Notes on Romans 15

Unity is the body of Christ has long since ceased to exist. There are so many denominations now that it is all but impossible to keep track of them. Some are cults, but others are the results of disputes over doctrine, style, or leadership, among other things. Even within local churches, splits often occur over pastoral leadership or differences in interpreting doctrine. Once a split occurs, people cease to be concerned about the needs of others they may have known for many years. Rather than following the Biblical prescription to bear the shortcomings of the weak, we leave them to their own devices and go off to form another congregation of like-minded members. Or, even worse, the spiritually immature in a body refuse the counsel of those who grown further in Christ, and go where they can follow their own folly. Sometimes it may be something as infantile as not being able to use contemporary music in worship services, though the refusal to consider any music written after 1950 can also rise out of childishness.

When we focus on our own wants rather than on Christ problems always result. While matters of style sometimes represent deeply held beliefs and not just personal preference, the question should always be, "Does what we're doing, or propose to do, glorify Christ?" If it doesn't, we have no business doing it, and that includes the dispute itself as well as its object. The next question is, "Does it build up, or edify, others in the body?" To use the example above, are we insisting on a certain style of music because we believe it will benefit other members spiritually, or because that happens to be the kind of music we like?

This passage said that we should glorify God with one mind and one mouth. We can't do that if we're divided, and the unity we need comes only from the working of the Holy Spirit. Preserving a spirit of cooperation and respect with other Christians requires patience, which comes, again, only from the Spirit. We all share the same hope of eternal life, a hope based in the scriptures and confirmed by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in each of us. That hope is possible only because of the Gospel of Christ, the good news of his sacrifice for us, and the extension of God's promises to the Gentiles through him. That is why he is deserving of our praise and glory, and that should be the focus of our concern, not our own wants and priorities. We are adopted children, part of a family, and families should not be divided by personal pride and prejudice.

As fundamental Christians we sometimes pat ourselves on the back because we believe in salvation by grace, rather than works, and because we understand that we don't keep our salvation by works either. We then go on, though, to involve ourselves in a multitude of programs and plans to carry out the ministry of the church, and try to carry them out in our own strength and talents. Many dedicated Christians get burned out for precisely that reason. The same God who gives us the grace to be saved is the same God who gives us the grace to witness, or minister to the poor, or visit in prisons and nursing homes, but the power of the Holy Spirit. Just as there is power available to preach a sermon or teach a Sunday School class, there is power to be an usher, perform maintenance on a church building, or maintain our link in a prayer chain.

The ability to receive knowledge about the will and way of the Lord, through studying his Word, comes from God, as does the insight and discernment to counsel other Christians. To take on ourselves the responsibilities of righteousness and holiness is the height of spiritual pride. Just as it is impossible for any of us to be saved by our own efforts, it is equally impossible for us to live an obedient Christian life without faith in God and direction from the Holy Spirit. Paul gives credit, as he should, to the power of the Holy Spirit for the "signs and wonders" wrought through him. We cannot grow as Christians and we cannot reach others with the Gospel without the power of God at work in us. When people are brought to Christ, or when we are used of the Lord to minister to the needs of others in the flock, we have no reason or cause for pride, except in the cross of Christ. We are set apart for God's use, or sanctified, not by anything we do, other than by our choice to be used and filled by the Holy Spirit.

God's timing, we are told and believe, is always perfect. That's easy enough to say when it's someone else's prayers we're talking about, but waiting for him to work out something in our own lives is a lot harder. The hardest answer to prayer to accept is, "Yes, but wait". My life verse is Psalms 27:14, where we are instructed to wait on the Lord. I waited on marriage until I was 30, after praying earnestly and fervently for a wife for years. I have prayed for salvation for some of my loved ones for as much as thirty years, and some of them are still unsaved. My experience is not at all uncommon, as Paul illustrates here in his desire to come to Rome. His trip didn't occur as he planned; instead of arriving in the midst of a missionary journey, he was taken to Rome in chains. Abraham waited for almost a century for the child God promised him, and Israel waited in 400 years of divine silence after the last of the Old Testament prophets before the Messiah came.

We have tunnel vision; we can only see a very small part of the reality of the world around us. God lives outside time, and his vision encompasses all of the past and future, as well as the present. He knows how all the pieces in his plans, whether great or small, fit together. Human choice is always an element, but sometimes people and events just have to come together in the right way for something to work out. I had to work through an amazing set of what the world would have called circumstances to ever meet my wife, and we would never have met one another if things had not happened just as they did. Had I married before meeting her, our lives would have been far different, and our daughter would never been born. Had I not made the decisions and choices that led me to be in Pikeville, Kentucky, we would never met at all.

When we don't wait on God's timing, the results may be disastrous. Abraham's failure of faith in seeking a son through Hagar still has consequences through the conflict between the Arabs, the descendents of Ishmael, and the Jews, the descendents of Isaac, the child of promise. God can still use us even when his original plan for us doesn't come about, because of our unbelief, but we so often miss his greatest blessings by trying to make things happen on our own. The obstacles in our way may not be the resistance of Satan, as when Paul was persecuted in Jerusalem, but God's effort to keep us from wandering down the path of disobedience.

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