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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Romans background

I thought I'd share these facts behind the book of Romans :)... That is another blessing from staying in one passage for several weeks, you can study the book in small bits and pieces, while still having it fresh in your mind :)! Most of these won't be new at all to most people, but I like having things all together in one place, haha :).

Paul was the author of Romans, so called because it was to the Christians in Rome ("Paul... To all those in Rome", 1:1&7), to the believers at the church in Rome.
The letter was dictated to Tertius to be written ("I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.", Romans 16:22).
It was sent by the hand of Phoebe ("I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,  that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well." Romans 16:1,2).
It was probably written in about A.D. 57.
Paul was writing from Corinth.

Also, this verse confused me for a while:
"Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." (Romans 1:32)
Why would it be "more" of a sin (although there is no such thing as a small sin, as Romans itself  has already pointed out!) to give approval to someone who sins than to sin yourself? I was reading Matthew Henry's commentary on the bible, and and I love how he put his explanation for this verse:
"The violence of some present temptation may hurry a man into the commission of such sins himself in which the vitiated appetite may take a pleasure; but to be pleased with other people's sins is to love sin for sin's sake: it is joining in a confederacy for the devil's kingdom and interest."

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