Romans 15:14-16 - Writing boldly

15:14

Paul, as he will admit in the next verse, has said some quite direct things to them, particularly in the last few chapters. There are times to be direct, but we also need to be aware of the effect it can have, the way in which people can take our “directness”. So Paul “softens the blow” by stressing that overall he has a high opinion of them. He is convinced that they are “full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another”. This is high praise.

15:15,16

So why has Paul been “bold” on certain points? It is because of the grace God have him. Grace has appeared several times in the letter, and we have noted that grace is not just a passive thing in the sense that we are forgiven, but it is an active, empowering thing, enabling us to achieve things for Christ. Paul outlines the grace that God gave him to be a minister to the Gentiles, something he mentioned right back at the start of the letter. So what was Paul given grace to do? It was to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. This applies to all of us. Our mission is not to be nice to people, but to bring Jesus to them, or to bring them to Jesus. So Paul had the task of proclaiming the gospel. And the purpose was that the Gentiles might become acceptable to God and sanctified by the Holy Spirit. So we need to admit our sin and put our faith in Christ’s sacrifice, and we need to let the Holy Spirit work in our lives to bring them into conformity with Christ. There is so much of the teaching of parts of the church that pays no attention to this. Perhaps the most topical example is that of sexuality, with sex before marriage and homosexuality perhaps being the most obvious. So much of the church pays no attention to leading people to repentance and to changing our lifestyles. We need to remember that the gospel is about God and what He wants!

Romans 15:10-13 - Rejoice you Gentiles

15:10-12

Paul continues with a series of quotes from Scripture: Deut 32:43, Ps 117:11, Is 11:10. It seems clear that Paul’s mind is now well and truly back on the Jew-Gentile issue. God’s plan has always been that the whole world, Jews and Gentiles, would worship Him together. For a long time the Jews did not grasp this at all, in fact they grasped very little, and there was a gulf between Jews and Gentiles. In Christ this gulf is bridged (see Eph 2). How tragic it would be if the Gentile believers now viewed the Jews as enemies, or looked down on them! The first quote comes from the song of Moses. We need to grasp the greatness of God’s plan.

So how does the food and drink part fit in? Is this now forgotten? Well maybe, but it is symptomatic of a basic human failing. We always want to find some way of proving ourselves better than others, or at least not a bad as others. This could crop up in the Jew-Gentile issue, it can rear its ugly head in legalism over rules. We need to be very aware of this tendency of the flesh and to make sure we do not start living by it.

15:13

So this can be hard, we have to resist our natural inclinations. Does this mean we are in for a miserable time? No. Paul prays for the God of hope to fill us with all joy and peace. Jesus came to give us life, and all His ways are ways of life. Whatever circumstances we are in today we should ask God to fill us with joy and peace. And if we are ministering to others we should ask that God fills them with joy and peace. We also have our part to play, we need to trust in God. We do this by saying no to the ways of the flesh, and saying yes to the way of the Spirit. Then we will overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Your circumstances may look desperate or hopeless at present, but it is the power of the Holy Spirit who enables us to overflow with hope. So we should look for His power to fill our lives, and He is stronger than anything that is opposing us. By His power we can overflow with hope. And see that it is by power. The things against us may be powerful, but in Christ we can overcome.

May we be filled with hope this day!

Romans 15:7-9 - Accept one another

15:7

We should remember how Christ welcomed us, and then remember that He has welcomed our Christian brothers and sisters in the same way. We came with nothing but unworthiness, looking to Him for mercy and salvation. As time goes on there are times when we are acutely aware of our weaknesses and failings. There are brief times of despair at ourselves, or even self loathing, but the mercy, discipline and training of the Lord accept us and step by step change us. If we look back there are ways in which we have developed, things we understand now that we did not understand before, and an awareness of how far we still have to go. And all this work of mercy in our lives is for His glory. So we should have the same attitude towards others, the same patience and hope, and for the same glory.

15:8,9

We see here the linking of Christ’s work among the Jews and the Gentiles. Now what is Paul thinking of here? It seems that he is thinking both of the immediate context of our attitudes towards each other, and what he said earlier about the place of the Jews in God’s plan. Christ came to confirm the promises given in the Old Testament, both concerning the salvation of Israel and the salvation of the world. So we are to glorify God for His mercy, not for how “clever” we are, for we aren't really that clever at all.

