DO WE HAVE OUR WELCOME MATS OUT? - A STUDY ON ROMANS 14 PART 4 OF 11

 

Statue of Meriwether Lewis meeting William Clark, Falls of Ohio State Park, Clarksville, IN

Are we receptive to others like we should be?

I consider Romans 14 to be the key manifesto on Christian Liberty, but we need to remember why we have liberty as a believer. Is it about us? Or about others? 

You may remember my list of translations of Romans 14:1. The Jubilee Bible 2000 renders this as "Bear with one who is sick in the faith...", but the others I listed start with words like "Receive," Accept," and "Welcome."

As we start in this study, it is important to realize that we're talking about the Church. Of course, a smart aleck (like myself) would ask if I meant the local church or the universal church. And of course, I'd answer that question, "Yes."

Naturally, the focus is on the local church. Paul is writing to the Church in Rome. If they have a fellow believer from another city visit, then they are included. Keep in mind, though, that the first nine of Paul's letters listed were written specifically to churches, not to individuals in the church. Some were to be shared, like he asked the Colossians to do with Laodicea, but the focus is more centralized.

It is obvious that we're living in a different context. There were no denominations in Paul's days. There were the beginnings of movements like the Ebionites (some of which were Judaizers) and the Gnostics (not unlike today's New Age movement), but the sects were those who departed from the faith. The Reformers and several of our denominations nowadays are the opposite: they start a new movement because they are in an environment of error and seek to return to the safe harbors of Scripture. Also, the only reason a 1st century believer would stop attending one local fellowship and start attending another was solely because of a physical move: worship styles or children ministries or celebrity preachers weren't an issue back then.

Let's go back to the context. In the seven verses preceding Romans 14, we see an emphasis on loving one another and walking in the light. The former one is a theme throughout the New Testament, with Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John (plus the author of Hebrews, should you think it's not Paul) directly saying we're to love one another and James and Jude implying that command.

I may have said this before (maybe even previously in this study), but Christians tend to unite with those they should be divided from and divided from those they should be united with. How do we know? Are they fellow believers? Do they believe Jesus is the Christ/Messiah, God come in the flesh, Savior of the World, who died for our sins and rose again bodily the third day? Do they believe that salvation is a gift of God, not wages we earn by good behavior, and that it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone? Are they seeking to please Him and not themselves in how they live, and are they displaying the fruits of the Spirit? If so, they're probably a fellow believer and you are to welcome them.