When I was coming up with my preaching schedule for these few weeks of Summer I simply asked God to lead me to a few different passages, and they actually came from the little devotional day planners that many of you have. The first is our passage today from Romans 15 and I’m calling it “Leave no one Behind”.
When I read the first verse I immediately thought of war movies, you know where there is a wounded soldier stranded on the battlefield usually wrapped in barbed wire, and this big tough soldier that nobody can ever seem to hit with a bullet, rushes in through the enemy fire to rescue the wounded guy. Why does he do this? Is it to please himself, to be a hero? Not likely right. More likely he’s not even thinking about himself, maybe not even thinking at all, just reacting because he sees a brother in trouble.
I think that is the spirit of this passage. We who are strong, meaning here strong spiritually and doctrinally are obligated to bear the weaknesses of those who are without strength. And not to please ourselves.
Let’s put this in a little context. We have a pretty, shall we say provocative culture, but even with all the sexual immorality in our culture, much of it remains hidden. Not so in Roman culture, it was all out there, various rituals and so-called spiritual worship practices out in the public that would repulse some of the most liberal people in our day. It was very difficult for believers not to be sucked into these practices, just as it is today with all the temptations we have.
In the previous chapter 14 of Romans, Paul sets this up for us a little. He starts the chapter by saying, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions”. He goes on to talk about what you can and can’t eat. Of course it has already been established that nothing God has made is dirty, and they can now eat anything. But it all has to do with food that has been sacrificed to idols.
The idea here is that like the alcoholic, some people may be weak with regards to alcohol and therefore need to abstain. So do we judge them for being weak, do we tell them to suck it up and be strong, don’t be such a wimp, do we sit there and rub it in by drinking right in front of their face?
He says in chapter 14, “why do you pass judgement on your brother, or why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For whether we live or die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he may be Lord both of the dead and the living”.
So he says, “let’s decide to stop judging and never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother or sister”. He ends with “never do anything if you have doubts about whether it is right or not, for whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”
So Paul is calling those believers who seem to be having victory over these sinful practices, to stop thinking about themselves and their own happiness, stop judging those who are not doing it right, and bear with those who seem to be struggling with their faith and temptations.
This is not just to tolerate or put up with those who are weak, but that the strong should like Christ, “Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ” as we read in Galatians.
In essence he’s not saying that we need to join them in what they are doing obviously, but that we should sympathetically enter into their world, their thoughts, refrain from criticizing and judging them, and do what love would require toward them. In other words not just tolerate them, but treat them like real brothers or sisters. And I believe this refers not only to believers, but unbelievers as well.
And we are not to do this to please ourselves. We are to be like Christ who carried our infirmities to the cross for our sake to glorify the Father. Verse 2 expands on this by saying, “Let each of us please his neighbour for his good, to build him up”. By using the term neighbour, Paul is reminding us of the love command that Jesus gave, implying that the strong believer walks in love when they please rather than pain the weak believer or their neighbor. They don’t need more burden, they need building up for their spiritual profit.
Why is all this so important to Paul? Because it is for the good of the entire body of Christ. You see we are talking about living out the example of Christ as his body, and so in verse three we see that Christ didn’t please himself as the strongest believer of all time, but he actually took the insults and penalties that should have been directed at us, upon himself. He had a strong enough faith to handle it. It’s what he means by the greatest love being to lay down your life for another.
Paul seems to be doing two things here. One is that he’s showing that even though Christ and other strong Christians could have avoided all the suffering, we are to follow Christ’s example of taking it on for the sake of others. And Paul can say this because that is exactly what he did throughout his Christian life.
Secondly, I think he’s putting the strong believers suffering into perspective. Abstaining from certain sins, and being there for others to help strengthen them, is nothing compared to what Jesus had to give up and do.
Now in verse 4 Paul puts an interesting little kind of sidenote here about the Old Testament. He says that it was written for our instruction, and that through the encouragement of it and our endurance we might have hope.
These scriptures even in the Old Testament, were not just written for the time they were written, but that they always apply to God’s people through time.
