Afterwords -- welcome one another
"Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." (Romans 15:7)
July 29, 2023
Dear friends,
What a magisterial letter is Paul's epistle to the Romans! The topics of sin and depravity, of Christ and salvation, of justification and sanctification, of hope and the glory to come are all beautifully explained here. And here also are all the great truths about faith, security in God's love, God's plan for history, and Christian living. There's lofty theology here, and it all relates to us.
I note that the letter, in its final application, is very down to earth -- "welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you..." (15:7) And earlier, "As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions." (14:1) It was a call to believers in Rome to receive and to accept fellow believers as brothers and sisters in Christ. This was a special challenge for the church in Rome, being a mix of Jews and Gentiles. The religious and cultural divide between Jew and Gentile ran deep.
There are two key words here: "welcome" (Gr. προσλαμβάνεσθε; proslambanesthe; fr. προσλαμβάνω) which means "to receive or accept into one's society, home, or companionship," with the associated idea of kindness. It's usually translated as "welcome, receive, accept" another. The other word is "one another" (Gr. ἀλλήλους, allēlous), which appears about 40 times in Paul's letters, usually in the form, ἀλλήλων, which means "one another, reciprocally, mutually." That phrase follows a variety of imperatives in Paul's letters: "love..., serve..., care for..., greet..., submit to..., encourage... one another", to name a few. This is a major theme for Paul. It's real, live, down-to-earth, three-dimensional, personal, interactive, mutual fellowship. Some call this the principle of "one anothering". And it necessarily involves bridging the gap between the divides of cultures and convictions which exist among fellow Christians.
I have found in recent years that I've become too comfortable being at a distance from others. Perhaps the pandemic made it too easy to form online communities (if we can call them such), where we could seek out and communicate with people who thought just like us. Or who echoed and reinforced our opinions. We became more tribalistic. We became less accepting and cancelled one another with impunity. Even now we dismiss people because a) we think they have crazy conspiracy theories, or b) we think they are being duped by the media. We only want to associate with people who share our opinions about how to make America great again, or how to build it back better, who agree with us on the answers to racism, climate change, immigration, and vaccinations, as if those answers were obvious and easy to see.
But in reading Romans I see the glory of what we have in common with other born-again believers: we have forgiveness, we are secure in God's love, we have hope, we have God's promises, we have the Scriptures, and we await future glory where all believers from all over the earth will worship together. Christ alone is Lord. We cannot forsake the assembling of ourselves together in real life, real time (Heb 10:24-25), if at all possible. We cannot give up on the difficult practice of one-anothering with Christians of differing convictions. Be assured, I'm not speaking of embracing sin or unrighteousness or false teaching. We are a separated people for the Lord. But sometimes, we draw those lines of fellowship (who's in and who's out) pretty tightly around us. We end up building our community on popular opinions and not upon Christ.
I realize that some whom I have unfriended or excluded -- or who have done so to me -- will be in glory one day, and we will be serving and worshiping the same Lord together, forever. This should affect how I look at those people now. Even if we have differing opinions on some matters, we should still work at finding our common ground in Christ, and whenever possible, to widen our circle of friendship. The glorious return of Jesus is imminent, and we should do what Paul says, "...welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God."
IN OTHER NEWS.
-- "The 'classics' are books that multiple generations and multiple cultures have all agreed are worth reading.” But those books can be daunting to read by yourself. Now, Leland Ryken and TGC have teamed up to provide eleven free courses to help you learn about "Christianity and Classic Literature." Take a look!
-- An enormous building that hosted public functions in ancient Jerusalem (near the Western Wall) is reopening to the public some 2,000 years after its construction.
-- "The heart is the chief thing in believing; for into the heart Christ is received, and in it he dwells by faith. The vital union between Christ and the believer is manifested and made known in the heart, and there it is cemented and established." Excerpt from William Romaine's The Life of Faith.
FINAL QUOTE. "When I was a little girl my mother would often say to me, 'Edith, I know just who you've been playing with today.' She knew because I had become something like the other little girl, whichever one it was, enough like her that the girl could be identified by my changed accent, my mannerisms, and other telltale changes. Children often copy other children quite unconsciously. So do adults. We are affected by the people we spend time with, in one way or another. God makes clear to us that not only is it sin to bow down to idols and worship or serve them, but that there is an effect which follows very definitely. People who worship idols become like them.” (Edith Schaeffer, "The Art of Life", Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no. 8)
That's it for this week!
Sandy
Image credit. Photo of bronze statue, "The Divine Servant", by Max Greiner, Jr., located in the courtyard of Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, TX. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.