Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Enthusiasm”
Our Bible verse for today: “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” Romans 14:19 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “When you enthusiastically serve God and others, you will be much less likely to be critical of others.”
In Romans chapter 14 Paul was making the case that Christians should not be critical of each other over differences in minor, secondary matters. In the case of Romans 14, Paul used the issue of food to make his point. In that culture in that day there were strong differences of opinions among Christians regarding what foods were “clean”, and therefore ok to eat, and which were “unclean”, and therefore to be avoided. The disagreement was causing considerable conflict among the Roman Christians.
Paul admonished them by telling them that their arguments over such things were silly and counter-productive because their preoccupation with those secondary issues was distracting them from what really mattered. They should have been focused instead on cooperating for the sake of the Kingdom. I like the way Eugene Peterson rendered verse 20 in his paraphrase of the Bible, “The Message”:
“God’s kingdom isn’t a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness sake. It’s what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Do that and you’ll kill two birds with one stone: pleasing God above you and proving your worth to the people around you.”
I think Peterson hit on an important understanding which will go a long way towards resolving the silliness and pettiness that so often exists within churches over things that ultimately matter very little. If your focus is to single-mindedly and enthusiastically serve Christ and others, you will no longer care much about who’s eating what, or what color the carpet in the sanctuary is, or whether we sing all hymns or all praise songs or a mix of both. Instead you will be concerned about winning people to faith in Christ and helping them to grow as His disciples.
Let’s close today with the words of Paul in Romans 14:16-18: “Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and approved by men.” (HCSB)
Amen! Let’s not be silly people who are preoccupied with silly things. Instead let’s enthusiastically focus on the things that really matter.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 