He’s implying that it is this hope, especially when we read about the suffering of God’s people, that gets us through our own suffering when we decide to put others ahead of ourselves. Because doing that will not always be what we want to do, it won’t always be pleasant, and therefore will be a kind of suffering. He’s really saying, don’t just focus on today and pleasing yourself. But use the hope of the future to help you endure the sacrifices you make for others today.
Then verses 5 and 6 are kind of a prayer or benediction for us to have harmony with each other through the God of endurance and encouragement, for what reason? That we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s always about our relationship with him.
Why do we seek to have unity in the church? Why do we seek harmony and bearing each other’s burdens so all can be strong? Why do we make sacrifices for others? The same reason Jesus did, to glorify the God who saved us. These verses 5 and 6 are the ones we base our Pastors Fellowship mission statement on. No church will ever truly glorify God if they are in competition with or conflict with other legitimate local bodies of Christ.
“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
All over the New Testament, the idea of unity in the church is important. Paul is reminding the Roman church that it is only through unity and harmony that we can glorify God as a body of believers. Division and dissension amoungst our ranks simply draws energy away from our task and reflects our selfish attitude about the church being there for us, rather than for the mission it was created for.
The unity he’s talking about here may be directed toward the Jew and Gentile distinction, but it has much broader application today as we talk about different churches in one community, different denominations and so on. This is why the ministerial has adopted this passage.
Finally he closes in chapter 7 with a “therefore” which of course ties all he has previously said in chapter 14 and so far in 15, together. He says “therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God”.
He’s now addressing all believers, both the weak and the strong. And I think one another now means all people, even non-Christians. Now the word welcome here is another word for receive and it means to take one to yourself, or maybe the best translation would be to “allow admission”. Allow admission into your life and home as Christ has with you.
Now here’s where it gets interesting. How has Christ welcomed or received us? Well, he made us part of his family didn’t he. He granted us admission into the family of God to take part in the very same inheritance that he is getting. Basically we are talking about adoption as we heard in Romans 8 verse 17 where we become heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. Christ is anything but selfish.
So here we have Paul alluding to the statement Christ made that we show we are disciples through our love for each other, and that we should be one as he is one with the Father. According to the Bible, nothing glorifies God more than our love for each other, and it must be a supernatural love that is greater than what the non-Christian population experiences. Actions that are unusual to the world such as loving our enemies.
There are many military examples in the Bible, and the truth is that amoung other things Christians are God’s army. We are at war not with people, but with the powers of darkness in our world. This is a battle that has been going on between God and Satan since the beginning. Now military training is tough, and from what I understand, the primary focus is on relinquishing yourself so that the unit becomes as one. If there are breaks in the unity, people die.
Now clearly some soldiers will be stronger, some will be smarter, some will be good shots, others will be good at fixing equipment, strategizing. The point of our passage today is that those who are strong in some area should be helping those who are weak. Our entire goal as Christian brothers and sisters should be to see every believer not only saved, but victorious in Christ in this world.
Why? For the glory of God. And what is it that glorifies God most? Our love for each other. And why does that glorify God most? Because when we love each other like that, and become a completely unified body what will happen? People outside the body will want to join us and be saved, for God does not want any to perish.
Now my fellow soldiers, men and women. When we said yes to Christ, we basically went to “uncle Sam’s” office (I don’t know a Canadian counterpart) and we enlisted. Maybe we didn’t know what we were doing at the time, but now he owns us. Now what if we get battle orders from our commanding officer and we say “no way, I am not going out there and doing that”.
Well, if we reluctantly and weakly go out there we will probably die and so will many of the other soldiers that depend on us pulling our weight, working as a team. Or I believe if we outright refuse, the commanding officer can shoot us. I believe they call it treason.
Likewise, if we see a fellow soldier wounded but still alive, do we attempt to rescue that person even if it means risking our own lives. Or do we say, “I’m taking care of myself the enemy can have him”.
