God of Hope, Joy, Peace and Power

We are passing on to Romans chapter 15. Well, we have made good progress, isn’t it? Let God’s grace be with us till the end, when we will be finishing Romans in another 2 or 3 blogs. Hallelujah! 

In the first few verses of Romans 15, Paul is continuing the subject of the strong being considerate to the weak members in the church, that was dealt in chapter 14. The strong among us are to bear with the failings of the weak. Additionally, he points out the motive for such accommodation is not to please ourselves, but build up the neighbor and for his good.  

The strong in Christ, who grasp the liberty available to them in Christ and His Spirit, are to limit the exercise of their liberty for the sake of the more backward fellow-Christian. To insist on our full liberty, when such actions might leave the conscience of the weak Christian wounded, would be un-Christian.  

The only criteria for curtailing our own freedom in Christ would be to build up the weak fellow-worshiper and thus do good to his conscience. Christ himself offered us an example. Such self-limitation was behind the principle of incarnation, where he left his rightful place in heaven, next to His Father, God, and was born as a human baby in obedience to God, bereft of all His glory. Philippians 2:6-8. 

Paul quotes Psalm 69:9 here, “for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.” In Judaic tradition, this Sufferer was not the Messiah, but probably the faithful ones to Yahweh. For the first Christians it referred to Christ, who bore insults and whip lashes for our sake. Whatever he did, he did it for others and never to please himself.

There is a difference between liberty and license. Liberty is freedom to not to do something that will be a stumbling block to the others. License is freedom to do what you want to do without any consideration for how it affects the others. The strong would limit their won freedom for the good of the others. 

Such a Christian attitude would develop in us as we read Scripture, for everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. Such a study would offer us encouragement and teach us endurance which would give us hope. It enables us to cope up with life triumphantly. 

Though Scripture was written centuries back, there is a spiritual unity in it, that is applicable beyond their original intention or the people for whom it was recorded. We can boldly say that all of Old Testament is applicable to Christ and through him to us Christians. 

Spiritual unity is important for Christian faith. There has to be harmony and brotherly love and considerations for one another. Importantly, we need to accept each other as we are, in spite of all our differences. We are to accept each other just as Christ accepted us. 

In Paul’s time the main problem was unity between the Jews converted to Christ and the Gentile converts to Christ. He was struggling hard to bring harmony between the two. He emphasizes the point that Christ was born a Jew and became a servant of the Jews so that God’s promises made to the Patriarchs could be fulfilled and God’s faithfulness and truth to His people, Jews was affirmed. 

Christ also came so that the Gentiles could be included in the kingdom of God, and glorify God for His mercy of including the Gentiles in His family. To prove this Paul quotes a series of Old Testament verses. First one is 2 Samuel 22:50. The actual quote goes like this: “Therefore I will praise you, O Lord, among nations; I will sing praises to your name.” Here David is praising the Lord his God, before all nations, for God has given him victory over his enemies. He is glorifying God’s name among the heathen nations around him, who are the Gentiles of Paul’s time. These nations, Gentiles did not know the True God, but now His name will be glorified by such countries too, who earlier did not know God. 

Next Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:43, “Rejoice, O nations, with his people,” which is the last verse of Moses’ song of farewell, containing Messianic prophecies too. The other nations, Gentiles, are to rejoice along with His people, the Jews in the salvation that God will bring in. 

Paul next quotes Psalm 117:1, containing a song to praise God for His love for the whole world. “Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.” Here again the people belong to all the nations, the Gentiles, are exhorted to praise God, for His love and faithfulness which endure for ever. 

The last quote of Paul in this section is from Isaiah 11:10. “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.” This is a Messianic prophecy, which Paul takes to mean, that from the Root of Jessie, that is David’s line, will spring up One who will rule over all the nations and the Gentiles will put their hope in him. 

Christ himself said, when he is lifted up from the earth, he will draw all people to himself. John 12:32. He also said unless a seed falls to the earth and dies there will not be an abundant harvest. John 12:24. Gentiles will come only after the crucifixion and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This Paul is stressing so that there will be one church and both the Jews and Gentiles will live in harmony. 

