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 15-16.

    Paul concludes his case about how we deal with “disputable matters” by writing that we should not live just to please ourselves. Rather we should live so as to help others do what is right. By doing so we can live in harmony. As in other places, Paul writes here that those who follow Christ should live in unity. However, he also ends his letter to the Roman Church by warning them to stay away from people who cause division by teaching things different from what has been the teachings of the Church from the beginning. Paul’s teachings on unity among believers is often used by those who teach things counter to what he taught on issues concerning sexual morality and others. Faithful believers have often failed to recognize that Paul condemns those who advocate such practices without practicing them even more strongly than he does those who practice immorality. We would recognize that someone who encourages others to use heroin or cocaine recreationally is encouraging people to harm themselves. Why do we fail to recognize that those who encourage others to be sexually immoral are doing the same?
    As part of his conclusion, Paul writes that he is confident that the members of the Roman Church, to whom he is writing, are fully aware of the teachings he is writing about. He emphasizes that this letter to them is but a reminder of things which they already know and teach. He makes the point that this reminder is necessary, not because they were not fully aware of what he is writing, but because the things he wrote were so important that reiterating them is always a good thing.

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 discusses his desire for all Jews to accept Jesus as their Savior. Today, we often speak of trying to convert Jews to Christianity. Paul did not see that as something to be attempted because he believed that putting faith in Jesus was a natural result of faithfully following Judaism. Paul tells us that at all points in history there will be a number of Jews who faithfully follow God and accept Jesus as Lord. He also prophecies that at some point all Jews will come to the Lord. However, my biggest takeaway from Paul’s writing here on Jews is that you cannot be a faithful follower of Jesus and hate Jews.

    I want to write about chapter twelve because I think it contains some of the most important advice for Christians there is. However, I am unsure what to write because this is one place where what Paul writes is so clear and concise. All too often, we as Christians fail to listen to what he says here and allow ourselves to blend in. One of the most effective ways to reach unbelievers is to live our lives in a way which causes them to ask us, “Why are you different?” Paul is really quite clear. If we do not allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds, and thus transform us, we will conform to the patterns of those around us. Paul does not leave us to guess what that transformation would look like and he tells us how we can invite that transformation. The first step is to have an honest, accurate view of ourselves, not thinking ourselves better than others and recognizing that God has made us valuable to Him where and how we are. Whatever gifts He has given us we must put into use to the best of our ability, not spending our time attempting to do things which require gifts which God has not given us. Those who have been transformed bless those who persecute them and repay evil with good.

    I considered passing over the end of today’s passage partly because I am running out of time and partly because it is difficult to reconcile with the need to hold our brothers and sisters in Christ accountable to His word. Paul here tells us not to argue over “disputable” matters. He gives as examples of such matters, the issue of what is appropriate to eat or drink and celebrating holy days. On the issue of food and drink, I believe that Paul is referring both to Jewish kosher law and dealing with the issue of food sacrificed to idols (which he discusses in more details in his letters to the Corinthians). The important point about what he teaches here is that we should not attempt to force those who feel the need for more strict rules to abandon those rules just because we believe they are unnecessary. The key here is that those of us with a stronger faith should accommodate the beliefs of those with a weaker faith. In other words, if what you are arguing for is not fundamental to being a follower of Christ, you should drop the argument. Failing to drop the argument is a tacit admission that your faith is weaker than the person you are arguing with.

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 8-10.

    Today’s passage continues a theme which Paul began writing on in yesterday’s passage. I did not touch on it yesterday because the thoughts did not come together. Today Paul talks about how we no longer need to follow our sinful nature because of what God has done for us. We are no longer enslaved to our sinful nature but are free to allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives. If we do the things that please the Holy Spirit, we are controlled by the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, if we do the things which please our sinful nature we will be controlled by our sinful nature. This entire passage often seems either plainly self-evident or complexly confusing. However, having read it year after year as part of writing this blog I have come to realize that Paul is talking about something I discovered some time back, and still fail to fully implement in my life. If we do the things which we know that we should be doing we will not have time to sin. The more we do the things which God desires us to do, the less opportunity we will have to succumb to temptation. The Holy Spirit will direct us in what we should do. If we follow its directions we will not yield to temptation. Yet, this is not what saves us. We should allow the Holy Spirit to guide us because we are saved, not think that we will be saved because we do as the Holy Spirit directs.

