Romans 12:11

Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

(Be) Not slothful in business, [ tee (G3588) spoudee (G4710)]. The word here rendered "business" means 'zeal,' 'diligence,' 'purpose;' denoting energy of action.

Fervent (or 'burning') in spirit. This is precisely what is said of Apollos, Acts 18:25, that he was "fervent in spirit" (the same phrase as here); of evil times to come on the Christian world our Lord predicted, that "because iniquity should abound, the love of many would wax cold" (Matthew 24:12); the glorified Head of all the churches had this against the church of Ephesus, that they had "left their first love" (Leviticus 2:4); and of the Laodicean Church He says, "I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:15). As the zeal of God's house consumed Himself, the Lord Jesus cannot abide a lukewarm spirit. A "fervent" or burning "spirit" is what He must seek in all who would be like Him.

Serving the Lord - that is, the Lord Jesus: cf. Ephesians 6:5. (It is one of the strangest facts in the textual criticism of the New Testament, that 'serving the time,' 'occasion,' 'opportunity'-a reading which, in the ancient manuscripts, would hardly differ, if at all, from the reading of our version [contracted thus: K-OO or K-R-OO, which might be intended either for kurioo (G2962) or kairoo (G2540)] - should have found its way into the Received Text, in the Stephanic form of it, though not the Elzevir text, and been adopted in Luther's version. There is, indeed, respectable manuscript authority for it. [Scrivener, in his collation of 'Aleph, says that the Greek word koo stands for kairoo (G2540), and that it is found in D * F G, two copies of the Old Latin and copies of it mentioned by Jerome and Rufinus.] But the external evidence for the reading adopted in our version is decisive [A B D ** and ***-two correctors of D, of the seventh and of the 9th or 10th centuries-E L, and nearly all the cursives; three copies of the Old Latin, the Vulgate, and nearly all versions; of the Greek fathers, Athanasius and Chrysostom].

It may be difficult to account for the introduction of the ungenuine reading; but since both words, in their contracted form, were written alike, some transcribers, or those who dictated to them, might think that this was what the apostle meant to express. Nor need we wonder at this, when we find Fritzsche, Olshausen, Meyer, and Lange still defending it. But the sense which this reading yields, if defensible at all, seems exceedingly flat in such a triplet as that of this verse; and the ground on which it is defended shows a misapprehension of the apostle's object in this clause. It is said that to exhort Christians to serve the Lord-the most general of all Christian duties-in the midst of a set of specific details, is not what the apostle would likely do. But the sense of serving the Lord here is itself specific and restricted, intended to qualify the 'diligence' and the 'fervency' of the preceding clause, requiring that "serving" or 'pleasing' the Lord should ever be present and uppermost as the ruling spirit of all else that they did as Christians-the atmosphere they were to breathe, whatever they were about. Nearly all critics agree in this; and DeWette's remark is not amiss, that the other reading savours more of worldly shrewdness than of Christian morality; adding, that while the Christian may and should avail himself of time and opportunity (Ephesians 5:16), he may not serve it.