Accepting One Another
Opening Prayer
Lord, help me to respect all people. Help me to reach out to others.
Read Romans 15:7–13
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
I will sing the praises of your name.”
10 Again, it says,
“Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”
11 And again,
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
let all the peoples extol him.”
12 And again, Isaiah says,
“The Root of Jesse will spring up,
one who will arise to rule over the nations;
in him the Gentiles will hope.”
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psa. 133:1).
So Paul can now state the conclusion of his argument: we are to accept each
other. If it be true that Christ has accepted us with all our flaws, failings and former sins, the
logic is inescapable: we should accept each other within that community which names him as Lord. The primary divide across which the Romans’ welcoming hands were to be stretched is the deep and longstanding one between Jews and Gentiles, but these two communities enter the arena carrying all manner of religious, ethnic and cultural disagreements, so there were many subsets of difference that needed to be tolerated, forgiven and negotiated.
Paul stacks up the biblical texts to stress that although Christ was Jewish and came to the Jewish people (8), God always had the Gentiles in mind, too. The Gospel was “to the Jew first, then also to the Gentile,” as Paul declared from the beginning of this letter (Rom. 1:15; cf. Rom. 15:15,16). The Hebrew Scriptures justify this belief, and the apostle cites four texts to solidify his point beyond any doubt (9–12). This was the peculiar mission that had been assigned to Paul, which he called “my gospel” (Rom. 16:25; 2 Tim. 2:8) and which came to define the inclusive, international community that was the Christian church. We are included because we are in Christ, not for any other reason. We must welcome each other for his sake.
This does not, of course, mean that in Christ every kind of behavior can be tolerated. The church is called to holy living as well as to unity. It is not that anything goes but rather that anybody may come. When they come, they are to be welcomed, but this very welcome is in itself a powerful means by which everyone who does come can cast off “the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:12).
Apply
As God’s love has gone out to the world, so we should go out to others in love. Take time to consider how you should express this in action.
Closing prayer
Lord, we thank You that Your love is so all-encompassing that You had Gentiles on the drawing board from the beginning in a grand design that puts each group on equal footing.
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Encounter with God is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.