In case Paul had not insisted thus, there would have been two churches, one for the Jews and another for the Gentiles. Paul struggled to see that there would be only one church for both. 

A sad commentary on churches in India, where in many rural areas even today we have separate churches for the lower castes and the upper castes. This was anathema, hateful and offensive, to Paul. We need to work towards a caste-less church, where everybody is welcome in the name of Jesus Christ. 

Paul closes this section with a benediction, that let the God of hope fill them all with joy and peace and a hope that comes by the power of the Holy Spirit. In God, there is hope. A Christian is never a pessimist but always an optimist, because of the trust he has in Christ. God is in control and everything is fine with me, would be the trust we place in our God.

There is joy in a life trusting Christ, for its source is our consciousness of the presence of the living God in us, in the form of the Holy Spirit, our Counselor and Comforter, and this joy is not dependent on the circumstances of our life or the world. We have an inward source of faith, trust and happiness that no one can take away from us.

There is also peace, because a true Christian who depends on God for everything, will not worry or be anxious about anything in life. Our utter conviction would be whatever might happen, He will always be with us and bear our burdens. We are never alone in the battle of this life. He is always by our side. That gives us peace, not as the world gives but as Christ gives his own peace. John 14:27. 

And finally, there is power, power of God available to us through the Holy Spirit, who indwells us. If we are rooted in Christ, He gives us the power to do all things, even the things we consider impossible. In Christ I can do all things for He strengthens me. Philippians 4:13. 

Well friends, let’s look to Christ for all our needs, for if we look to human beings, we are sure to be disappointed. Let Christ be all in all for us.

God bless you all. 

"Liberty tempered by Love"

After describing the liberty a believer enjoys in Christ, especially in matters of food and drinks, in Romans 14:10-23 Paul indicates how this liberty needs to be curtailed for the sake of a recent or fresh believer, who is just an infant in Christ and is still assailed by doubts in the light of his former traditions.

The first thing to note is not to judge that brother or sister, in the light of our knowledge. We have no right to look down on that person for his or her behavior. We have no right to judge that person, for all of us will have to stand before one Almighty Creator God, before His judgement seat. Each one of us is accountable to Christ and not to the others.

This judgement we will have to face alone as individuals, and not with our parents or siblings or fellow-believers or neighbors. Just me or you, alone before Christ, the Judge. We face it alone. Neither does our positions or power or riches would stand along with us in the witness box. We stand bereft of all these.

It is only the way we have led our Christian life on earth, according to the word of God and the example of Christ and our faith in Christ, that will stand by us at that time. So where is the question of us judging another person? The point is we do not have all the facts that makes a person behave as he or she does. We do not know all the circumstances in that person’s life to arrive at a correct judgment. Only the all-knowing, Omniscient God could do that.

Paul quotes Isaiah 45:23 here that ‘every knee will bow before me and every tongue will confess to God.” So, let each of us give account to God, who will judge us righteously. Let Him be the judge and not us.

Not only that we do not judge another brother or sister in Christ, but also, as Paul professes, we are not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of that person.

For example, let’s take that a family after attending the Sunday morning service in the church decides to go to an afternoon movie or have lunch at a restaurant or to have a game. A mature and strong Christian knows that there is nothing wrong in this.

But in case there is a brother or sister, who considers such an activity on Sunday, the Lord’s day, as blasphemous, then there is no point belittling such a belief and compelling that person to come along with you.  It will harm his faith and he/she will have a nagging feeling of having done something wrong and consequently suffer guilt. We are to restrain from doing such a thing.

Paul goes on to explain this in the matters of food and drinks. No food is unclean by itself. We have the liberty to eat anything that is palatable and edible. Jesus has down this principle in Mark 7:14,21-23. Peter was instructed in a vision not to call anything impure that God has made clean. Acts 10:9-16.

But in case someone regards a food as unclean and not to be eaten, it is unclean for that person. Under Judaism clean and unclean foods have been laid down in chapter 11 of Leviticus and a Jew would not eat anything forbidden, even if he were to lose his life for such a faith.

