DAY 229

YOU HAVE MADE IT!

Psalm 94, 95 & 96 and Romans 15:14-33

You have made it to the top! Chapter 16 will largely be Paul standing there, not relishing his achievement, but expressing his love for those who have taken the time to read his letter. As I did not comment yesterday on chapter 15, I do want to circle back a bit. We might label the first 11 chapters as “exposition.” Exposition is the process of putting forward a discussion to explain that which is often difficult to understand. You might feel like being sarcastic at this point, suggesting that the discussion itself was difficult. Yet in chapters 1-11 Paul was laying out his theology. Then in chapters 12 – 15:13 he was really exhorting us to “run the race;” to be followers of Jesus.

I do want to just give you one more tidbit. I noted that in chapters 13 and 14 we were reading about running the race of relationships. You might say from 14:1-15:13 this relationship is with respect to the weak: welcoming them, not judging or offending them. Who are the weak? People have a variety of opinions:

1.      They might be people who used to worship idols and they have great concern about eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols.

2.      They might be ascetics who used to abstain from wine and meat as a way of somehow showing they are serious.

3.      They might be legalists, who really are people who are weak in faith.

4.      They might be Jewish Christians whose conscientiousness compels them to continue to observe dietary laws.

The real point for us is not “who were they,” but rather “who are they in our day…and how are we acting around them?”

It is kind of interesting, we are standing at the summit of the mountain where we have scaled challenging concepts and spotted gems along the way. We have at times been so focused on a difficult situation in order to overcome it. All this and we find ourselves reading about how we are to treat the weaker brother or sister.

I am not sure how you process that point. It isn’t how I might at first think the letter should end, but as I reflect on it I think I understand. Is the point that now that “we have it all figured out,” we should not feel or behave as some superior group? I know you probably do not believe you have it all figured out, but I find it curious after all we have digested to find ourselves here.