Message: You are mature in Christ, now keep on ministering and offering the Gentiles as acceptable to God
Time: Written in AD 57 from Greece, to the Christians, both Gentile and Jewish in Rome
What the Lord is Saying:
Background
Paul has been speaking to the strong ones, primarily, the strong in faith, and reminding them of the importance of being sensitive to people at different levels of faith. And to be sensitive to them regarding their beliefs or convictions. I am to build other people up, to live in harmony with others, to welcome others. Christ has welcomed me. The Jews and the Gentiles have both been grafted into the family of God. I am not to pass judgment on another person because of a conviction they have, though this is in the context of what that person believes regarding a religious conviction. This doesn't mean I can never judge nor does it mean that I am to accept everything a person does. Sometimes what people do is outright sin. I am not to be accepting towards everything a person does.
You are mature in Christ
Paul then in verse 14 says some things to the Jewish Christians here, which is who he is primarily speaking to in this book of Romans. Verse 14 kind of reminds me of the letter to seven churches that is recorded in Revelation 2 and 3 and the words John says to each of those seven churches, praising them first for something they are doing right. "You yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another."
There may be a tendency to think that because of all that Paul has said in this fine book that these Christians were therefore deficient in their understanding but this verse is a bold proclamation that these Jewish Christians were in fact living out their faith in a doctrinally sound manner and were passing on what they learned to others. And this was all based upon what he had heard concerning them because he had never visited them personally.
These were Christians that came along the side of other Christians and counseled them. They were there for each other, providing encouragement and instruction.
Reminder
Paul makes a transition in verse 15 to state why he has stated what he has. All of us need to be reminded. And Paul has not held back in his explanations. He has been bold in those explanations, comprehensively describing the explanation of thought and deed.
Ray C. Stedman makes this remark:
"I saw a man the other day with a string around his finger. The string was to remind him of something. The fact that we so easily forget things is somehow built into our humanity and I think one of the greatest proofs of the fall of man is that we have such a hard time remembering what we want to remember, yet we so easily remember what we want to forget!... Living out in the world, as many of you are, working every day among non-Christians, it is so easy to be sucked into the attitudes of the world around. It is so easy to get the idea that life is designed to be a pleasant picnic, that we can work toward the day when we can retire and enjoy ourselves. I find that attitude prevalent among people everywhere, but that is not what the Bible says. The Bible says we are in the midst of a battle, a battle to the death, against a keen and crafty foe. He wants to discourage us and defeat us, and to make us feel angry and hostile. He knows how to do it, and he never lets up. This life is not designed to be a time of relaxing. There are times when we need recreation and vacations, when we can slow down a bit. But you never see the Apostle Paul talking about quitting the battle. You cannot quit, as long as life is there. So Paul tells us that we need to be reminded, day by day and week by week, that we are in a battle and that we have a crafty foe. This life is not all there is, by any means. This is school time, a training ground, where we are to learn our lessons. This life is getting us ready for the real thing that is yet to come."I agree with this statement. We believe so often that life is about us and about our enjoyment. In Christ, however, I am on mission.
Be a minister
Throughout these past 2 chapters, the overriding message in these chapters is to be a minister to our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is to think of others as more important than myself. It is to want the best for others. I think we all just have this tendency over and over to make ourselves happy and please ourselves. Yet, Paul uses a different word here for minister to emphasize something. He uses leitourgos because he saw his missionary work like that of a priest offering sacred worship to God.
Paul desires to present Gentiles before God. A person makes a sacrifice or presentation before God to show God that I am denying myself and bringing something before you, hoping that you find it pleasing. So Paul wants to encourage these Christians to not just accept the Gentile but to present these Gentiles to God as a sacrifice like a priest would do. It is one thing to accept others that are different from us, but it is quite another thing to present them before God. It is to come alongside them and really desire their best.
Offering of the Gentiles
Transformation of thoughts are possible. Paul is a testament to this. Prior to being in Christ he hated the Gentile believers and now he is bringing them before God as a sacrifice, desiring them to be pleasing to God. The Lord will reward us as we offer up these sacrifices.
Promise: We labor, not only for the saving of men, but for the satisfying of the heart of God. This is the most powerful motive.
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