This hits me in the heart people, because I have to answer each of these questions too. Now I’m supposed to be super-Christian as a pastor right? Yeah I know I’m just like anybody else. But I can’t jump forward and enthusiastically say yes I would risk my life for Jesus, even for another believer. I want to say yes, but when I imagine actually doing it, I don’t know.
What does that mean? Well, for myself I can’t get around the fact that that is simply a lack of faith. If that is what God wants me to do, He equips me to do it, and Jesus and the apostles and many other Christians have done it, I can only conclude that it is a lack of faith in the promises of future glory, and an overly bound spirit to this world and my own comfort.
Yet the Bible says, I have, or should have died to self, fulfilling the Law through loving my neighbour as myself, as Paul has talked about in previous chapters of Romans.
When we go out into the world after Sunday morning, do we care? Are we going out as soldiers into battle, or as country club members who kind of want to keep our club exclusive? Do we care that people are lying all over the road wounded and if Christ doesn’t get to them, they are going to die? If we see our brothers and sisters struggling in sin, do we avoid them so we don’t get any on ourselves? If we’re struggling with sin, do we scream out for the cavalry to come help us out of the hands of the enemy? Do we believe any other soldiers will come and genuinely love us?
These are hard questions and we need to ask ourselves, how seriously do I take this faith thing? Is my life expressing what I say I believe? Am I a strong or weak Christian? Should I be out there rescuing people or do I need to be rescued myself?
We answer these questions not just in our minds, but with our actions. I believed God wanted me to be a pastor so I sacrificed everything for that and He came through. I say I believe God wants to use me to save people, yet often I find myself not wanting to sacrifice the time and potentially experience discomfort for that.
So do I really believe God wants me to do that? Well if I do believe it certainly my life doesn’t say so, maybe my own fears or desires are simply overruling what I say I believe? Maybe I have not developed the intimate relationship with Jesus that allows me to have his heart.
If I am a soldier, and I think of so many who dedicate their lives to that for their country, knowing full well the potential consequences, how do I overcome the fear and go through with it? I guess maybe I just need to turn my mind right off, because intentionally running out in front of a bunch of bullets is crazy.
In my mind it’s just as crazy to go up to someone I don’t know and tell them that I care so much about the destination of their eternal soul (do I?), that I have to share this news I have with them. To beg them to hear me.
But what does the soldier do? They must just take a deep breath, trust, and start running into battle having no idea what’s going to happen, but trusting that they are equipped for the task and have many on their side who have the same objective. They have to put themselves on the battlefield or they are simply not doing what they signed up to do.
I don’t want to commit treason toward my God, but Oh how I need the strength to follow his marching orders. The strength comes from my faith that brought his grace into my life. The faith that Paul talks about through so much of Romans.
I think to myself, how did Denise and I get saved? Of course there are many spiritual factors I suppose. But the thing that had to happen, was that someone in the body of Christ came into our life, was not afraid to tell us who they were and what they did, and invited us to the party. A couple of them are here today. God took it from there, but at least one of His soldiers had to find us lying there dying and offer rescue.
Some people won’t want to be rescued, at least right now. But God forbid we make that call for them by not offering. According to the Bible, their blood will be on our hands forever. They might kick and scream because of their pain and disorientation, but we must desire to leave no one Behind.
When we leave this building today, we are going out there primarily as God’s soldiers. If we let God save us through the death and resurrection of His son Jesus, if we are his children, with his genes inside us, we are his soldiers first, human beings, husbands, wives, parents, employees, farmers, everything else second. Will we let our lives reflect that or are we content to leave those hurt and dying people behind as long as we get to go home? What if Jesus had done that?
You don’t have to be perfect, just committed. The things that turn off unbelievers most are our judgmental attitudes, so just love them, desire them to become part of the family. Share the story of Christ’s rescue mission. Let them know that you are a sinner no better than them, but that someone came out of love and rescued you too.
You don’t have to like everyone in the church, or those in your life who are not saved. I’m sure there are many soldiers in any platoon who would get on your nerves. But we are still to welcome them as Christ welcomed us, to sacrifice for them, and to help build them up, because as Paul made very clear in this passage, we do this to glorify God, not to please ourselves.
