Letting Context Speak 

From time to time, I hope to write a few shorter posts like this that dive a little deeper into the details of the biblical text—especially places where grammar, context, or word usage opens up interesting interpretive questions. These posts probably won’t be for everyone, and that’s okay. I’m writing these because of my growing desire to set my assumptions aside and let Scripture speak as clearly and naturally as possible within its own context. I’m writing for those of you who love digging into this kind of thing like I do. My hope is simply to help us think carefully about how Scripture works and why context matters so much when we interpret God’s Word.

I’ve been studying Romans 12 recently, and one small exegetical question in verses 10–14 has fascinated me because it highlights something important about interpretation: context often carries more weight than we initially realize.

Most interpreters understand Romans 12:14 (“Bless those who persecute you”[1]) as referring primarily to persecution from unbelievers. That is certainly a legitimate application of the verse, especially given Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5 and Luke 6. But as I worked through the flow of Romans 12:9–21, I became increasingly convinced that Paul may still primarily be speaking about relationships within the church itself.

Here’s why: when Romans 12:9–21 is read as a unified argument rather than a loose collection of disconnected moral sayings, the relational flow becomes decidedly cohesive. Paul repeatedly describes concrete expressions of life within the body of Christ.

Verses 10–13 are unmistakably intra-church:

• loving one another

• honoring one another

• contributing to the needs of the saints

• pursuing hospitality

Then verses 15–16 continue the same intra-church focus:

• rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep

• being “of the same mind toward one another”

In fact, verse 15 is grammatically connected to verse 16 rather than standing entirely on its own, which further strengthens the sense that Paul is still addressing life within the church community. And Paul’s “one another” language consistently refers to believers rather than humanity in general. 

That means verse 14 sits directly between two clearly intra-church sections. And while that may initially sound surprising to some readers, Paul later addresses exactly these kinds of tensions in Romans 14. Believers in the Roman church were judging one another, despising one another, and wounding one another over matters of conscience. The New Testament is painfully realistic about the fact that Christians sometimes mistreat each other.

And honestly, every mature believer knows this experientially as well. Some of the deepest wounds Christians experience come not from the world, but from fellow believers. Christians can pressure one another harshly, speak carelessly to one another, oppose one another, and “pursue” one another negatively in ways that deeply hurt the body of Christ. That does not make such behavior right—but it does make an intra-church reading of Romans 12:14 far more contextually and pastorally plausible than is often acknowledged.

So that is the contextual and relational flow of the passage. But there is more going on here than that. There is also a lexical connection that I think deserves careful attention. In verse 13, believers are to be “pursuing” (διώκοντες, diōkontes) hospitality. In verse 14, believers are to bless those who “persecute/pursue” them (διώκοντας, diōkontas). Same verb root. Same immediate context. One positive, one negative.

Now, to be clear, when Paul uses διώκω (diōkō) negatively elsewhere, it very often refers to hostile persecution. I fully understand why interpreters instinctively read verse 14 that way. But words function within semantic ranges, and context determines how those ranges are activated. The immediate context here strongly suggests that Paul intentionally uses this same word—used to speak of positive pursuit in verse 13—to describe negative pursuit in verse 14: the painful relational realities within the church, where believers can “pursue” or mistreat one another in deeply hurtful ways. 

What made this especially interesting to me is that many commentators use a very similar interpretive move only a few verses earlier in Romans 12:10b, where we read, “τῇ τιμῇ ἀλλήλους προηγούμενοι” (tē timē allēlous proēgoumenoi). Many translations render this something like, “outdo one another in showing honor,” or “give preference to one another in honor.”

But the Greek there is not nearly as straightforward as many readers realize. As Frank Thielman notes regarding Romans 12:10b, “Interpreters of Romans have often understood the verb ‘lead … forth’ (προηγέομαι, proēgeomai) to mean ‘esteem … more highly’ …” even though “the meaning ‘esteem’ … is not attested for the verb” itself.[2]

In other words, they allow contextual flow to shape lexical nuance. And rightly so. That is simply good grammatical-historical interpretation. Context matters. Immediate discourse matters. Relational flow matters.

And again, to be clear, I am not arguing that Romans 12:14 cannot apply to hostile unbelievers. Of course it can, and Paul clearly broadens outward into enemy-love and non-retaliation later in verses 17–21. Nor am I claiming certainty that all commentators have missed something obvious. But I do think we should begin with the immediate context surrounding a verse or word before importing other teaching or doctrine into it, however true or appropriate those applications may be. The local contextual case for an intra-church emphasis in verse 14 is stronger than is often acknowledged and, at minimum, deserves more careful consideration. 

And honestly, this little discussion serves as a helpful reminder of something larger: interpretation is rarely about isolated word studies alone. Words live inside arguments. They live inside discourse. And sometimes the immediate context right in front of us deserves more interpretive weight than the assumptions we bring into the passage.

— Pastor Rich 

[1] Scripture quotations are from the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) unless otherwise noted.

[2] Frank Thielman, Romans, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), 590.