Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 12:11

"in diligence not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;" — Romans 12:11 (ASV)

In business.—Rather, in zeal; the reference is to the spiritual and not to the practical life, as the English reader might suppose.

Fervent.—In the literal and etymological sense boiling or seething. The temperament of the Christian is compared to water bubbling and boiling over the flame.

In spirit—i.e., not “in the Holy Spirit,” but “in that part of you which is spirit.”

Serving the Lord.—Some of the extant Græco-Latin codices, and others known to Origen and Jerome, read here by a slight change of vowels “serving the time”; no doubt wrongly, though the expression might be compared with 1 Corinthians 7:29; Ephesians 5:16, et al.