Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Dealing With Disunity | New Testament | Romans 15

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

The Bible isn’t naïve to say that there won’t be conflict. But it is concerned with how that conflict is handled. Is it done with grace and humility or anger and accusation? Can you be unified with people you don’t agree with on important matters? Keith uses Romans 15 to discuss on today's episode. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Romans 15

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I am confident that God is grieved by the disunity that exists among Christians. If you scroll through Twitter or pay attention to what happens in denominational meanings or listen to Christians talk about politics, you hear Christians fighting among themselves. Now, I love good faith discussions about theology or how that theology applies in every area of our life, including politics. I think debate is good because it has the potential to lead us to the truth.

And I don't think two people will agree on everything, much less hundreds of people that attend the same local church, or tens of thousands of people that make up the same denomination, or millions of people that discuss politics and cultural issues, or billions of people that make up the worldwide church. Heck, I don't even agree with myself sometimes. So the Bible doesn't naively say there won't be any conflict among Christians, but it is concerned with, how that conflict is handled. Is the conflict we have with other Christians handled with grace and humility,

or anger and accusation? Can you be unified with people you don't agree with on important matters? Well, I hope the answer is yes. Otherwise, the unity that God cares about is unattainable, because there's no way that all Christians are going to agree on anything,

much less agree on everything. One of the main reasons that Paul wrote the letter of Romans was to help Jewish and Gentile Christians find unity in Jesus. There was a lot dividing them, including religion, ethnicity, and customs. You see, the Roman church had both Jews and Gentiles in it until about 48 or 49 AD. That's when the Roman Emperor Claudius kicked Jews out of Rome because of disturbances over one that they called Crestis. Well, this seems like an obvious misspelling of Christus, which is Latin for Christ. Remember that the Romans didn't really understand the difference between Jews and Christians.

To them they were all the same. And that makes sense because many of the early Christians were Jewish. So when there's this argument over Christ, Claudius just kicks out all the Jews, including all the Jewish Christians. Well, in 54 AD, Claudius has died, and the edict came to an end. Jews were allowed back in Rome. Well, the Jewish Christians returned to a church that was entirely different than the one they'd left. See, when they'd left Rome, the Jews had been the leaders in the church. They'd set the customs.

They'd set the priorities. And now all that has changed and Gentiles hold the power. So one reason the letter to the Romans was written was to help these two groups find unity in Jesus. That's largely what Romans chapter 15 is about. Paul sets the tone at the beginning of the chapter. He says, we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not please ourselves. What Paul is saying is that the people with the cultural and financial power should use

that power to build up the weak, to build up the people who don't have power. We shouldn't use our power to make our lives more comfortable. This truth has so many applications. Christians with financial resources should steward those resources in a way that lifts up people who don't have them. Church leaders should use their institutional power on behalf of outsiders. If you know a lot of people in a social setting. You should use that social power to include those who don't know anyone or perhaps don't feel as comfortable as you do. Some Christians have even chosen to live in neighborhoods that are struggling economically in order to wisely steward their resources. Well, in chapter 14, we saw that Paul urged Christians to not try to win arguments, but instead to accommodate

ourselves to people who disagree with us. Paul reminds us that Jesus is the greatest example of this. Here's Romans 15 verse 2. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life on behalf of others. He had all the power in the universe, but he didn't use that power to please himself, but instead to care for others and meet their needs.

Jesus was willing to endure hardships and insults at the hand. of God's enemies in service to others. We should follow his example. So where does this unity that God once come from? Well, ultimately, it comes from God. Here's verse five. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had. Unity comes from God and is not something that we can create on our own, which explains why our culture and our world are so fractured and divided. Unity comes as we seek to follow Jesus and have the same attitude that he did. Here's verse 6, so that with one mind and one voice, you may glorify the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ. God wants us as Christians to be unified because that unity glorifies God. Christian unity across race and economics and cultural and geographical boundaries shows that Jesus is a great king who is a diverse set of followers. Now, the next verse, verse 7 is key. Paul writes, accept one another then just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God. Now, you're supposed to accept others as Christ accepted you. So let's ask the question, how did Jesus accept you? Was it based on your political opinions?

Was it based on that you were good to him or that you shared his background or like the same things he did or looked like he did. No. See, you were God's enemy, but Jesus accepted you because of his grace. He loved and died for you when you were against him. The key to Christian unity, whether it's in a small group or a church or a non-profit or wherever it is, the key to Christian unity is living in the grace of God and extending that grace to others. So Paul goes on to say that Jesus came for both Jew and Gentile. In the book of Ephesians, Paul writes that Jesus tore down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile. See, what Paul could have done in Rome is he could have started two churches, a Gentile church and a Jewish church. But he didn't. He wanted one church made up of diverse

people who found unity in him. Maybe some of you are familiar with promise keepers. It was a Christian men's movement that was really popular in the 1990s, or at least that's when it was on my radar. Promise Keepers would host these big conferences and stadiums. They'd have speakers and worship leaders. I got to go to one. And at that one, and I think at a bunch of them, really, their theme was racial unity. And they sing this song called Let the Walls Fall Down. You know what? To my embarrassment, I thought that song was silly. In my pride, I thought I knew better. than those worship leaders, than the people running that conference, that event. I thought, look, these people are changing the gospel.

These people are walking away from the gospel. These people are only interested in social changes. They've changed God's true gospel for a social gospel. They're trying to get racial reconciliation when what God really wants is people to believe in him so that when they die, they can go to heaven. The reason I'm embarrassed is because I was completely wrong. Unity among Christians is a gospel issue. That's clear in lots of places in the New Testament,

including Romans 15, where we are together today. The gospel doesn't just reconcile individuals to God, but it also reconciles individuals to each other. Let's never forget that. Amen.