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. 8 Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews to show that God is true to the promises he made to their ancestors. 9 He also came so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for his mercies to them. That is what the psalmist meant when he wrote: “For this, I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing praises to your name.”
10 And in another place it is written, “Rejoice with his people, you Gentiles.”
11 And yet again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Praise him, all you people of the earth.”
12 And in another place Isaiah said, “The heir to David’s throne will come, and he will rule over the Gentiles. They will place their hope on him.”
13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
As Christ Accepted You
I struggled with breaking up this passage because Paul is flowing with a single theme throughout these words. That theme: accept others the same way Christ accepted you. Can you imagine how differently we’d live if we actually follow that philosophy? I can. Our lives would be filled with a hope and a joy that can only come from God.
What a minute … did I just make a huge leap there? How does treating others the way I was treated by Christ lead to me living with hope and joy? Well, according to Paul, when we treat others with the same grace and acceptance that we experienced, there comes a unity within our hearts. And out of that unity flows beautiful worship to God. It is through our worship to God that we connect to him. And God is the source of all hope and he fills us with joy and peace as we worship him.
Maybe you missed all that when reading today’s passage? If so, go ahead and read it again, the rest of us will wait for you. It’s all there. Paul lays it all out as a simple journey. Live in harmony with others by treating them with grace and acceptance and you will experience a sense of worship that leads you into a place of incredible joy and peace.
Seems worth it to me.
My prayer: Lord, I admit it that far too often I struggle with showing the kind of grace and acceptance to others that you’ve shown me. I want you to forgive me without question. I want you to completely understand where I’m at. And yet, sometimes I am less than gracious is my understanding of where others may be. Forgive me for that. Help me to learn to live in unity with others so that we might experience a sense of worship that is beyond what we could experience alone. Amen.
Until tomorrow.
