Daily Thoughts from Romans – Rejoice in “Gentiles” (15:1-13)

Daily Thoughts from Romans – Rejoice in “Gentiles”

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,

   “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.”

And again it is said,

   “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”

And again,

   “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.”

And again Isaiah says,

   “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.”

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.  (Romans 15:1-13 ESV)

Paul finishes his instructions to the Romans on matters of conscience (matters that don’t have a direct command in Scripture and are debated as to their morality) by encouraging the “strong” (those whose conscience allows them to have freedom from condemnation about these practices) to bear with the “weak” (those whose consciences say it is wrong to engage in these practices) and to seek to please them above their own selves, like Christ did.  He speaks a benediction over them, appealing to the God of endurance and encouragement to give them unity in Jesus Christ.  Then he commands them to welcome and embrace one another with the same love Jesus embraced them.  This glorifies God.

Then Paul reminds them that Christ came for the Jews to fulfill the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and so bring in the Gentiles also as Scripture predicted.  And he speaks another benediction over them, appealing to the God of hope to fill them with joy and peace in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This suggests that many of these matters of conscience sprang up over interactions between Jewish and Gentile Christians, with Gentiles more than likely at times being those with weak consciences.  Some of the Corinthian Gentile believers, for example (1 Corinthians 8-10), wrestled with eating meat sold in the market places that came from animals sacrificed to pagan gods.  It seemed wrong to them even though those gods were not real.  In Rome also there was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles in the church and unity was necessary above all else in these matters.

A parallel for our time might be new people who come into the church without any traditional experience of Christianity.  We should, like those first century Jewish Christians, excited that those we might never have expected to come to Christ have indeed come to him.  They are going to challenge our traditional categories and maybe seem a little messier than we are comfortable with.  So too often we have just expected them to conform.  We must be careful to rejoice in them.

We suffer the same kinds of issues today as the church of Rome did then.  One believer thinks it is okay to drink alcohol, another doesn’t; one believes you can listen to secular music, another doesn’t; one believes traditional worship alone is proper, another doesn’t, and so on and so on.  We shouldn’t judge each other in these matters and the stronger should bear with the weaker and we should welcome one another with the same accepting arms as Jesus.