Characteristically Paul quotes Scripture, Psalm 18:49

Romans 15:5,6 - The same mind as Christ

15:5

Paul then goes into prayer. Knowing what to do, knowing the way things should be is not enough. We need to remember this when we preach, teach or exhort. The preaching by itself will not achieve anything, we need the work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives (including our own!), so if we want anything effective to happen we must pray. We are to have endurance and encouragement, but it is the Lord who gives this encouragement and endurance. And it is God who changes our inmost attitudes. So Paul also asks God to give us the same attitude that Christ had.

15:6

Only then we will truly glorify “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”, and we will do so with one mind and one voice. When we get full of ourselves we may imagine that we are glorifying the Lord, but that is almost certainly not the case. But we need to remember that Paul would not allow any compromise on the truly central elements of the faith, remember how he dealt with the issue in Galatians. We need to have true wisdom, and true wisdom recognises what is non-negotiable, what is debatable, and really doesn’t matter. It also recognises what goes on in a man’s heart, most of all our own hearts. So we do not live by the flesh, but by the Spirit.

Romans 15:3,4 - Endurance and encouragement

15:3

We now come to a key part of Paul’s argument, the example of Jesus Christ. This is similar to what he says in Philippians 2:5,6. Jesus is the supreme example and we should always compare our attitudes to the attitude that He had. Jesus is our yardstick, not some other fallible and sinful human being. Paul quotes from Scripture, specifically Psalm 69:9. The first part of that verse says “zeal for your house consumes me”. When we are self-justifying we are usually full of ourselves and will often claim to be acting for good. Well, no one was more dedicated towards God and goodness that Jesus Christ and He was was willing to suffer, He did not live to please Himself. So neither should we.

15:4

Paul reminds his readers that everything written in the past was written for our good and to teach us. When he talks of “everything written in the past” Paul clearly means everything written in Scripture. We should note that Paul and, even more so, Jesus, considered all of the Old Testament to be the word of God. So we should have no truck at all with those who denigrate the Old Testament. It is God’s word.

Now not living for ourselves but for Christ and for others is not easy, and sometimes will be very costly. In those times we need the endurance and encouragement that comes from the Word of God. The Word is a source of instruction and strength to us.

Romans 15:1,2 - Bear with the failings of the weak

15:1

Paul lists himself with those who are “strong”. Throughout chapters 14 and 15 there is a tacit admission that being free to eat any food, and no necessarily special days is actually the “correct” position, but they way we are tempted to use our “correct” knowledge is what is being addressed. So instead of using our greater knowledge to prove ourselves better we should bear with the weaker brother. The principle is that we think of others, not of ourselves first.

15:2

The point of thinking of others is further remphasised. While the context here in Romans is primarily concerned with relations within the church, in the related passage in 1 Corinthians 8 there is concern for unbelievers. The key is that we should always consider what will the result of our actions be on others. Will it help to build them up, or will it tear them down, or put obstacles in their way? For those in the church will it help them grow in Christ, know Him better? For those outside will it make it more or less likely for them to seek to find out who Jesus is.

Romans 14:20-23 - Think of your brothers and sisters

14:20

If we are tempted to neglect Paul’s approach we need to consider the effect that our actions might have on others, on others who are God’s children. “Do not destroy the work of God”. This should be very sobering. Jesus died on the cross for our brother, to destroy that work over a matter of food or a certain day is a terrible thing to do. So if helping a brother necessitates abstaining from a certain food for a while, so be it. We need to have true perspective on things.

14:21

A person might think “I have the right to eat meat, so I am jolly well going to eat meat”, or “my brother needs to realise the freedom we have in Christ, so I will eat meat to demonstrate this too him”. But both these views are mistaken, they are far more likely to lead to the brother stumbling. How might he stumble? He might just feel guilty, he might eat the meat under pressure and feel guilty, or it might just cause needless division. We need to think carefully, and beware of letting our self-centeredness taking over.

14:22

If you did take a high and mighty attitude then you would actually bring condemnation upon yourself. A certain amount of discretion is advisable on many occasions. We all have many opinions, but just because we have an opinion does not mean that we should flaunt it! There is a time and a place to voice opinions, and sometimes it is not at all.

14:23

So if someone eats meat, or drinks wine, under pressure, not because they are convinced it is OK, then they bring condemnation upon themselves. Their conscience will condemn them. Everything is to be done from faith.  We are in a relationship with the Lord, and the basis for that relationship is faith. We are not following a set of rules.