When such a person becomes a Christian, his former faith will be so strong that he will still not want to eat the forbidden food. We are to respect that and not be a stumbling block in his way, by eating the food that is forbidden to him in front of him. The same will apply in India or elsewhere to day, when a vegetarian becomes a believer.

Such a person, if he is distressed by our behavior, then we are not acting in love, but in carelessness, not caring for his feelings. Paul warns us that by exhibiting our freedom in eating, we are not to destroy the faith of a brother, for whom Christ died. We need to be careful that our faith, does not become a stumbling block to others.

As Paul reminds us that kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking this food or that drinks. It is about living a life of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. God is not going to judge us by what we ate or not eat, but by how we lived our Christian life on earth. We are to live our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit, by being ethical and spiritual.

Love needs to be shown in every act of ours; consideration for others needs to be the defining yard stick. We are to live in peace with others. That is pleasing to God and is approved by men too. Christian freedom would mean, we are free to do not what we want to do, but what Christ would want us to do. That is where we voluntarily curtail our freedom for the good of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

So, Paul urges us to make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. In food or drinks or anything else that is mundane, the principle to rule our conduct must be love and consideration for the other. We are not to eat anything in the presence of our brother or sister in Christ that will cause them to stumble.

Our believes in such a matter could be between us and God. There is no need to tom-tom it and berate others, who do not follow it. We are not to let ourselves become condemned by what we believe. We need to flexible in these matters so as not to cause offence to the other.  That calls for self-control on our part.

On the contrary, if a person who believes eating something is wrong, but still eats under the influence of others, is condemned because he is not eating out of faith. He will be laden with a guilty conscience and that will be an offence and sin. And he will be condemned. So, we need to be careful in the case of such people not to unduly influence them to act contrary to their belief in such matters.

Christian freedom is after all to be exercised with caution and limited by love for others in Christ. It can be extended, logically to the people who are not in Christ also, for we live among them and need to show Christ’s love to them also.  

Basically, it is love for others that should define our actions, especially in matters like eating and drinking, as these are not the important matters in the light of eternity. 

"Liberty in Christ"

Paul continues with Christian morals, with emphasis on love as the guiding principle as mentioned in Romans.13:10. In chapter 14:1-9, Paul is trying to show us how far we are to go in love for our brethren, the believers, even curtailing our liberty in Christ.

We are to accept a Christian whose faith is weak as he is. One’s faith in Christ could be weak, especially if that person is a beginner or a recent convert. Such people will be assailed with doubts as to whether what they are doing is right or wrong, and whether they are exposing themselves to hell fire by doing something or not.

In such a situation anything a mature Christian, whose foundation in Christ is strong, does or says will influence them tremendously, either for good or for bad. It could lead the beginners to backslide or get hurt extremely. So, we need to be careful.

Paul takes up eating. In Christ we have the liberty to eat anything, as long as we like it and it is not injurious to our health. Different types of meat, egg, dairy and dairy products, cereals, pulses, beans and peas, vegetables, greens, fruits, everything is good to eat. There is no taboo.

Imagine a new believer, a babe in Christ, who has recently come to know and accept Christ as the Lord, either from a Hindu Brahmanical background or Jain background. Such people are used to eat only vegetables and not meat. For them, eating meat is indulging in killing animals, which is a cruel thing to do.

It will be a shock for such a person to be in the company of a Christian, who is gorging himself on, let’s say red meat or a chicken leg. In his weak faith, that new Christian, may feel revolting and very upset, that he could say, ‘if this is Christianity, I don’t want to be in it’ and backslide to his former religious faith.

So, what do we do? A mature Christian would avoid shocking the sentiments of his new brother in Christ, and go vegetarian to keep company with that person, even though he knows that In Christ, he has full liberty to eat what he wants. That would be acting in love.

Again, we are not to judge anyone by what he eats or what he does not eat. Instead of calling a vegetarian as ‘grass-eater,’ as we normally do, we are to respect their dietary preferences and be considerate. Similarly, a vegetarian need not look down on a meat-eater, and try to butcher the butcher, as it is happening in India these days. That is heights of intolerance and love nowhere being seen.

