Paul continues his theme of glorying God and unity. This daily devotional looks at building community to promote unity, especially between especially between Jews and Gentiles.
Nuggets
- Our greeting must encompass Jesus’ love for all in order to build community.
- Because Jesus completed the Plan of Salvation, He fulfilled God’s promises of Savior and Redeemer.
- Scriptures tell us that it was always God’s intent that the Gentiles be offered salvation.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the Transformed to Perfection series
Yes, Paul was still focusing on unity and glorifying God. To him, these were both big topics. Important topics.
If something is important, we talk about it, right? And Paul talks – well, writes.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
“Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice” (Rom. 15: 5-6 CSB).
Paul started verse 7 off with a therefore, so let’s look at what he was looking back on out of the way. He had just said that we may glorify God in unity because God gives us patience and encouragement when we imitate Jesus.
We glorify God when we use what we learn from seeking Him to change our words and actions in order to obey and praise Him. It isn’t about us. It is about God and reflecting Him — scattering His light.
If it isn’t about us, it isn’t about how far we are away from Him. It is whether our noses are in the right direction. God wants us to continually choose Him, even when we are feeling guilty for sinning against Him.
God’s children are to worship Him by living united in believing in Him and raising their voices in worship.
It’s All in a Greeting
“Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God" (Rom. 15: 7 CBS)
Our greeting must encompass Jesus’ love for all in order to build community.
I think a good way for us to look at how we can receive others is to look at how Christ received those closest to Him. That would be the Twelve.
Jesus picked twelve Pharisees — the cream of the crop of religious leaders, right? They knew the law and commandments and were established in the hierarchy of the temple.
Wrong.
Most of the disciples were fishermen. All of them were uneducated.
But it goes deeper than that. Jesus takes us as we are. The only thing we have to do is recognize we want/need to change from our sinful ways.
Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
Glossary
We get to come to Jesus just as when are. It is after salvation that we start navigating the Sanctification Road.
• Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
• Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
• Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
Glossary
• Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
• Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
• The perfected state indicates the combination of the spiritual graces which, when all are present, form spiritual wholeness or completeness.
• Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Jesus welcomed us, and we should welcome others. This should be done “… as heirs together of the grace of God.”
Resource
Lyth made a great point. Our condition aside, we should welcome each other freely. We also have to receive each other sincerely. It is a two-way street.
Why is it so important that we have this unity? Watts wrote, “It gives courage to every Christian to profess and practise (sic) his religion when many persons are engaged by mutual agreement in the same profession and practice.”
Resource
In verse 7, we were just talking about how God encourages us. Usually, we don’t want to be alone. We really don’t want to be the only one who is doing something.
That is why we have the saying, “strength in numbers.” There is truth in that.
We have talked before that is was always God’s plan for us to build a community. He doesn’t want us to be alone, and He doesn’t want us to work alone.
Glossary
I am lucky. I have always been free to openly worship God as I please. God, Himself, has told us that will not always be the case.
We know the church will be persecuted in the end times. “Then they will hand you over to be persecuted, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name.” (Mt. 24: 9 CSB). We will be able to encourage each other.
It is a great witness to be a group and be in agreement. Our divisiveness is the biggest rip in our witness today.
We need to do a better job imitating Jesus.
Jesus Fulfilled God’s Promises
“For I say that Christ became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the fathers, and so that Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy …” (Rom. 15: 8-9a CSB)
Because Jesus completed the Plan of Salvation, He fulfilled God’s promises of Savior and Redeemer.
We have to remember that in, of, and around it — Jesus was a Jew. He followed the law. He observed the Passover.
Glossary
Not that long ago in the scheme of things we had a discussion of why the disciples had marching orders to start in Jerusalem. We didn’t talk about why Jesus came to the Jews first.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Jesus made no bones about coming first for the Jews. “He replied, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’” (Mt. 15: 24 CSB).
God had long called the Israelites His people. All the way back too Abraham, He had made a covenant that He would be with them, and He would provide. God kept His promises.
Glossary
Just because Jesus came to the Jews first, He didn’t stop there. He did come for the Gentiles. The Gentiles are everyone else.
Jesus came to save the whole world. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3: 16 ESV).
In the last couple of devotions, we’ve been talking love, joy, hope, and peace. That is for all of us.
But it isn’t so everyone has a good life. It isn’t so we get good stuff.
It is so we all glorify God. What did verse 6 say? “so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice” (Rom. 15: 6 CSB).
What did Paul say in the last chapter? “for it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God’” (Rom. 14: 11 ESV).
We may think Paul rambles and talks around things. He does tie everything all together.
God does this all because of His mercy. God’s mercy is an act of sovereign will that produces an unexpected and undeserved response from God as He responds in love to our needs.
Glossary
Unexpected and undeserved. We are not entitled to it. We cannot earn it.
It is God’s choice because of His love for us.
As It Is Written
“… As it is written, Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praise to your name. Again it says, Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people! And again, Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples praise him! And again, Isaiah says, The root of Jesse will appear, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; the Gentiles will hope in him” (Rom. 15: 9b-12 CSB)
Scriptures tell us that it was always God’s intent that the Gentiles be offered salvation.
- “Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, LORD; I will sing praises about your name” (Ps. 18: 49 CSB).
- “Rejoice, you nations, concerning his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants. He will take vengeance on his adversaries; he will purify his land and his people” (Deut. 32:43 CSB).
- “Praise the LORD, all nations! Glorify him, all peoples!” (Ps. 117: 1 CSB).
- “On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will look to him for guidance, and his resting place will be glorious” (Isa. 11: 10 CSB).
As you can see, God always intended salvation to come to the Gentiles. Martin believed, basically, that God was utilizing the start-small theory. Unfortunately, the Israelites didn’t want to share.
Gods wants all believers unified. Martin said that “all the earth is hallowed ground.”
Resource
Hall reminded us that the Messiah has been given authority over all the earth. “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’” (Mt. 28: 18 ESV).
God loves us all and offers salvation to all of us.
Making the Connections
Watts said something that I thought, “Oh, I don’t know about that.” But then I thought, “Well, maybe.”
So, I threw it down here so I could keep going up there and not get bogged down.
Watts wrote, “In order to keep the Church pure from sin and scandal, they should separate themselves from those that walk disorderly, who are guilty of gross and known sins.” Let’s look at some of the verse he cites before we react one way or the other.
Resource
- “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time” (II Thess. 2: 3-6 ESV).
- “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord” (I Cor. 5: 4-5 ESV).
- “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (I Cor. 5: 7-8 ESV).
- “But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one” (I Cor. 5: 11 ESV).
- “God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you’” (I Cor. 5: 13 ESV).
How does this fit with the unity Paul has been stressing?
I can see why God does not want us associating with blatant sinners. They will corrupt us until we are participating in the sins they are committing. We have talked before about watching the company we keep.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
We do have to witness to sinners, so we can’t stay away from them totally. I think this is an admonition to not condone their actions by compromising with the worldview.
How Do We Apply This?
We all need salvation. In order to get that, we need to search for God.
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
Father God. You call us to salvation. You call us to be unified. That unity is to be found in You. We are to be in agreement in Your character, and Your laws and commandments, and in Your work. Help us to be unified so that Your work can be accomplished and that souls can be saved. Amen.
What do you think?
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