Classic Christianity – Book of Romans P56 (03-17-20)
Synopsis
Romans 13:8 summarizes for us this continual need of love in our hearts. So many people mistake the gospel that saves as the gospel of love, as if by your ability to love, to love God and your neighbor as yourself, is something you do so you become like Christ in order to be saved. That is not the gospel. Love is a fruit of the Spirit, something we never had and could never produce apart from the the Spirit of God. Without the Spirit of God living in us, we do not have anything. But when you are born again, the Spirit of God is placed in you, and by abiding in Him, you allow the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), love being one characteristic, to be produced in you and through you.
So among the Jews and the Gentiles, God formed a new body, the Ekklesia, the body of Christ, made up of both the born again Jew and the born again Gentile. As these born again people are being renewed in their minds, they learn to live in harmony with one another. When you believed in Christ Jesus, received Him by faith, you were given the right to become children of God. As children of God, you are growing in maturity. Maturity comes as you allow the truth of God’s word to renew your minds and transform your life so you walk in the newness of life.
The Jews, like so many today, were using the law as a means to obtain righteousness. They were steeped in religion and were accustomed to all kinds of traditions or sacraments they deemed as necessary for the Christian life. The Gentiles had no such background and were essentially left to themselves to do whatever they desired to do, and that was heathenistic, idolatrous living. There was a conflict that was created between the two groups. Both came to Christ the same way, by faith alone in what Christ alone did, and were born again. The Jews had to learn that all foods are kosher and to stop telling the Gentiles what to do and the Gentiles had to learn to not flaunt their freedom in Christ to those with weak faith. They both had to learn the way of love, to understand the Spirit. Love is the way of the Spirit of life in Christ and not the letter of the law that kills. Love is the fulfillment of the law.
So we are to walk in love, and this is by abiding in Christ (John 15). You are allowing Christ Jesus to live His life in you and through you. You are to be internally led by the Spirit of God, who lives in you, who is your counselor, to counsel you, to teach you truth, to renew attitudes of the heart. You have no need of someone to teach you because the Spirit of God is your teacher. Those whom God raises up to be teachers are those who teach people to trust Jesus, who are to teach out of that which the Spirit has taught them. But the Spirit is your teacher, and ultimately, truth is only revealed by the Spirit of God. We test all things by the Spirit of God and His word. That is why Paul commended the Bereans for diligently studying the scriptures to test and see if what any man says is so.
So now we are equipped to grow, with the Holy Spirit living in us. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness. We have the privilege to participate in the divine nature so we can walk in the new life God has given. So when we understand we are a part of the body of Christ, this has practical implications on how we live. How do you respond to someone who has insulted you, who did you wrong? If Christ Jesus forgave you, then who am I not to forgive you. Are my standards higher than Jesus? If they are not higher than Jesus, then there should be forgiveness. Why should I judge my brother for whom Christ died and rose again? If someone is a member of the body of Christ, how do I treat my own body? Why would I cut off my mouth because I do not like the food it chooses to eat or not eat? We are the body of Christ, a born again Jew and a born again Gentile. Why would a Jew cut off the Gentile, or vice versa, who are both members of the same body of Christ? How would the body function without a mouth? Praise God for the born again Jew who brought the gospel to the Gentile world. Each part is dependent on the other and serves a unique purpose, and Christ is the head of the body. Christ is the one who directs the body.
Yet so many grow up in churches today that teach error. This hinders the body of Christ in growing as God intended. Who is directing the body, the pastor or the Holy Spirit? What demands are put on the body of Christ that God does not even put on you? Are you taught to come to Christ for life? That is great, and praise God for that, and there are those who teach that correctly. But then in regards to discipleship, you are improperly instructed to gut it out for Jesus. What about being taught what it means to be led internally by the Spirit of God? Then there are many who teach you must tithe the first ten percent of your income to God. Is that true? Where would you find that in the word of God? Is that not teaching the letter of the law and not the Spirit of the law? Are we even under law today? Many will point you to Malachi, but have not understood the Spirit of the law or the New Covenant we are now under, which is explained in the book of Hebrews. When people quote scripture, they often only quote one verse without its context to twist the scripture to mean something other than what it means. If you were to read the entire book of Malachi, what would you discern as truth? Are you a descendant of Jacob? No. Then it is not written to you, is it? Read the epistles of Paul to learn about New Testament giving, letting the Spirit lead you, in accordance with what you do have and not with what you do not have, cheerfully and willingly and not under compulsion.