It is love that should motivate our dealings with one another, whether vegetarians or non-vegetarian. We have no rights to criticize or condemn the other.

For it is God who has accepted the person, whether he eats one thing or the other. In Christ there is liberty, but that has to be tempered with love. A servant is answerable to his master alone. Here that master is Christ, and all of us being the servants of Christ, we have no right to judge another person. Let that person stand or fall as he is judged by his Master. That right belongs to God alone.

Even if someone is falling, as we understand it, God is able to make that person stand. What we can do is to be understanding and loving towards such persons. We need to show a tolerance based on respect for the other person’s convictions, as long as the main conviction that Christ is the only Master and Lord is given and accepted.  

Taking another example, Paul deals with significance given to days by different persons. In Paul’s days the Jews adhered to the special significance given to Sabbath day and all the observances surrounding that established by tradition. May be a recent convert from Judaism, still followed such traditions. A mature Christian knows that all days are created and made by God and as such every day is an important day as much as any other day. But there is no need to clash on this.

We in India are familiar with Hindu neighbors and colleagues observing ‘ragu kala,’ and ‘shanithosha’ and even ‘vastu.’ While we know that these are all unwarranted and totally illogical, for our own Scripture teaches no such thing, we need to be tolerant to such behavior in a ‘babe in Christ’ and at the most, with lots of love and compassion explain to them the unreasonableness of such observations.

Paul says the one who is observing a special day and the other one who is not, are all doing it to honor the Lord whom they are worshiping. It is the same Lord and Savior Christ, whom they are all worshiping. So also, is the case with eating, whether one eats meat or not. We eat to glorify the Lord and eat after giving thanks to the Lord and the Provider of all.

In each such behavior we need to be fully convinced in our minds that we are doing the right thing for the Lord. Everyone is responsible to God for his convictions. The convictions approved by the Lord are to be adopted, but finally It is the Lord who will judge it all.

The important principle is none of us live for ourselves alone or die for ourselves alone. We live or die to the Lord Jesus Christ. We belong to the Lord. We do not lead an isolated life. It is all interconnected to one another and to Christ. In life or death, we belong to Christ. In life, we live in His presence and in death we enter His presence even more.

Christ died and was resurrected to life, so that he can be the Lord of the living and the dead.  We can never escape His presence either in this world or the other, where He will be the judge. The point that Paul is making here is that each one of us is accountable to God and Christ the Judge, so we are not to judge the other person.

We can be only true to our own convictions, and be sure that these convictions are based on biblical truth and not on mere traditions and superstitions, for we are answerable to Christ in whatever we do.

The Lord enable us to be strong in our convictions based on the truth of the Scripture.

Amen. 

Debt of Love

In the last blog, we saw Paul urging his readers, “Give everyone what you owe him.” Rom.13:7. In other words, ‘Do not owe any debt to anyone.’ In short, ‘don’t be a debtor.’

This is a major ethical point for us, Christians. We are to manage our finances so carefully that we do not end up in debts, which we cannot repay. Planning and saving for children’s education, their marriages, our old age, etc., have to be done meticulously, so that when the events or problems come up, we find we have adequate resources to fall back upon.

Remember the blessings and cursed detailed by Moses? The blessings for obedience to God, Yahweh, included, “You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail.” Deuteronomy 28:12-13. Let’s not be borrowers in our lives.

Paul’s definitive mandate is, ‘owe no debt except the debt of love for one another.’ This is the debt of love, which we owe to our neighbors. Why so? Because Jesus loved us so much that he went to the cross for our sake. We can try and repay it by showing love to the others. Of course, we can never show similar love to others and can never repay sufficiently the love of Christ, so we will always owe one another a debt with regard to loving them.

Out of the Ten Commandments of Moses, the five commands concerning our conduct towards others in society, could all be summed up in one command, Paul says. Do not commit adultery, or murder, or theft or giving false witness or coveting, Exodus 20:13-17, can be summed up in this one rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Leviticus 19:18.

Jesus would sum it up in two commands, “Love the Lord your God… and love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27. There are two aspects to loving your neighbor. One, you love him or her every day of your life, in all that you do. Mind you, it needs to be agape love!

