ's ministry, was given to instruction in practical godliness is vastly larger than the share allotted to it in most modern ministries. God has given to us in Scripture something concerning every necessary thing, but most of all upon the most necessary, namely, holy living. As the Lord distributes, so must we receive. We are not to neglect the knowledge of the Doctrines of Grace. We are diligently to feed upon the promises, but we are also, with affection and reverence, to regard the precepts. In the verse before us, this same harmony is noteworthy.

Not slothful in business - That God, who forbade working on the seventh day, has, by the same authority, enjoined it on the other six days. He who neglects to labor during the week is as culpable as he is who works on the Sabbath. An idle, slothful person can never be a Christian. Fervent in spirit - Τῳ πνευματι ζεοντες· Do nothing at any time but what is to the glory of God, and do every thing as unto him; and in every thing let your hearts be engaged. Be always in earnest, and let your heart ever accompany your hand. Serving the Lord - Ever considering that his eye is upon you, and that you are accountable to him for all that you do, and that you should do every thing so as to please him. In order to this there must be simplicity in the Intention, and purity in the Affections. Instead of τῳ Κυριῳ δουλευοντες, serving the Lord, several MSS., as DFG, and many editions, have τῳ καιρῳ δουλευοντες, serving the time - embracing the opportunity. This reading Griesbach has received into the text, and most critics contend for its authenticity. Except the Codes Claromontanus, the Codex Augiensis, and the Codex Boernerianus, the first a MS. of the seventh or eighth century, the others of the ninth or tenth, marked in Griesbach by the letters DFG, all the other MSS. of this epistle have Κυριῳ, the Lord; a reading in which all the versions concur. Καιρῳ, the time, is not found in the two original editions; that of Complutum, in 1514, which is the first edition of the Greek Testament ever printed; and that of Erasmus, in 1516, which is the first edition published; the former having been suppressed for several years after it was finished at the press. As in the ancient MSS. […]

Rowlandson and Gilray did not fight merely because they were naturally pothouse pugilists; they fought because they had something to fight about. It is easy enough to be refined about things that do not matter; but men kicked and plunged a little in that portentous …

The curse of the Nonconformists is their universal refinement. They dimly connect being good with being delicate, and even dapper; with not being grotesque or loud or violent; with not sitting down on one's hat. Now it is always a pleasure to be loud and …