The issue is that people are taught things from their culture and upbringing, and bring into their Christian life things that they had been taught. Unless those things are true, people often continue in error, generation after generation. This also creates conflicts in the body of Christ, where one member of the body looks down on another and there is not grace extended to those with weak faith. Weak faith is faith that is misplaced on what you do rather than on what Christ has done. This growth in truth takes time, and by not allowing the Holy Spirit to live in you, to produce that patience, long-suffering, loving kindness and love, in and through you, you destroy the faith of those who are weak. And by not getting into God’s word, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach you, you remain a mere infant in Christ, and do not grow as God intended. That is why the apostle Paul said this.
1 Thessalonians 2:8
8 Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.
Romans 14:19
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
Ephesians 4:15
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
God not only loves you but accepts you. He loves you enough so that you do not remain crippled in sin, but He accepts you where you are, a child of God. He knows your every weakness and that is okay for now. For He lives in you to will and to act according to His good purposes. Little by little you will change, and as you learn to trust Him, to abide in Him, your life will be changed. In this world, we will all fall short, we will all struggle with the desires of the flesh that are in conflict with the Spirit, who lives in us. That is why flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. One day we shall see him. We will be given transformed bodies, immortal bodies suitable for heaven, and will be with Him. We shall one day be changed in a twinkling of an eye for we shall see Him as He really is. So we have this hope in us, and this hope does not disappoint.
So faith, hope and love, a triplicate are all interconnected, and in all things, all glory, honor and praise belongs to Him. We long to depart from this world but we must remain for whatever purpose God has for us, for others benefit in the faith. So let us encourage one another daily, and all the more as you see the time approaching. So let us encourage one another daily so that no one is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Let us do things that lead to peace and mutual edification.
When we understand what sin really is, that anything that does not come from faith is sin, we are more aware of our shortcomings, so we have this humility about us, this gratitude of heart for what Christ has done for us, that we can come to others who have been caught up in sin, and come in an attitude of humility and love to restore him gently. Then we understand that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. We come to understand the Spirit of the law, the law of life in Christ Jesus. This effects the way we live, in total dependence on the one who died for us and gave His resurrected life to us. We come to understand that Christ Jesus really is our life, and apart from Him we can truly do nothing.
The gratitude that wells up in our heart is amazing, beyond words, and God is worthy of all praise. These attitudes of pride, to think more highly of myself than I ought, is cast aside for something better. How hard it is to give up something you know is wrong or sinful when you do not know where to go to replace it with something. That is why Jesus said when a demon is cast out of someone, and the person is left empty, then the evil spirit gathers seven more and comes back to the man, and the man is now in a worse condition than he was before. We are in continual need of the Spirit of God. As a child of God, born again, we have the Spirit of God permanently living in us, who will never leave us or forsake us. There is a continual debt to love one another. God is love, and love must come from God, and we, who are in Christ, have this perfect love living in us, and we can choose to let His love be produced in us and through us.
Romans 13:8
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.
Transcript
Let us first turn to the 13th chapter of Romans, and recall this matter of what really matters, love.
Romans 13:8
8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.
So again, guys, we see that what Jesus came to teach, and this all reflects in regard to the contrast between the Jewish and the Gentile world, how that the Jewish world was the one who had the law, and they were the ones who were attempting to keep the law, but in so doing, were missing the Spirit of the law. So the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees and the religious leaders was the fact they were teaching the letter of the law but had no concept at all of what the Spirit of the law was underneath. So it was just all outward performance, exclusive of inward reality of love itself. So Jesus was saying that love is the fulfillment of the law. In essence, he said the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Galatians 5:6
6 The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
In the final analysis of life, we are not to gauge ourselves next to one another, which we should not do. Instead, we should evaluate how well we are doing in our Christian growth and maturity. It should line up with how well we are doing in the love department. How well are we allowing Jesus to live His life in and through us and produce in us what is called the fruit of the Spirit?
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Our maturity is based on how well we are progressing in letting Jesus produce these qualities in and through us. So in this 13th chapter, he goes on to say this.
