The primary ministries for the Christian faith and the life of the church is to worship and serve the Lord. Worship, public and private, is “the good portion,” the best part, the priority. But such worship is senseless if it does not result in service. We serve the Lord when we serve others.
We like to call this the Parable of the Good Samaritan, a tale of one, good, Samaritan who did one, real good deed. But is there more than one good Samaritan in the text, and He did more than one good thing. Let me tell you the Parable of the Two Samaritans.
All of Romans is about all of the Christian life. It covers the doctrines of salvation (chapters 1-11), the life of love to be lived by Christians (chapters 12-15), and this personal and powerful benediction to the author and finisher of the Christian faith (chapter 16). All is for the glory of God!
Christianity is not merely a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is personal relationships with other persons, other Christians, a corporate relationship with Christ and His church. We worship the Lord best when we worship together. We serve the Lord by serving one another.
Every day is not the same, but every day is an opportunity to work with the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. And while the saints in church need more pastors committed to expository preaching, the unchurched in the world need more Christians committed to everyday evangelism.
Time is of the essence if you really want to “know” the Lord. God makes time for those He loves. Do you make time for God? “Know” in Jesus’ prayer and in both biblical languages means so much more than merely grasping facts. It means grasping a person.
The Bible divides people into two groups. There are saints and there are sinners. Among the saints there are two groups too, the sents and the senders. The Apostle Paul explains all of this as he begins to bring this big beautiful letter to the Romans to a close.
Romans 14:1-15:13 is one section best studied in three parts. It offers a philosophy of the Christian life based on Christian love. When followed, it maintains unity in a church filled with different people with different opinions about different matters on which there are different interpretations of Scripture.
Remember one of Paul’s aims in writing Romans was to promote unity among a diverse body of believers. The Apostle wanted them to be united in the theology of the gospel (chapters 1-11), and also in the philosophy of the Christian life (chapters 12-15).
Flowing out of the previous context’s emphasis on loving one another (ref. Romans 13:8ff), Paul shows us some ways to take action; or, in this case, inaction, in order to enjoy unity with fellow believers and put forth a full witness for Christ. Sometimes, we just have to love and let live.
