Unlimited: God Has Accepted Them
Sep 27, 2023 419
The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them (Romans 14:3).
The great struggle in the first Christian communities was between those believers who accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah and held on tenaciously to the strict laws of the Jewish way of life, including circumcision and the Levitical food laws; and those Gentile believers for whom these things were not necessary.
It was fine if each kind of believers were tolerant and accepting of the other, but this was not the case. Instead, each group saw things differently. The Gentile believers, who had been taught by Paul, believed that they had been saved only through faith, by the grace of Jesus, at the Cross. However, the Jewish believers, based mainly out of Jerusalem, believed that salvation was achieved by believing in Jesus plus obeying the laws and rituals that Moses had given their ancestors.
You need to accept others as God has accepted you.
The Jewish believers looked down with contempt at the Gentile believers as spiritual inferiors, and they treated them as such. The Jewish believers judged those believers who felt free to eat everything.
Yet the apostle Paul is very clear about this. These divisions should not exist within the church. God has accepted those who eat “everything”, just as by implication, God has accepted “the one who does not eat everything.”
Spiritual Application
Is there a group of believers whom you did not accept in the past but you now accept? These might be believers who lived differently to you, or who worshipped differently. What has changed in you that brought you to the point of accepting them? Or perhaps you still need to accept others as God has accepted you? Think these things through.
ROWLAND HELEGBE.
Sep 27, 2023
Thank you for today’s message. There really exists some group of believers whose teachings does not suit the doctrines I have learnt and still learning. For that matter, I do not accept them, even though I still do not accept their teachings, we seem to be personal friends, that means I do not hate them, I only do not accept their teachings. The least said about them, the better. Thank you.
ROWLAND HELEGBE.
Sep 27, 2023
Thank you for today’s message there really exist some group of believers whose teachings does not suit the doctrines I have learnt and still learning. For that matter I do not accept them. Even though I don’t accept their teachings, we seem to be in talking terms since I do not hate them. I only do not accept their teachings. The least said about their teachings, the better. Thank you.