Romans 13:9-10
9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”[Exodus 20:13-15,17; Deuteronomy 5:17-19,21] and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[Leviticus 19:18] 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
Jesus was here on this earth. He did not fulfill the law by not committing adultery or not stealing or not doing what the law says to not do, but he fulfilled the law by walking in love. When you are walking in love, you are not doing those things. But His goal was not to quit doing something, but to walk in love. What people have done is to take the law and making it to mean something different than what God meant it to be. People have put the law as this is what you cannot do and this is what you should do, and this is what I cannot do. So all that you are dealing with is what you cannot do, and so we never get around to what Christ said to do, which is to walk in love.
1 Corinthians 15:56-57
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we look at love as our way and means of gauging whether or not we should be engaged in something, we missed the point. What we should be asking is, “is this love?” Is it love to do what I am wanting to do, or what my flesh is desiring to do? Am I loving my wife when I am going out and getting drunk? Is that an act of love? The answer to that is obvious. It is not an act of love. Am I acting in love when I am stealing from someone? The answer to that is obvious. No, it is not love to be stealing from somebody. Your motivation should be to love and not to not do what I ought not to do.
Romans 3:9
9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.
The law is there to show you your sinfulness so you can change your entire attitude so you can begin to walk as love as your motivation. If love is your motivation, then these commands of what not to do will automatically be fulfilled. But you can also sit around and try not to violate the law and you cannot do it. So he is just saying the power of sin is in the law (1 Corinthians 15:56), and when you are trying to keep it, you are going to keep yourself under the power of sin. But if you die to the law, you are no longer under the law. A man who has died to the law is no longer under the law. You died to the law so that you are now ready to be married to another, joined to Christ Jesus, being led internally by the Spirit of God, rather than externally, trying to obey the laws that are written on stone.
Romans 7:1-6
1 Do you not know, brothers and sisters – for I am speaking to those who know the law – that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. 3 So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
It is a totally different concept that Jesus is presenting to the Jewish world and to us today. It is a totally different concept. Religion is always here in what we do. Amy and I were talking to a young lady in the restaurant we were in, who came out of a Russian background. They go to a certain church. Her deal was, this is what we do. So that is what I do. She only goes once a year, but when she goes, that is what she does because that is what the church does she belongs to. So we have all these traditions on these exterior things. That is what he is saying, that this exterior means nothing.
Galatians 5:6
6 The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Romans 14:1-4
1 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
In the 14th chapter, we should not be passing judgment on disputable matters, that one man’s faith allows him to eat anything and the other man’s faith doesn’t allow him to. But in essence, all things are kosher. God did not make anything that is not kosher. But if someone does not want to participate in eating some kind of food, then that is fine. They do that to the Lord. The person who participates does so to the Lord, so quit judging one another. It is not love to be judging one another. It gets back to the law of love.
Romans 14:19
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
Again, remember you are talking about this conflict between the Jew and the Gentile. So because the Jew was there saying you have to follow these rules, to not eat certain foods and be circumcised, and obey Jewish customs in order to be a Christian, Paul is saying that is not so. But to the Gentiles he is saying, do not look down on those who say it is so. I will deal with that. So make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
Romans 14:20
20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.
Once again, if you are with somebody who thinks eating pork is just terrible, and you want to share Christ with him, do not woof down a pork chop while with him, trying to share Jesus. It is not going to work. Love says do not do that.
Romans 14:21
21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.
This is the attitude of love. Is what I am doing, will it cause a brother to stumble?
Romans 14:22
22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.
So quit picketing the Christian world over these things.
Romans 14:22
Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.
That is a great statement. This is what I approve and then he goes ahead and does it anyways.
Romans 14:23
23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.
There again, in that last verse, you have the definition of what sin is in the bible. If you want to go back to a true definition of something, you go back to its origin, and you find out what it really means. The origin of sin took place in the garden of Eden. What was it? Unbelief, that which is not of faith. They stopped placing their faith in Jesus, in what he said, and placed their faith in Satan, and in what Satan was tempting them to do. They fell on the day they ate thereof, and they died spiritually.
Genesis 2:16-17
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 3:1-3
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
Romans 5:12
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned
Let us turn now to the 15th chapter of Romans.
Romans 15:1
1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.
Here again, Paul is saying that there are people who are strong in their faith, and there are people who are weak in their faith. I do not think he is talking about muscle strength. I think he is talking about strength in what you believe in, strength that comes from believing in truth. There is power in truth. There is strength in truth. If a person is strong in his faith, it does not mean faith is strong. It means he is strong in truth. He has come to understand truth, and that truth is setting him free, and he becomes strong in what he believes in. You can also be strong in believing in error. When you are strong in truth, you are on the ground that you need to be on.
