I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Romans 11-14.

    Paul tells us that many of the Jews of his day had failed to accept God’s grace because they wished to attain salvation by their own good works. Many people today make the same mistake, both among those who call themselves Christian and in the world in general. However, salvation can only be obtained by accepting God’s free, and undeserved, grace. We can never do enough good works to earn our salvation, and trying to do so is a rejection of God’s freely offered grace. Those Jews who insisted on trying to earn salvation, and thus rejected God’s grace, were broken off from the vine which is God’s family and those Gentiles who accepted God’s freely offered gift were grafted on to that vine in their place. Fortunately, this is where that metaphor breaks down, there is room enough that should they, or any others, realize their mistake and accept God’s freely offered gift of salvation there is room for them to be grafted on to the vine, no matter how many have previously accepted God’s gift.

    The beginning of chapter twelve contains some of the best summations of how the followers of Christ should behave. We must not allow the thinking, habits, and practices of the world around us to shape the way that we think and act. Instead, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and transform us so that our thoughts and actions make our bodies into a living sacrifice to God. As part of that process we need to think of ourselves with sober judgment. God has given each and every person unique gifts. Each of these gifts are valuable and necessary to the Body of Christ. The gifts I have been given do not make me better, or more important, than you, and vice versa. As an aside I want to note that while Paul tells us not to think of ourselves more highly that we ought, he does tell us to think of ourselves with sober judgment. The implication being to not underrate ourselves either.

    Whatever gift we have been given we should exercise it to the fullest extent of that gift and not whine and refuse to use it because we have not been given some other gift which we consider more prestigious. If we truly love others, and Paul tells us that we ought to do so, we will use whatever gifts we have been given and not spend our time selfishly pining after gifts we have not been given. It is not enough to go through the motions of loving others, we must truly seek what is best for them. Paul instructs us not to be so proud that we are unwilling to associate with those who are “beneath us”, because the very idea that some people are beneath us is contrary to Christ’s teaching.

    I would really like to spend more time on chapter fourteen than I can because of what Paul says there about who is truly the strong in faith. If we demand that the Church change its doctrines and teachings according to our tastes we are declaring that our faith is too weak to survive if those of stronger faith continue to hold to their beliefs. Paul instructs those of stronger faith to temper their behavior so as to not damage the faith of those with a weaker faith. If another believer thinks that some action which you consider acceptable is a sin, you must not flaunt your belief in front of them. For example, I know Christians who believe that as followers of Christ we should abstain from all alcoholic beverages. I do not share that belief, but I do not try to convince them that they should drink (I may occasionally attempt to convince them that it is not wrong for others to consume alcohol) and I refrain from drinking or discussing alcoholic beverages which I enjoy in front of them.