PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

If you grieve your brother or sister on account of food, you are no longer walking in
love [ἀγάπην]. (14:15)
Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ welcomed you for the glory of God.
(15:7)
Thus there is a movement from the ethics of the corporeal body to that of the corporate body.
However, there is not an equivalence of emphasis between each issue at each point. When
Paul is focusing negatively on sin or idolatry (as in chapter 1), he emphasises the impurity
associated with individual bodies; when he is focusing positively on sanctification (such as
from chapter 12), he emphasises interpersonal love within the body of Christ. The “downward
spiral” of Romans 1 is introduced with the theme of passionately-pursued bodily impurity, and
expanded in terms of sexual decadence before it is briefly extended to issues of relational
dissension; whereas it is the relational issues that come to prominence in the positive ethical
material beginning in chapter 12, rather than the former issues. Apart from the plural “bodies”
(12:1), with its obvious allusion to 1:24-27, 6:12-13, 6:19 and 8:10-13, this major positive
ethical section focuses on issues of relationship, selflessness, and love – extending through to
chapter 15. To over-simplify, Paul envisages a bodily movement from personal impurity to
mutual love.
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