Daily Devotional 8-19-26
What Acceptance Actually Costs
Reading: Romans 15:1-7 - We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me..........Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Devotional: Acceptance is not a passive thing. It costs something. It cost Jesus everything. When Paul bookends his teaching in Romans 14 and 15 with the same instruction to accept one another, he is not being repetitive. He is being insistent. He knows how hard it is. He knows the community he is writing to is full of people with different politics, different religious backgrounds, different convictions. And yet the call stands. Accept one another just as Christ accepted you. Not after they clean up. Not once they agree with you. Just as. The just as is the hard part, and it is the whole point.
Reflection: Is there someone in your life or your church community whom you have accepted conditionally rather than fully?
Reading: Romans 15:1-7 - We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me..........Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Devotional: Acceptance is not a passive thing. It costs something. It cost Jesus everything. When Paul bookends his teaching in Romans 14 and 15 with the same instruction to accept one another, he is not being repetitive. He is being insistent. He knows how hard it is. He knows the community he is writing to is full of people with different politics, different religious backgrounds, different convictions. And yet the call stands. Accept one another just as Christ accepted you. Not after they clean up. Not once they agree with you. Just as. The just as is the hard part, and it is the whole point.
Reflection: Is there someone in your life or your church community whom you have accepted conditionally rather than fully?
No Comments