We’re back for more altar commitments, as in, more of what life as a living sacrifice looks like. A bunch of this applies to body life; if the individual members of the body used their gifts for the body and then treated one another according to these “one anothers” in verses 9-21, we’d be built up and blessed. Paul gives us more of the Ancient Jealousable Ways, and verses 14-16 are particularly outside the world’s pattern.

These are commitments for what living sacrifices look like, but also altar perspectives, how living sacrifices look. These perspectives put our self-absorbed attitudes up on the altar to die.

For the first time we hit actual imperatives in the original text. Verse 14 alone has three of them, and there’s another one that finishes verse 16. But, as in verses 9-13, there are some secondary verbs that should be taken as modifiers, which hardly any of the typical English translations recognize. I’d propose this way of reading the passage:

Bless the ones persecuting you;
bless and do not curse. [ Seek] to rejoice with those rejoicing,
to weep with those weeping. Thinking the same toward one another,
not thinking highly,
but associating with the lowly,
do not be wise according to yourself.

We’ve considered in verses 9-13 the requirements to Love Discriminately, Honor Surpassingly, and Christian Zealously, and there are three more in these verses. There’s plenty to make your teeth hurt so good, like biting into orange juice concentrate.

Bless Transcendently (verse 14)

Don’t fake love, don’t phone in serving the Lord, be helpful to those with needs, so said verses 9-13. While that actually can be challenging enough, verse 14 takes the challenge up to another level. In fact, obedience here it requires seeing beyond the field immediately in front of you.

Bless those who persecute you;
bless and do not curse them.

To bless has obvious verbal implications. First, it’s built into the word; eulogeo is from eu meaning good/well and logeo meaning speak, so “good wording” or “speaking well,” so our word eulogy means a speech of praise. Second, it’s contrasted with cursing (and with reviling elsewhere), which is also primarily associated with words.

But blessing others in the Bible is more than a spoken formula, it includes the desire for the other person to receive good - beyond what the situation calls for. For Christians, when we bless someone else, we want God’s special favor to be given. We bless our kids, we bless our friends, we want God to give them good. Here we are commanded to bless our hostiles, “the ones persecuting you.” This is a substantival participle, characterizing the ones who harass, pressure, and attack. Bless them.

Remember that this is the first explicit command since verse 9, and it is immediately repeated and followed with a prohibition. To curse is more than to complain, though it includes that. It’s to desire the harm and/or misery of someone else, invoking supernatural power to bring about the pain. You almost always have a reason to get back at them. Be careful little mouth what you say. There’s much more about this in verses 17-21.

Since we’ve got more than Romans, I think this is encouraging:

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. (1 Peter 3:9 ESV)

It is the Christian’s calling to do the contrary than be conformed to the world’s ways so that we may obtain a blessing. That requires faith, a transcendent perspective and trust in the “faithful Creator” who works suffering for good while we’re doing good (see 1 Peter 4:19).

Jesus taught that it is no big deal to love those who love you; loving lovers is the natural, worldly way (Matthew 5:44, 46). What if the ones persecuting you are the government? What if they are a business—that you paid for—with shoddy products/service? The primary context is interpersonal, but if your reactions are as self-absorbed as the world’s, then don’t expect to obtain great blessing yourself.

Relate Sympathetically (verse 15)

There is no explicit command in verse 15, but two parallel phrases that start with infinitives. Rather than understand the command “be (something)” as in the previous verses, here something such as “seek” or “pursue” works better.

[ Seek] to rejoice with those who rejoice,
to weep with those who weep.

There are “rejoicers” and there are “weepers.” To the Corinthians Paul had them connected within the church body:

If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1 Corinthians 12:26 ESV)

In the previous verse we wouldn’t think of persecutors as being brothers in Christ, but we’re also not supposed to think the same thing as non-Christians like in the following verse. We can at least say that this verse applies to rejoicers/weepers we worship with, and yet there are ways that we can relate even to unbelievers.

It is mean to delight in another person’s loss, but it is a different challenge to celebrate with their victories. The temptations to envy are legion compared to the temptations to being aloof.

This is good, old-fashioned sympathy, shared pathos, understanding between people and having a common feeling. So compassion represents a suffering with, a concern for the pains of others. It’s mutually exclusive with self-absorbed attitudes.

There is discrimination involved. If the other person is weeping that his adultery didn’t work out, you should rejoice in that. If she is weep-cursing her neighbor, don’t have a good gripe-session. Give the benefit of the doubt, and also don’t believe everything they say, at least not right away. Don’t complain with those who complain-weep, and for that matter, don’t immediately criticize those who weep as complainers.

Don’t sing songs to a troubled heart (Proverbs 25:20), and also, don’t curse those who are trying to help, even if clumsily.

Think Accommodatingly (verse 16)

There is an explicit imperative in verse 16, but comes at the end. Three participles (the verbs ending in -ing) before it prepare the way.

Thinking the same toward one another,
not thinking highly,
but associating with the lowly,
do not be wise according to yourself.

The first phrase is turned into a command differently by some good translations: “Live in harmony with one another” (ESV) or “Be of the same mind toward one another” (NASB), but it could be “the same thing unto one another thinking.” The nuance of this word for thinking might be about carefully considering your opinion about a thing (BAGD). As it modifies the imperative coming at the end of the verse, it means that this is required, and so a kind of shared thinking is to be pursued. You can try it, make progress toward it. Harmony requires adjustments on your part.

The same participle for thinking is used in the second phrase, with a negative for being “high,” and so figuratively referring to what is haughty, proud. This is apparently a big deal to Paul, since he stated it in 12:3 too, don’t be “high-thinking.”

In contrast we (gladly) bring ourselves to be associating with the lowly. Again, we adjust ourselves. We accommodate, which has the idea of providing space or even adapting the space so that things will fit. We adapt, we get our bearings where they belong, not thinking that we are all that.

So the final imperative, Do not be thinking (self-smart) in the sight of yourself, is a play on words. Think accommodatingly not alienating-ly. Watch out when you estimate your perspective to be better than everyone else’s, when you think of yourself as the standard rather than thinking of yourself in light of the standard, and along with others. This is ancient wisdom: Do not lean on your own understanding, be not wise in your own eyes (Proverbs 3:5, 7). Those who are self-absorbed are notoriously relentless and invulnerable to insight (Edwin Friedman).

Conclusion

These altar perspectives are more of the Ancient Jealousable Ways. All these require that we life from faith to faith, living in an awareness of God’s oversight and governance. We must put our preoccupations with our own feelings, our own concerns, up on the altar to die.

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Charge

Don’t be a blessing bully. Be sure that a rejoicing brother is rejoicing in evil before you try to “bless” him by confronting his rejoicing as wrong. Likewise, there is a time to weep and a time to mourn; don’t “bless” them by demanding a dance out of season. Likewise likewise, if you can/must bless those who persecute you, then you can bless those who misunderstand what you’re going through. There is no third line (in Romans 12:15), “Be angry with those who didn’t rejoice or weep with you as they should have.” That’s not a blessing either.

Benediction:

Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:11, 14, ESV)