Preface
During Lent of 2019, I attended a series of classes at St. Paul’s Church (Wallingford) introducing “The Way of Love.”1 Introduced by the Episcopal Church, the Way of Love returns to a set of seven habits to adopt as guideposts in our spiritual journey. Each is a step that gets repeated in various cycles throughout our life. The seven verbs are:
Turn
Learn
Pray
Worship
Bless
Go
Rest
After some contemplation, it was apparent for me to turn back to a more dedicated and consistent relationship with God. Lacking in my life was an in-depth discipline of Bible Study. Reading, contemplating, meditating, and praying over Scripture would be the change needed to return to a more active engagement filled with learning and praying.
Past attempts in a daily mediation involved following the Episcopal lectionary whenever I devoted some time to regular worship. These times would occur once a week, or when I was more devote, three or four times a week. There were periods when personal worship happened with regular attendance to church. There were other periods were I found myself disengaged to church. My efforts left many gaps and alarming those included stretches of several months and in other times years.
If I was going to adopt a new way of discipleship, it would have to include a more in-depth and serious approach to Scripture. Always better studying a book in its entirety, I searched for a starting point.
I began by updating my cherished Revised Standard Version Bible, preserved for 35 years in a red leather case. I had started my Christian education in high school with the Good News Bible, which still holds a special place in my heart. Once I became more serious, I graduated to the RSV and and fell in love with the translation. During college fellowship, the Bible of the day was the NIV, which sustained me for 20 years.
My return to the Episcopal church, after fifteen years worshiping with the Congregational Church, prodded me to consider a return to a more scholarly Bible, a new HarperCollins Study Bible edition of the New Revised Standard Version. I upgraded to a black leather cover.
The question then was which book? I wasn’t interested in a gospel or historical events. My desire was to dive deep into “big questions.” In a small revelation, I knew I had to tackle Romans. Having only skimmed the periphery of the text, knowing the passages condemnation of homosexual acts was an impediment, I never read the epistle in any depth. I knew the book had transformed Martin Luther’s life and was a catalyst to the creation of Protestantism.
My method was scholarly. I began reading small sections of each chapter more regularly, forcing myself to find passages that resonated with me. These were highlighted. I read two commentaries,Reading on Romans by John Stott and ??, as guides and theological starting point.
After eight chapters, the idea of creating a truncated version of the Epistle interested me. I started this document. I reread the highlighted passages, cross referenced passages, and mediated on the meaning. Here is the point I usually got stuck.
The writing was often the downfall of previous attempts. To whom was I writing? What voice should I use? Should I write in complete sentences or personal abbreviations? Using a journal approach seemed impersonal and lacked the in-depth learning I yearned. I knew any study without accompanying thoughts would be wasted time and lack the learning component I wanted to achieve.
After some experimentation, I experimented with the idea of writing my own commentary. I found the process of writing fully engaging. I would write to an unknown reader as if my thoughts would be published. Instead of immediately checking my email in the morning, I dedicated fifteen minutes, or more, to writing. Passages with my commentary stuck with me during the day and I would often return to edit my first draft later in the evening, sometimes working far too long into the early morning hours. If other scripture came to mind as I wrote, it is quoted with a citation.
The true breakthrough occurred when I engaged my audience with stories or accounts from my life. This made the exercise real and at times left me with a sense of nakedness or self awareness. After working through the time commitment, I found myself enjoying, even anticipating, time I could return to my commentary.
At some point, I decided that I should share chapters with other clergy and scholars just to confirm my Biblical conclusions. I wanted to make sure that everything outlines was within the mainstream2 understanding and not heretical.
One interesting side effect was mental weariness. If I worked too long on a passage, I became tired and sometimes it began a slight headache. After some practice, 45 minutes became the optimal time to spend on one section or even a subsection.
As an aside, I learned the LaTeX language to typeset this document. Laying out the actual Biblical text with commentary was helpful to my understanding of the work. The section headers come from the nrsv. The subsections are my own. I decided to use the red letter convention for quotes attributed to Jesus directly. Some passages are “famous” and warranted elevation. They are presented in blue. Troublesome or passages with a historical bias are in magenta. Alternative text in orange. Text in the daily office that spoke to me during the service are in yellow highlight. Verses worth memorizing are noted with a .
I consider this commentary in perpetual status. Similar to true silver, it needs polish every so often. The goal is to add, revise, and reflect in future years and possibly make revision volumes as the journey continues forward.
Andrew J. Speyer
Summer/fall 2019
There are a few expectations where I have transformed actually Scripture due to conviction and belief. Romans 1:26-27 is one such example.↩︎
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