Intensity and Focus

Introduction to the message "Boiling for Christ" by John Piper based on Romans 12:11.


Romans 12:11
Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

"Now, at last, we go back to verse 11. We have been pondering verse 12 for a long time: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” I tried to show that Christ has come into the world of sin and sickness and Satan and sabotage and taken all this on himself and died to deliver us from it partly now and completely at the resurrection. This is the foundation of our hope. In this we rejoice. In this joy we endure tribulation. With this endurance we love when it is hard to love, and with this love we glorify God.

Then we posed the question: if hope is that foundational to all of Christian life, how do you waken and sustain hope? We answered: “Be constant in prayer” (Ephesians 1:18) and meditate on the Scriptures (Romans 15:4). Now we go back to verse 11, and we will find that these two strategies of spiritual warfare are foundational for this verse as well. Verse 11 says, “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit,serve the Lord.” He has already struck this note once in this chapter. Remember verse 8: “Let the one who leads, lead with zeal.” Now he says to all of us: “Don’t be slothful in zeal.”

So one way to think of the relationship between the command to rejoice and endure and pray in verse 12 and the commands in verse 11 is that verse 11 simply says: Do it all passionately. Verse 11 gives intensity and focus. The intensity is: Not slothful but fervent. And the focus is the Lord, Jesus Christ. Let it all be in service of him. "