Friends in Christ Weekly Message
December 8, 2007

God is the one who makes us patient and cheerful. I pray that he will help you live at peace with each other, as you follow Christ. Then all of you together will praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
     Honor God by accepting each other, as Christ has accepted you.
Romans 15:5-7 (CEV*)

Paul was addressing tensions between Jews and Gentiles in the early chuch in this passage. These two groups came out of different religious and cultural backgrounds, and were peoples who were historically often in conflict with each other. Paul was calling for love and unity among them.

In our situations, probably there are different groups among which there may be tensions due to differences in such things as culture, class and ethnic background. Paul's teaching is applicable to all such tensions in the church, the body of Christ. If we allow Him to do so, Christ will cleanse our hearts from judgmental attitudes towards fellow believers from different backgrounds, and we will come to fully accept each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Have you come to accept believers of different cultural, class and ethnic backgrounds as brothers and sisters in Christ who are your equals in God's eyes? Is your heart open so that Christ may take away any remnants of prejudice within you?

Bill Samuel

* Contemporary English Version ©1995 American Bible Society.

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