#45.

We Are Commanded to Accept One Another in Fellowship

Romans 15:7 Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory
of God.

"Think of what you were before you knew Christ," Paul says to the Corinthians (1
Corinthians 1:26). Not many of them had been wise according to the world's reckoning; not
many had been mighty; not many had been of noble birth. In fact, in calling together a
people for Himself, God had deliberately chosen those who had few characteristics that the
world admires, so that He might shame the world for valuing things in which He places little
store. We are not saved because we are smart, rich, popular, well-bred or any such thing.

We find, though, that the church forgets these principles too easily. James (Chapter 2) has
to rebuke the church for making distinctions among themselves based on wealth - favoring
those who are well-dressed with the best seats, and treating the poor dismissively. He
reminds them of the very point that Paul was teaching the Corinthians - God chose the poor
to be rich in faith and heirs of the eternal kingdom, and no-one in the church is to look
down upon those so signally honored by the Lord.

Now look at our passage above, where Paul commands the church at Rome (and the church
of today) to accept one another in the same way Christ accepted us to God's glory. They
should bear with the weak, he said. Each of them should not simply please himself. How
was it that Christ accepted us? Were we means-tested? Did we have to produce bank
statements or genealogies or results of IQ tests (as we would do to enter the world's most
exclusive clubs)? Not at all. God chose us for nothing meritorious that lay in us. How could
our salvation have brought glory to God if we had in any way deserved it? He chose those
whose salvation would bring Him greatest glory - the ones who are despised by this world
as weak, useless, hopeless and pointless. Christ accepts them because the Father chose
them to His glory.

If this is true, then we must accept our brothers and sisters in the church on the same basis
- not considering their wealth, intelligence, descent or suchlike but rather that God chose
them to be to His glory. The church is to be the place where those whom the Father has
loved and chosen are universally loved and accepted for that very reason. We may not play
favorites where God has not done so. And what a blessing to be in a company of believers
where this truth is understood and lived out! We can go anywhere in the world, join a
company of true believers and know that we will be accepted at this deepest level because
Christ has accepted us!

What a joy and a privilege to belong to the church, and to be in true fellowship with a local
company of brothers and sisters in Christ. And what a loss if we never identify ourselves
with a local fellowship, or are never present to experience from one another the acceptance
that Christ Himself has first shown us!

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