Receive each other

Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God. Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, - Romans 15.7-8

 People tend to be pretty clan minded. We see that all through history. We are most comfortable with our own. We tend to stick together with those who are like us. Sociologists would call this our ‘herd instinct.’ Whatever it is we like to be with those like us.

Sadly this aspect of man is not dismissed just because we are Christians. The problem goes back to the very start. This whole section we have been looking at was written to deal with the split between Jewish and Gentile believers. Humanly speaking it threatened to destroy the church before it even started.

Sadly we are not exempt from that. We still like people who act like us, dress like us, fly our same flag, sing our same songs, have our same preferences, act like us, etc. These things, even if is subtle, can be cause division, or at least ‘stand-off-ish-ness’ and make those who are different feel ostracised.

But Paul tells us how to treat those who are different in appearance, ideas, thoughts, or practice than we are – ‘receive them like Jesus received us.’

There is not a whole lot more to say on the topic, is there. ‘Receive each other, despite your supposed differences, like Jesus received us.’

‘Nuff said.