For the past couple of weeks we have been in Romans the 14th chapter…Paul has been writing to the church in Rome attempting to bring the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians together to resolve issues that threaten to divide the church.
As with in any church there are conflicts on how things are to be done…Paul’s desire is that the stronger Christians would interact with the weaker Christians …obviously not talking about weak when it comes to physical strength but weak in how they perceive biblical truths.
Paul is emphasizing that stronger Christians have a responsibility to the Church to assist in resolving differences of opinions.
The desire is to calm tensions and disunity…to encourage each other to work together…to stop judging each other over issues that are non-essential or non-moral.
Within the Church there are three basic biblical categories of behavior…1) moral behavior…2) immoral behavior, and… 3) non-moral behavior—actions where right and wrong cannot be applied (Ps. 1:6; 2 Chron. 28:19; 1 Cor 5:11; 1 Cor. 6:9).
In chapter 14 Paul writes about two of the issues…both non-moral …one was the eating of foods…and the other dealing with Jewish holidays and feasts.
At the expense of going over these two issues again…and I’m not…the focus was on the Jewish Christians who were set in their ways and the Gentile Christians who believed Old Testament commands regarding food and holidays no longer applied to them.
See the same two problems today…
ONE…people who believe the Old Testament is outdated…it’s not…AND
SECONDLY…the self-sufficient person who believes because of what Jesus did on the Cross…‘I am now free in Christ.’ …you’re not…these new converts thought that the N. T. allowed for them to be self-sufficient …‘I can now make it on my own’… “thanks God I can take it from here” no you can’t.
Everybody…there should never come a time in our lives when we can say to God…I am now self-reliant …because in reality…we are never self-reliant.
The modern definition of freedom is doing whatever I want to do…by ignoring the reality of our sinful nature it leads us astray from God’s commands.
Christian liberty doesn’t mean doing what I want to do…it’s being free from everything that hinders us from serving God …true happiness is not in our independence but in our dependence of God.
Have you ever thought of the Old Testament as being instructional?…there are benefits to reading the Old Testament…some things do apply to us…probably the reason Paul quotes a lot out of the Book of Isaiah.
His point being that these things weren’t written just to entertain us…they were written for our learning…instruction…and encouragement.
Obviously…in the 21st century the issues that divide Christians are different from those of the first century but the desire for unity is still paramount.
Here’s the importance of Christian unity…we share in the same glory…we one day will enjoy the same heaven…we believe in the same Savior…belong to the same Father…believe the same truths—do we have differences?…YES… but we have much more in common than we have differences.
That should be the encouragement for us to love one another…and to promote true spiritual unity.
Christ does not require that we agree on every issue… BUT…because some issues are essential we are not to believe the opinions…ideas…or the philosophy of those who would have you to accept statements about the Bible that are not true…don’t entertain them…don’t consider them…don’t discuss them.
In the church today there are two primary ‘bones of contention’ that sever church unity:
ONE is unbiblical teaching…there is a host of people who have slithered their way into contemporary evangelicalism who are teaching and preaching heresy.
Unbiblical teaching and preaching are rampant in mainline Protestant denominations…the result is people have become captive audiences to those who preach outlandish lies and half-truths…Daystar…Word and INSP.
Many of these money-grabbing charlatans are gaining worldwide prominence, and because of their diverse teaching they develop self-righteous attitudes toward those who disagree with them.
The result of self-righteous attitudes is spiritual pride…it can bleed over into how people view themselves and others…spiritual pride can be exhibited in a number of different ways…many times not even detectable by the person who is doing it.
Even on a personal level spiritual pride can hinder our fellowship with each other …here are some of the ways spiritual pride is exhibited.
—Judging how spiritual someone is by their church attendance.
—Judging how spiritual someone is by their ministry activity.
—Judging how spiritual someone is by how you perform your duty as a Christian,
—Judging how spiritual you are based on how you live your life.
Don’t judge your spirituality on what you’ve done…or on what you haven’t done…the fact that you haven’t robbed anybody… murdered anybody…haven’t committed adultery…haven’t lied or cheated on your income tax…that you haven’t abused your wife or children doesn’t elevate you spiritually.
That kind of attitude is what Paul is warning the Christians in Rome about…Get deeper than that.
SECOND bone of contention is something I’ve mentioned for the past two weeks and I’m going to mention it again…because it can have disastrous implication in the church…opinions.
When imposing your opinion on someone you need to ask:
• Is my opinion consistent with Scripture?
• Am I trying to bind my opinion on someone else?
• Is my opinion going to harm someone else?
Here Paul is more concerned about the manner in which we deal with differences than about the fact that we have differences…because really that’s something we’re always going to have…differences with one another [15:5].
The guidance Paul gives to the Roman Christians is still applicable to us today.
Paul calls on them and us to do three things:
1) welcome those with whom we have differences [1]
2) not to judge each other [4,10]
3) not to compromise Biblical truths. [14:5]
In one of Jesus’s final prayers before His crucifixion He prays to the Father regarding our unity [John 17:20-23]
20 …I pray 21 that all of them may be one…just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us…22 …that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.