The other is to love others as you love yourself. Jesus never said, ‘do not love yourself, but love only others.’ The Golden Rule of Christ being ‘Do to others what you would have them do to you.” Matthew 7:12. Just as we look after ourselves, our needs and needs of our bodies, we need to take care of others also, especially those who are our neighbors, if they lack such basic needs of life.

Paul says that such a love is the fulfillment of the law. Once everyone loves the other, there would be no more strife or need to punish people, that is, no need for any law. Of course, this sounds highly impractical. As long as human beings are there, there will be no shortage of offences committed against one another and the long arm of law will have to operate to punish such culprits.

But as Christians we need to be better, in loving others, since we have Christ as our example. It is difficult to love anyone excepting our own families, unless such a love is poured out on us by the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5. That is what we are to pray for, for help from the Holy Spirit, to help us love others as we ought to.

Paul’s exhortation to love one another comes because of an urgent situation. “The hour has come…”  and “the day of our salvation is nearer…” Paul firmly believed that Christ’s Second Coming was imminent, within his life time. He thought “the Lord is near.” Philippians 4:5. So he warns, the present age is passing away; a New Age has dawned; the Day of the Lord could be any day. So be prepared.

There have been ongoing speculations everywhere that Christ is coming now. Whether we are to believe this or not is a dilemma. One can get all confused and worried. But the point is, we may die today and in that case, we have to face judgement. Or Christ might return today; then also we are going to face the wrath of God, if we are not prepared. Either way, we need to be prepared. It is better to be prepared to face the Lord any day, instead of listening to these speculations.  

With this in view, to prepare ourselves to meet our Maker, Paul exhorts his readers to put aside the deeds of darkness. The deeds of darkness that Paul lists are orgies, drunkenness, sexual immoralities, debauchery, dissension and jealousy.

In Paul’s time the Roman aristocracy lived a very loose life and that set the trend in society. They were immoral, indulged in drunken revelries and sexual immoralities. Paul warns against such behaviour, as deeds of darkness, done under the cover of darkness, gratifying the desires of the flesh, the sinful nature.

It is interesting to note that St. Augustine of Hippo was converted mainly on this verse. Romans 13:13. He was living a godless life, all the same feeling bad about it. One day as he was crying aloud to the Lord in a garden, he heard the voice of a child, playing nearby, urging, ‘take and read, take and read.’ He took the Bible that he carried and opened it; his eyes fell on this verse. He took it personally as God’s command to him, gave up worldly living and entered monastic life. The rest is history.

In our own society and times, the rich and the famous set the trend, not only in fashion and in conspicuous consumption but also in loose morals. Even jealousy is bad because it could lead to strife; dissensions and hatred could lead to murder, as Jesus would point out in his Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5-7.

Instead, Paul would want us to be clothed with Christ, which means to be baptized, for whoever is baptized into Christ have clothed themselves with Christ. Galatian 3:27. We need to live a life reflecting Christ, loving our neighbor as ourselves and being kind and compassionate, as described in Colossians 3:10-17.

For this again, it is not possible to live like Christ, unless we are enabled by the indwelling Holy Spirit. We need to seek His presence in us and to have the ability to listen to His gentle nudging, nudging us to walk in the path of righteousness and love. Without his help the Christian walk is difficult. Let’s pray that the Lord will enable us through His Holy Spirit.

Amen.  

“Are We, as Christians, Required to Submit to the State?”

Paul in Chapter 13:1-7 speaks of the relationship a Christian ought to have with the civil authorities. In verse one he is exhorting his readers to submit themselves to the governing authorities. All authorities, for Paul, are established by God. Since they are established by God, we need to obey and submit to their authority.

Biblically, this makes sense. Among the Jews, monarchy and civil orders began with God, Yahweh. It was God who selected Saul as the first king of Jews. 1 Samuel 10:1, 24. Samuel the prophet explained to the people the regulations of the kingship, as given by God. David was also selected by God. 1 Samuel 16:7, 12.

