May we be of the same mind.
[Romans 15:1-6]
These days, I am studying Jonah 4 during the Bible
study for leaders. The more I study, the
more the lesson God gives me is, in one word, 'Yet not my will, but Your be
done.’ God's servant, the prophet Jonah,
was angry with God for turning His will to bring disaster on the people of
Nineveh who repented and turned from their sins. Why? Jonah
wanted his will to be done rather than God's will to be done. What was Jonah’s will? It was the destruction of the people of
Nineveh. Jonah wanted God to bring
disaster on the people of Nineveh with his life. Looking
at Jonah like this, I thought about how to know the maturity of faith. In a word, I think the maturity of faith is
to put down my own will in front of the cross and submit to the will of the
Lord. In other words, a mature Christian
prays the prayer Jesus offered to Heavenly Father in the Garden of Gethsemane
the night before He was crucified: Father, if You are willing, remove this cup
from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Lk. 22:42). What is the Lord's will for our church?
In today's text, Romans 15:5-6, Paul prays for the
Roman church as follows: “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement
give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that
with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.” He prayed to God for the unity
of the church. The reason is because the
unity of the church is the will of the Lord, who is the head of the church. What must we do for the unity of the church? Through today's text, I hope and pray that we
will devote ourselves to keep the unity of the church in diversity by receiving
and obeying the lessons God gives.
First, in order
for us to keep the unity of the church, which is the body of the Lord, we must
please our neighbors rather than please ourselves.
Look at Romans 15:1-2: “We who are strong ought to
bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his
good, to build him up.” Paul is writing
a letter to the church in Rome, admonishing its members not to share with each
other due to the Christians' faith and conscience issues (the issue of
adiaphora) and tolerating them, but in particular, believers with strong faith
should understand and embrace those who are weak (Park). To do so, believers with strong faith must
please their neighbors rather than please themselves. What does it mean? It means that the church is not to dogmatize
or enforce its own standard that believers who can eat meat in the community
are okay to eat meat (Park). If
believers with strong faith dogmatize what they believe or force it to be the
standard of the church, what will happen to believers with weak faith who
believe that they should not eat meat and only eat vegetables? If those who claim to be strong in faith try
to carry out their assertion within the church, how will believers with weak
faith react? In the end, disputes will
inevitably arise due to friction and conflict within the church. In order to guard against this very result,
Paul exhorts the Roman church saints who are strong in faith to use the subject
“we” (v. 1), not to please ourselves, but to please our neighbors who are weak
in faith.
How can those who are strong in faith please those who
are weak in faith?
(1) Those
with strong faith must take responsibility and embrace the weaknesses of those
with weak faith.
Look
at Romans 15:1 – “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak
and not to please ourselves.” The church
cannot be one if those who are strong in faith look at those who are weak in
faith, they despise them in their hearts, thinking, 'Why is their faith so
weak?’ and think that ‘I have better faith than them’ and have a sense of
superiority. In order to keep the unity
of the church, the saints who think their faith is a bit strong should be wary
of these sinful tendencies. Rather,
those with strong faith should understand and embrace the weaknesses of those
whose faith is deduced, thinking about when their faith was weak. In order to do so, the consciousness that
those who have strong faith must have is the ‘debtor consciousness’. In fact, the word “ought” in verse 1has the
meaning of being in debt (Park). That's
why Paul already told the Roman church saints in Romans 13:8, " Let no debt remain outstanding,
except the continuing debt to love one another." If those who are strong in faith help and
embrace the weaknesses of those who are weak in the faith with a sense of being
debtors after receiving Paul's exhortation, then the unity of the church can be
maintained.
(2) Those
with strong faith must strive to build those with weak faith up.
Look
at Romans 15:2 – “Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build
him up.” d
The
word to build up here means to construct (Park). In other words, those who are strong in faith
help those who are weak in faith with a sense of responsibility, but they must
think about how they can help their faith to be firmly established. In other words, we all must become spiritual
architects who build God's church. So,
we need to think about how we can build each other up and move forward. I thought of 3 things: (a) Just as the
foundation must be strong when building a house, those with strong faith in the
church must use their strength as spiritual architects to strengthen the
foundation of those with weak faith. In
other words, those with strong faith must help those with weak faith to build
the foundation of faith on the rock of God's word. (b) Just as there must be walls when building
a house, those who are strong in faith must provide spiritual protection
through prayer to those who are weak in faith.
(c) Just as a roof is needed when building a house, those with strong
faith in the church must convince those with weak faith about the helmet of
salvation they are wearing. In other
words, those with strong faith must instill assurance of salvation to those
with weak faith. Therefore, those with
strong faith must help those with weak faith to win the spiritual battle with
the assurance of salvation.
Why
should those who are strong in faith do this? Why should those who are strong in faith help
and embrace the weaknesses of those who are weak in faith with a sense of
responsibility, and also strive to build them up? In a word, why should we please our neighbors
rather than please ourselves? The reason
is because Christ did not please Himself (v. 3). The final purpose of Jesus Christ is not to
please Himself, but to please Heavenly Father and do His will (Jn. 4:34; 5:30;
6:38; 8:25, 27–29; Phil. 2:6–8) (MacArthur).