In verses [5-6] of chapter 15 Paul is offering up a similar prayer of unity for the Roman church…of how we should treat one another:
5 Now may the God who gives perseverance—someone who is unfaltering…unhesitating—and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul makes an interesting statement…asking God to grant that we might have the same mind as Christ.
Obviously an important trait for Christians…so important that Paul is praying for it to happen…in [1 Cor. 2:16] Paul declares it’s something we have already attained…we have the mind of Christ.
The word ‘mind’ used here means the seat of consciousness…it means looking at life from Jesus’s point of view…having His values…His desires…His thoughts…the ability to maintain the same focus as Christ did.
As Christians we have been given the ability to see what is spiritual and to think what Christ thinks.
So…what does Christ think?…that we may be one as He and the Father are one…unity.
True unity doesn’t come because of organizations…or denominations…it doesn’t mean that every believer or every church looks exactly alike…it doesn’t mean we have to be in agreement in our ‘opinions’.
Unity occurs because of what we have in common in Christ.
Aided by the Holy Spirit believers have been given access to the thoughts of Christ.
SO…how do we do that?…it doesn’t come naturally or without effort.
Although it’s a gift that is given to every believer…we must develop that gift in order to experience its full impact…HOW…by reading…memorizing…and meditating on Scripture…spending time in prayer in the presence of Jesus…that is the only way by which we can have the same mind as Jesus.
In 1 Corinthians Paul lists some truths concerning having the mind of Christ:
1) The mind of Christ stands in contrast to the wisdom of men [1 Cor. 2:5-6].
2) The mind of Christ involves wisdom from God, once hidden now revealed [7]
3) The mind of Christ is given to believers through the Holy Spirit [10-12]
4) The mind of Christ cannot be understood by those without the Spirit [14].
5) The mind of Christ gives believers discernment in spiritual matters [15].
We can never reach true unity until we have the mind of Christ…being like-minded does not relate to doctrine…attitudes…opinions…desires…or habits …but to our relationship to other Christians.
With respect to habits…it’s been said that when you live by yourself all of your annoying habits disappear…(Readers’s Digest 2/07/p. 107).
In Romans 8:17 Paul uses three Greek words that defines our position in Christ… words that reveal the importance of looking at life from Jesus’s point of view…having the mind of Christ… and what we can expect when we do.
All three Greek words are compound words that start with the prefix συν 4862 meaning to be joined closely together in tight identification.
FIRST he says we are heirs with God and joint heirs with Christ… συγκληρονόμος 4789…first three letters (soon) mean closely identified with …the last part of the word is used of believers sharing in the inheritance of the heavenly father…and…being a joint heir with Jesus.
All that the Father gave His Son will also be given to us…His adopted children …that’s the meaning contained in that word.
The second Greek word beginning with prefix sum (συν 4862) also in [17] is συνδοξασθῶμεν 4888 means to be glorified with…in our inheritance as joint heirs with Jesus…we will also share in His glory.
Go back to Jesus’s prayer in [John 14:22] I read earlier…here’s what Jesus prays to the Father… 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me.
The first two parts of [17] are spectacular because it says that as children of God we are His heirs…and secondly that we will share in His glory…BUT…the third part of [17] is a little scary…it what’s keeps many people away.
That’s what the third sum (συν 4862) is suggesting…συμπάσχομεν 4881…the word means to suffer with Him…this word is used only two times in the entire New Testament…this is where as Christians we start to back away.
Does it mean that we must suffer with Christ in order to be glorified with Him? …is Paul suggesting that if we don’t suffer with Christ we won’t have His glory as though somehow our suffering earns us glory?
So what kind of pain is Paul talking about?…is it just persecution?…because some of us will never go through the persecution other people have had to endure around the world.
I think Paul is referring to all the groaning that comes with the futility of living in this fallen age…persecution…trials…troubles…tribulation…calamity… natural disasters… sin …disease…death…and the other miseries we face in this life.
This all falls under the heading of suffering…when Jesus said ‘Through many tribulations (θλίψεων) we must enter the kingdom of God [Acts 14:22] that word tribulations in the Greek encompasses all those ideas.
Those are all the things appointed for us in this life to keep us from loving this world…to being conformed to this world.
If none of these things existed…it would be easier for us to become accustomed to the comforts and pleasures of this world and not rely on God.
There are three great truths in this one verse…ONE is that we are going to receive a great inheritance…TWO is we will receive our own glorification …and THREE…that we are going to suffer in order to receive it.
We are not alone in a hard world…we are the children of God…we are co-heirs, co-glorified and…co-sufferers…as the children of God united we are united with the Triune God…that fact should change the way we live our lives.
What Paul has been suggesting in these two verses is confounding to the modern -minded person…that as Christians we should not be judging…despising … or criticizing those whom we disagree with.
Go back to Jesus’s prayer in [John 17:22] I read earlier…Jesus prays to the Father
22 that they may be one as we are one
The unity Jesus prayed for was not an invisible spiritual unity…not a mussy huggee…feely…cuddly…type of relationship…but a unity that the world can see…a visible unity among believers that will make the world realize that Christianity is not just another religion.
True spiritual unity comes from God…and results in glory to God…Jesus’s prayer…Paul’s prayer, is that we all grow in our understanding and practice of true Christian unity to God’s glory.