Accept each other ...

Romans 15:5-7 (New Living Translation)

5 May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. 6 Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory.

I am always intrigued with the passages that remind me of the need to live in harmony, to live as one, to be in unity. How they spell out something of what this should look like. I note that often the answer to this being possible is also recorded, and it is not left to us alone, help is ours to enable this to happen. Do you notice this too?

 

"Accept each other". Not always easy is it? Yet read it again, for Paul records, "just as Christ accepted you..." Now that is huge, for I am reminded of His grace, that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me ... He accepted me as His own. Bought me with His own life (blood).

 

But, it is God helping me that enables this to be possible, through patience and encouragement.

 

What does this look like, "complete harmony: Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

 

"Jesus, if there is something I am aware of, it is that I am not always good at accepting others, yet You desire this, You purpose this. Help me to overcome the difficulty of this, by allowing You to apply Your measure of patience and encouragement to my life and my relationships with others. Let this be, so that You might receive the Glory!"