Matthew 7:24-27
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
1 Corinthians 3:11
11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
You are in the foundation you need to be in. Those who are strong in truth in Christ Jesus, it says to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please yourself. What are the failings of the weak? People who are still placing their faith in exterior things we are doing and not putting their faith in Jesus and what he has done. We are concentrating on the body and ignore the head, who is Christ Jesus.
Colossians 1:18
18 And he [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
The head should be the initiation of everything we do.
John 14:30-31
30 I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, 31 but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.
John 5:19
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
John 5:30
30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
John 12:49
49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.
I do not do anything unless the Father tells me, and I do not say anything unless the Father tells me to say it.
He showed us how to live. The head is our lead. It is not me. It is Him. We are all in this body assembly with certain things God has called us to do, but the rule of what you do is to Him not to us. So he says this.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
We are individually to be plugged into the head, and then collectively He controls our lives.
Romans 15:2
2 Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.
What is good for the neighbor? One of the definitions of love is to not think more highly of yourself than you ought but to think of your neighbor’s interest above your own. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. We are to build them up. What is the greatest weapon we have to tear one another down?
James 3:3-6
3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.
The tongue is the greatest weapon for destruction. We think swords and bombs are strong. James says that the tongue is stronger than anything going. He compares that to a little rudder that can move an entire ship or a spark that can cause a forest fire. Our tongues can be used to tear people down more quickly than any single thing there is. You see teenagers in school. How do they get these terrible self images? By tongues, many times, of peers, that say things to tear them down. When you are young, you are not often kind. When you are young, you will say awful things to people. If you got big ears, you are called “Dumbo”. We have to realize that is how people are. That affects ultimately how we perceive ourselves. Our tongues and words can do a lot of damage to each other.
What bible says is this. Are you an encourager or are you a discourager? Do you say things to discourage people? Do you say things to criticize people? Do you tear people down to make yourself look better? The root of that is pride. I am going to make myself look good one way or another. We tear others down to accomplish that. He is saying to us that this is not the way of God. We should be interested in building people up. We should always be interested in building people up. If a person has a problem, you are not there to tear them down further. You are there to help them get on their feet and to get into a thinking pattern that will be of encouragement to them.
Romans 15:3
3 For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”[Psalm 69:9]
What Jesus is saying out of Psalms, is that when you are insulting them, such insults have come upon me. When they are insulting my brothers, I should be concerned about that. When someone insults a member of the body, it insults me because he is a brother in Christ. When someone says something good about somebody, it should be joy to me because you are my brothers and sisters in Christ. If someone is blasting you, then there is something inside of you that does not want to see someone blasted.
These are all attitudes that we need to ask God for, to purify our attitudes. A lot of the time our attitudes come from our background, or wherever they might come from, but they are awful sometimes in regard to dealing with people. We should be encouragers, not discouragers to our fellow man.
Romans 15:4
4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us,
Why do we have instruction in the bible? To teach us. The bible is the discipler. That is how God disciples you and me. Discipleship is discipline. How does God discipline our minds? By teaching us truth. If you are a person that is critical about everything you see, then yo need discipline. If you have a white table cloth and has a dot on it, you do not see the table cloth but the dot, then he is disciplining you, disciplining you, to quit thinking like that. Quit finding the negative about things and look for the good. Look for ways to build someone up. Quit tearing down your own body. This is your body. You got your body. This is your body. When you start tearing down one another in this body of believers, it is like tearing down a part of your own body, like destroying your leg or your arm. That would be ridiculous for you to do but that is what you are doing when you are tearing down the body of Christ. Quit doing that. Be encouraging to one another.
Romans 15:4
so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.
The scriptures are given to us so we may endure with one another and be of encouragement to one another. That is why in scripture we read, as Christ Jesus has forgiven us so forgive one another.
Ephesians 4:32
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Why? Because we are a part of the same body. We all have to think through those things. If Christ Jesus forgave you, then who am I not to forgive you. Are my standards higher than Jesus? If they are not higher than Jesus, then there should be forgiveness.
Romans 15:5-6
5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the Spirit of unity that God gives, from the same attitude Christ had. This attitude is what produces endurance and encouragement toward each other. The emphasis here is on Jew and Gentile but it is just as applicable to us today. May the God who gives you endurance, to hang in there, with each other. What does it mean to hang in there with each other? To hang in there because God is not through with you yet. Before long it will peel away. It becomes obsolete and suddenly disappears.