Even pagan rulers were used by God for his purpose, first to punish His people by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, Jeremiah 25:9; then to bring them back from captivity through Cyrus, the King of Persia, Isaiah 44:28, both of which happened as foretold by the prophets.

Pagan Emperor Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon also was taught a lesson in humility and he acknowledged the power of the supreme God, who is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes. Daniel 4:17.

God is the One who establishes the kingdoms on earth and gives them the authority to rule, is a biblical concept and Paul is reiterating this principle here.

He further states that anyone who rebels against this authority is rebelling against that which God has instituted. Jews had a history of rebellious conduct. They would not submit to any foreign rule. There were innumerable insurgencies and rebellions against the Roman rule by Jews during Paul’s time. This resentment against Roman rule, Paul did not want to be carried over to the Christian church too.

The Temple was grazed to the ground in 70 AD as foretold by Jesus, so that no one stone will stand over the other, Matthew 24:2, mainly because of the repeated insurgencies of the Jews.

Paul saw Roman Empire as a good thing for the world. There was peace in Pax Romania, and there was freedom for Paul to preach in all the towns of Roman Empire. He and his friends were harassed and persecuted by the Jews wherever they went and they were in more than two places saved by Roman authorities. Acts 17:9; Acts 18:16. The tribunal of a pagan Roman magistrate was a safe refuge against a Jewish mob.

Thus, Paul looks at secular governments as divine institutions, which are to be obeyed as these are constituted by God. He urges Christians to pray for kings and those in authority, so that we can have a peaceful and quiet lives. 1 Timothy 2:1,2. In Titus 3:1, he again exhorts Christians to be subject to rulers and authorities. In 1 Peter 2:13-14, Peter also extols the virtue of being submissive to the authorities.

It is the consistent and official teaching of the church that obedience be given to and prayers made for civil powers. Paul particularly wanted the Christian converts to keep away from the insurrections of Jews and Judaism, who would hold no king but God as their king.

Rulers are meant to bring order in society and punish those who do wrong so that others can live in safety. An officer is a servant of God and he wields the sword or authority to punish the wrong doer. But for them society would become a jungle where might is right. So, it is the duty of a citizen, much so a Christian, to obey the rules and be a good citizen, commended by the authorities. Or else they will bring the wrath of the ruler on themselves.

In a society, an ordinary citizen gets some benefits from the rulers, be in a modern democracy or the medieval monarchy or ancient imperial governments. He gets a wide range of services, water, light, sewage cleaning, transport systems, maintenance of a network of roads and so on. Most importantly the State offers protection from foreign aggression and protection of one’s own personal property and family.

Nevertheless, a citizen has duties and responsibilities too to the State. Hence Paul asks his readers to pay taxes, for government needs money to keep the State peaceful and to offer justice to everyone who is aggrieved. Whatever one owes to the State, Paul asks him to pay it, be it taxes, or revenue, or respect or honor that is due to those who are in civil service.

Jesus also taught while he was on earth, to pay to Caesar what is due to him, Matthew 22:21, and he himself paid the taxes. Matthew 17:27. We ought to pay our taxes too and show all the sources of income in our tax calculations. Christians are to have nothing to do with black money or corrupt money. We are rich in our heritage, inheriting eternal life, so there is no need to hoard money the wrong way.

But, you may ask, what if the government is illegal and corrupt and oppressive? Do we still obey it?

I would say that if we can find legal methods to fight for our rights we should do so. As long as our freedom of conscience and freedom to worship our Lord God, Almighty, the way we would want to, in a church, with praise and worship and ability to teach and preach the Bible and render service to the community in the name of Christ, are respected and permitted, we need to obey the government.

In a case where the civil rule or command goes against the rule or command of the Lord, then and then alone we can refuse to oblige the government or our rulers. God and His commands always come first. In all other cases we need to be good citizens, obedient and submissive to authorities and the rules of the country we live in and also pray for those in authority.

As long as the government does not interfere with our walk with God and our obedience to His Word, we can extend our obedience to the government.

In this section, we find Paul to be very pragmatic and sensible so that unnecessary problems are avoided and we have a peaceful existence under lawful authority.