    In chapter 10 Paul gives the best summation of the Gospel message

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

That is from verse nine and is often misinterpreted as cheap grace. In verse ten Paul explains that believing in our heart makes us right with God, and as the Book of James explains, if we believe in our hearts our behavior will change. Further, Paul explains that the open acknowledgement that Jesus is the source of our salvation, not any action of our own, saves us. From there Paul goes on to remind us of the Scripture which says that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Which leads him to give the most succinct explanation of our purpose as Christians and the purpose of the Church.

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?

When I was growing up, I perceived that just about everyone I knew had heard the Gospel message at one point or another. I know now that it was fewer than I had realized, but most people had still been exposed to that message. Today, most people I encounter have little familiarity with the Gospel. Of course our society is drifting ever further from god, because so few of the people in it have ever actually heard about Him. And our Churches are, all too often, failing to send anyone to tell them. Is your congregation dying? If so, when was the last time someone from it went out and preached the Gospel to people who were not already familiar enough with Christ to seek out the Church?

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 4-7.

    We do not earn God’s love, we accept it. As I read through today’s passage I realized part of why Paul’s writing here is sometimes hard to follow. There is a paradox of sorts at the heart of Paul’s understanding of how we become saved. Nothing we can do will earn us salvation. Nothing we do makes us better than anyone else. But we need to have faith that God has made us right with Him in order for that to happen. The best way to describe this is by example. At some point, most, if not all, of us have done something to someone which we know hurts them and which we know we cannot make right. Our natural tendency is to avoid interacting with them or talking with them. If we do talk with them, we tend to keep that interaction to the minimum necessary for the circumstances because nothing we can do can make right what we did. However, that person can make our relationship right by forgiving us. However, if we continue to refuse to interact with them, our relationship will never be made right. Further, because we will not connect with that person again, we continue to do things to them which are hurtful. In order to be reconciled with that person we must do two things. We must recognize that nothing we can do can fix the damage we have done. We must accept that they have forgiven us. In the same way our faith does not make us right with God, it just allows God to make us right with Him.

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 1-3.

    Today’s passage is one of those which is so full of stuff that I am not going to be able to comment on everything important. Paul writes to the believers in Rome telling them how much he wants to visit them. He wants to do so in order to bring them encouragement and teaching, but he also wants to be encouraged and taught by them. I never realized before how that fits in with what he writes later in today’s passage. One theme that goes throughout this passage, and much of Paul’s writing, is that no one has any position to “lord it” over others. I am not better than you, you are not better than me. We are all sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. Nothing we have done, or can do, can make us right with God. Only the action of God could make us right with Him. Jesus took that action by dying on the cross. Until we have faith in the power of Jesus to make us right with God we will continue to try to force God to accept our judgement of what is right and wrong. One thing that I want to point out about Paul’s teaching here. None of us can claim to be better than others, but the converse is also true: none of us can claim to be worse than others.

    Paul points out that God has made Himself known through the nature of the Universe. We know what is right and wrong almost by instinct. Yet we often choose to reject that knowledge. Paul goes on to detail the many perversities which result from refusing to accept God and the rules by which He has designed the world to function. And those of us who acknowledge God have no basis for considering ourselves better than those because we commit the same sins. We all fall short of God’s standard. Only when the Holy Spirit enters into us and transforms us will we live a life as God desires. If we live as God desires it is not to our credit because it only happens because the Holy Spirit is moving us to do so.