Today is the ladt day of week 4 of our current study, Not Ashamed of the Gospel from HelloMornings. I'm glad you're here with me!
Our Bible text for today is Romans 14: 10 - 18 ...
But you, why do you criticize your brother? Or you, why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before the tribunal of God. 11 For it is written:
As I live, says the Lord,
every knee will bow to Me,
and every tongue will give praise to God.
12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
13 Therefore, let us no longer criticize one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in your brother’s way. 14 (I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.) 15 For if your brother is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy that one Christ died for by what you eat. 16 Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, 17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and approved by men.
Paul continues to urge the Roman Believers to unity in this passage, encouraging them to lift one another up, rather than tearing one another down with criticism and judgement.
His exhortation reminds me of Jesus's words in the Sermon on the Mount, where he commands us not to attempt to help a brother or sister out of their sin, until we have cleared the "log" of sin out of our own eye.
Paul says it this way in verse 13: "Therefore, let us no longer criticize one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in your brother’s way."
The emphasis in Paul's words today is on pursuing our own righteousness, and remembering that in the end, we will each be called to account for our own actions, not our brother’s or sister's (verse 12).
Paul tells us in Romans 14: 7 that "the Kingdom of God is ... righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit".
The writer of Hebrews tells us that we are already empowered and able to achieve this: "Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—the great Shepherd of the sheep—with the blood of the everlasting covenant, equip you with all that is good to do His will, working in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ. Glory belongs to Him forever and ever. Amen." (Hebrews 13: 20 - 21)
As Christ-followers, I believe that we ought to do nothing less than what we are empowered to do! That is how we reach the world with the Gospel, as approved ambassadors for the Lord.