Sermons on Romans 15:6

… as Christ has welcomed you to the glory of God. Romans chapter 15, verses 1 through 7. There's a climactic scene in the third installment of the Toy Story movies, Toy Story 3. The entire movie is fraught with the dread of being left out. At the beginning, we meet the old gang again, Sheriff Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and all their friends, even the little three-eyed green spaceman they rescued from Sid. But now the little boy who used to play with them is all grown up and headed off to college, so the old toys get donated to a childcare center. On the surface, it appears that they have been chosen for the good life, but we learn that there's a conspiracy. Among the toys, the place is ruled by another bully, a big purple bear named Lotso, who himself is so ruled by the fear of being left out that he's rigged the game to protect and to please himself. Buzz, Woody, and the others escape. Furious, Lotso hunts them down. …

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… tolerance. What is it? Take a look. It's chapter 15, verse 1 and verse 7. Look at verse 7. Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God. Accept one another. Now, here's the problem with this translation. The word accept in English now means something rather different than what the Greek word that Paul is using means. And to show you what I mean, the same word is used in Romans 14, verse one. Now, it's not printed in the bulletin, but let me read it to you. In Romans 14, verse one, which is basically the same letter talking to the same people about the same conflict, Paul says, accept him whose faith is weak without passing judgment on him. Boy, now right away we're getting into how Paul is moving us way beyond the modern view of tolerance. Listen, accept him accept him whose faith is weak without passing judgment on him. See, modern people say to accept one is to say no evaluation, no negative evaluation. I'm not going to say you're right or wrong or you're better or you're worse. But here's what Paul says, accept your brother without judgment, though he's wrong. He's weak. He's theologically wrong. …

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You've just heard the very Word of God. Please be seated. Let's pray. Again, our Father, we look to You for assistance in helping us to understand Your Word, helping us to receive that Word, and to receive it gladly, not grudgingly, that our lives may be brought more and more into conformity with the image of Jesus, whom we serve. For we ask it in His name. Amen. As I mentioned earlier, Paul's treatment of this question of how we regard the weaker brother in things that are audiophorous, that is, of things that don't have any intrinsic or inherent ethical bearing, but which some people may or may not have scruples about was a matter so serious to the apostle that he dealt with it at great length here in Romans and also in his correspondence to the Corinthian church. Also it was part of the substance of his writing to the Galatians, and it was also very much at the center of the debate in the first century church of how the Jewish converts were to receive and deal with the Gentiles as the gospel was expanded to them, and they were given full membership in the New Covenant community. So this was a matter of great urgency to the apostle, And as we've seen already in chapter 14, that Paul reiterates the same point again and again, that you may find tiresome, but that he stresses so that we will indeed get the point that he is communicating. And so, let's again look at verse 19 that I went over briefly last week. …

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