Hebrews 8:13
13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
1 Corinthians 15:50-52
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
1 John 3:2-3
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Be patient with people. That is hard for people. That is hard for me. I get impatient with people who do not see the value of Christ Jesus and when they add to this stuff, my patience is very thin with that. But God disciples me. He disciples me and points it out to me. He is not punishing me. He is just disciplining me.
Romans 15:5-6
5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are all speaking the same thing, those who are in Christ Jesus. We are all believing the same thing. Our hearts are molded together in oneness with Christ Jesus, to glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For you and me to have unity with one another is what brings glory to God. There is nothing more discouraging than children fighting and fussing with one another. It grieves your heart. When you come together in a spirit of unity, with an attitude of acceptance of one another, but never compromising truth.
Proverbs 19:11
11 A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.
Ephesians 4:15
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
Truth is truth whether you like it or not. Truth is truth whether children engaged in it or not. You do not engage theology on what children, husband or wife is doing. Truth is truth. You do not compromise that. What you are doing is that you are going to be tolerant of you until we all come to the Spirit of unity in truth so that with one heart, one mind, one mouth, we will glorify the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 15:7
7 Accept one another,
How should we accept one another?
Romans 15:7
then, just as Christ accepted you,
We talked about the difference between love and acceptance. In my own life, I knew that God loved me. Well, He is God so He has to. But did He accept me? I never thought about that before, that I was accepted in the beloved. When I grasped that not only God loves me but He accepts me. He is not through with me yet. He still has a lot of work to do. Do you agree with that? I know you agree with me. What about you? A lot of work to do. He is not through with us. Ultimately, when the ultimate work of Him will take place is when we are absent from the body and present with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:6-8
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
1 John 3:2-3
2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
That is where we will see Him as he is and become like him. It is when we shed this body that contains indwelling sin. It will happen when we are no longer in conflict between spirit and flesh, that is always in conflict with each other. They are at war with each other. That war will be taking place the rest of your life. How old do you have to be before this war stops? Older than me because it is still there. It will be there until the day you die. On the day you die, you get to shed this thing and go into the presence with unity and just Him. All this stuff is gone that we had to struggle with. The issue is that He says, “I accept you the way you are. I accept you for who you are. You are My child. You are loved perfectly. You are accepted in the beloved. I am not through with you yet. Do not think that I do not accept you?” That is good news, to think that God not only loves you perfectly and accepts you the way you are. I am not all that I can’t be and not all that I will be, but that is good enough right now.
I remember the story, in my early days of being a Christian in full time Christian work, shortly after becoming a Christian. I still had the old ego and pride, that baggage and barnacles you carry with you. I was real impressed with people like Billy Graham. I thought that he ought to start retiring before long. I remember that one day I was going over to Phoenix, Arizona, and was meeting with another crusade member. I was going to meet with a Billy Graham representative. We were going to meet with him on that film. We met there and the guy that I was with was a sweet brother in Christ. He was talking, and talked a little funny, as if he had not much education. I kind of wished he would shut up so I could talk so I could impress this guy. He is not very smart so I can handle this whole deal. Not very humble thoughts I had. He did not know what I was thinking, but God got involved. I think He told him what I was thinking. Kerm said, “You know, I am not real smart, but I am as smart as God wants me to be. One of these days I am going to get smarter because I think God wants me to get smarter. I do not have a lot of abilities but I have got all the abilities that God wants me to have. One of these days I am going to have more abilities because I am trusting God to give it to me.” God took this old proud heart of mine. Do you know what I did? I balled in front of that Billy Graham representative. I sat there and cried like a baby. It was like God was saying to me, “Bob, Kerm has more in his little finger than you have in your big old fat body.” I realized that God did not need my abilities. He needed my availability. That is what Kerm was dong, being be available to God to be used. He was humble, and God used him in miraculous ways. I was sitting in my pride and could not be used if I wanted to be. That was all deception on my part, of how nifty I was and how unnifty he was. God pricked my heart and taught me a valuable lesson that day that I will never forget.
So he tells us to accept one another.
Romans 15:7-8
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 he is saying to these Gentile Romans, that to the Jews, Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs, and so the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.
Romans 15:8
so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.
