Welcome to another — Peace in Christ

I recently received a letter from a couple from our congregation who worked for the cause of the gospel in Congo for most of their lives. When I read it, a particular line caught my eye: “We pray,” they wrote, “that we will all learn to love ourselves, to forgive ourselves, and to accept us more in the time God grants us. “

This is one of the most important requests that each of us can address to God: the Lord calls believers to love, forgive and accept themselves, precisely because He has loved us, forgiven us and accepted us in Christ. The most important truths that arise in almost all sections of the application of The Letters of the New Testament are fundamental to the apostle Paul’s teaching, and no less to Romans, perhaps his greatest letter, than in Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. He held the Church of Rome responsible for this truth when she wrote, “Wherefore, do you welcome one another as Christ also welcomed us to the glory of God?(Romans 15,7).

We should not be surprised to find this application in a letter so truly filled about how God justifies and accepts.
For free.
By His grace.
Those who believe in Christ.
Since God received us for Himself in Christ.
We must receive However.
The context shows that there may be a sinful gap in such reception and reception by others as part of a local church.

Interestingly, in addition to the question of complacency, the Apostle deals only with another pastoral problem in the Church of Rome: it was up to the weakest and strongest members to refuse to accept themselves. who did not have their conscience articulated with the biblical teaching about their freedom to eat and drink. Those with weak food and drink awareness judged those with a strong conscience. Paulo summed up the problem by writing, “He who eats does not despise what he does Does not eat, and he who does not eat does not judge what he eats, because God has welcomed him?(14,3).

While disputes over food and drink may or may not be important in our communities today, the issue of contempt and judgment for others in a community is one of the perennial problems to which we are all susceptible. Often, we are only willing to offer acceptance to a small group. In our flesh, we tend to be friends only with those we believe have virtues that we believe are in ourselves or that we want to be honest about ourselves. We are convinced that we must only accept those who have similar values or apparent virtues. However, it is not an acceptance, it is an affinity. As we teach this principle to His disciples, our Savior asked, “And if you greet only your brethren, what else are you doing?Don’t the Gentiles do the same? (Matthew 5:47).

The Gospel heals us from our sinful propensity to show preferential treatment by selecting believers (James 2:8-13). When we remember that we have become beneficiaries of God’s grace under Jesus’ sacrificial death, we will want to extend grace to others When we recognize that Jesus died for us when we were completely unpleasant and contrary to Him (Romans 5:6-11), in order to reconcile ourselves with God for his atoning and conducive death for our sin, we hope to receive all – for whom Christ died?(14,15). When we pay attention to the fact that “Christ was not satisfied with himself,” rather he took upon himself the insults with which they insulted God (15. 3), we become jealous of enduring the weaknesses and failures of others for their good.

The welcome we receive from Christ is a welcome that loves, forgives, builds, and grows. May God give us the grace to welcome all other believers, for He welcomed us into communion with himself through the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross.

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