Like Jesus, we too must please the Lord rather than please ourselves. In fact, when we please the Lord, we also
please ourselves. The reason is because
the joy of the Lord becomes our joy. Therefore,
we must keep the unity of the church, which is the body of the Lord.
Second, in order
for us to keep the unity of the church, which is the body of the Lord, we must
have hope through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures.
Look at Romans 15:4 – “For everything that was written
in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the
encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” In order for us to keep the unity of the
church, we must please the Lord rather than please ourselves. How can we please the Lord? It is because we obey the will of the Lord
that we can please the Lord. Then what
is the will of the Lord? If we want to
know the will of the Lord, we must see the words of the Scriptures. And as Paul says in verse 4, “For everything
that was written in the past was written to teach us,” and that lesson tells us
the will of the Lord in verses 4-5: “For everything that was written in the
past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement
of the Scriptures we might have hope. May
the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among
yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus.” It
is the endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures. In order for us to keep the unity of the
church, we must persevere with faith in the words of the Scriptures. We must endure with faith in the words of the
Scriptures against all the works of Satan who oppose the church and try to
break the unity of the church. In doing
so, we can keep the unity of the church.
Also, in order for us to keep the unity of the church, we must comfort
each other with the words of the Scriptures. Why? The
reason is to have hope in the Lord. In
other words, the reason we endure the words of the Scriptures by faith and
comfort each other with the words of the Scriptures is to have hope in the
Lord.
When I meditated on “hope,” I remembered Romans 5:3-5:
“Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that
suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God
has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given
us.” In order for us to keep the unity
of the church, we must have hope. Because
the church is persecuted, the reason why we can endure and persevere in
tribulation is because we have hope. And
because we have hope, we can comfort our brothers and sisters in tribulation. What is our hope? That is “the glory of God” (5:2). What does the “glory of God” that you and I hope
for refer to here? The glory of God that
we hope for means that on the day of Jesus’ return, we will be suddenly
transformed (1 Cor. 15:51), no longer dishonored (v. 43), no longer weak (v.
43), incorruptible and immortal (v. 54), and put on “a body of glory” (Phil. 3:21). Apostle Peter refers to this as “the divine nature”
in 2 Peter 1:4. Our very sure and joyful
hope is to fully participate in the character of Jesus, who is God. The indwelling God the Holy Spirit is
sanctifying us so that we, who are justified, can participate in the character
of Jesus. Although we are not perfect
now, on the day of Jesus' return, we will fully participate in the character of
the Lord. This sure and joyful hope God
has given to us who are justified through Jesus Christ. With this hope, we must strive to keep the
unity of the church while being patient and comforting each other.
Third and last, in
order to keep the unity of the church, which is the body of the Lord, we must
give glory to God with one heart and one mouth.
Look at Romans 15:5-6: “May the God who gives
endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you
follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” As
Paul wrote a letter to the saints in Rome, he prayed to God that all the saints
would be of the same mind with one another by imitating Christ Jesus. In other words, in order for us to keep the
unity of the church, which is the body of the Lord, we must pray to God,
saying, ‘Please make our will the same.’ In order to offer these prayers, there is an
essential condition. That is, we all
imitate Jesus. The reason is because if
we all fail to imitate Jesus, we cannot have one mind in the Lord. However, if we imitate Jesus, we will lay
down our will in front of the cross and pray, 'Do not do my will, but do as the
Lord will'. In other words, if we all
imitate Jesus, we can all have one will, that is, the will of the Lord. So, Paul prayed to God for the saints of the
church in Rome, asking that the God of endurance and comfort grant them to be
of the same mind as Christ Jesus did (v. 5).
What is its purpose? It is so
that the entire church may glorify God with one heart and one mouth. That is our purpose. Our purpose is for the whole church to
glorify God with one heart and one mouth. It is the purpose of our church that all of us
with one accord (12:16) and with one mouth (10:9) all who confess Jesus as Lord
give glory to God the Father. I hope and
pray that we will be dedicated to fulfilling this purpose of the church.
A church worthy of God's sight is a church that obeys
the will of the Lord who is the head of the church. A beautiful church in the sight of God is a
church that keeps the oneness (unity) of the church, which is the will of the
Lord. In order for us to keep the unity
of the church, we must please our neighbors rather than please ourselves. Especially in the church, those who are strong
in faith must please those who are weak in faith. Also, in order for us to keep the unity of
the church, we must have hope through the endurance and comfort of the Scriptures.
The hope of our church is the Lord. Holding on to the word of the Lord by faith,
we must persevere and endure. And we
must not only be comforted by the word of God, but also comfort one another
with the word of God. In order for us to
keep the unity of the church, we must glorify God with one heart and one mouth. When all church members put down their own
will and obey the Lord's will because of following Jesus' example, we can
glorify God with one heart and one mouth. I hope and pray in the name of Jesus that our
church will become a church that gives glory to God.
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