Paul addresses the weak and the strong...Paul is dealing with immature faith which we have all had at one time or another....certain things are non-negotiable in faith such as Christ's resurrection, but differences of opinion are OK in the body.....we are not to quarrel about matters of opinion...differences should be handled in love. Everyone is accountable to God, not necessarily to others. My study bible puts it in a neat way: When we stand before God's court of justice ("judgment seat"), we won't be worried about what our Christian neighbor has done.
Then a really big verse: Everything that does not come by faith is a sin....OUCH....this includes worry, my friends!
Paul again tells us to check Scripture to test everything....
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Paul had never been to the Roman church because he had heard that they were doing well. Paul felt his duty was to go where there was no Christian foundation to preach the Gospel...he wanted to come to Rome; he would enjoy the fellowship.
Paul gives personal greetings to close the epistle (letter)...Phoebe was probably a wealthy person who may have delivered this letter from Corinth to Rome. This provides evidence that women had important roles in the early church....we also have evidence in 16:5 that personal greetings went to Romans, Greeks, Jews and Gentiles, men and women, prisoners and prominent citizens....the church's base was broad according to my study bible....and from this we learn that the church was mobile, because Paul had met these people on his journeys.
Rome was a huge cosmopolitan city...lots of major political decisions were made....remember, Rome had control of the whole "world" at that time due to the conquests it had made (Remember Daniel's dream and the statue). There was lots of potential for conflict with so many different layers of society....do you think we have that today????
Look what comes up from the depths of the sea.
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a couple of verses that caught my eye and notes from my Bible:
ReplyDelete14:12..."So then each of us shall give account of himself to God." My Bible asks....what would I tell God of how I lived my life the past week? day? plans for tomorrow?
14:23 "But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin." We should live our whole lives relying on the power of race as it comes to us through faith. If we are not sure that something we would like to do honors God or if we cannot do it in faith, then we should not do it....plain and simple.
15:13 "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
The normal Christian life is to be characterized by hope, joy, and peace. As we grow in grace, God wants us to experience more and more of each of them, and if they're lacking, something has gone wrong.