Romans 15, 1-?
"My brothers: I myself feel sure that you are full of goodness, that you have all knowledge and that you are able to teach one another."
What a commendation this is, Paul praises their goodness, their grasp of the truth and their gift of exhortation. We get here a picture of the active Christian striving to follow Jesus, diligently learning and diligently teaching the faith. It is a picture of an active and dynamic faith. It is easy in this life to settle down, to find a comfortable and familiar rut and routine and there to work out our days. So we come naturally to abhor change of any kind to our routine. It is a danger we all face. I remember someone once telling me of a man who went to bed at a certain time each night and he did that whether there was company in or not. That was his routine and nothing would deflect him from it. There is a species of jellyfish which lives on a rock and never moves from it. It feeds on a seaweed that grows on its own body. It has reached the ultimate in living in a rut. That is not to be the way of the Christian. The Christian life as Philips says is a race to be run, a battle to be fought. It calls for discipline. drive and determination.
Now you may also have noticed the extreme tact that Paul uses in his phrasing of verse 14. Listen to it again and this time note its tone: "My brothers, I feel sure that you are full of goodness, that you have all knowledge and that you are able to teach one another." There is no angry rebuke here as might have been expected from some of things about which he has spoken so boldly. But no that is not his way here. He doesn't nag. But rather he makes it plain that he has only been bold enough to speak about subjects they already know about - he has been reminding them of their duty and their promises and their beliefs. And here I think we can learn a valuable lesson. Listen to Willie Barclay on the subject. "he assures them that he is certain that they have it in them to render outstanding service to each other and to their Lord. Paul was much more interested in what a man could be than in what a man was. Paul saw faults with utter clarity; and he dealt with faults with utter fidelity; but all the time he was thinking, not of the wretched creature that a man was, but of the splendid creature that he might be. It is told that once when Michael Angelo began to carve a huge and shapeless block of marble, he said that his aim was to release the angel imprisoned in the stone. Out of the shapeless mass he wrought the angel that his eye saw there. Paul was like that. He did not want to knock a man down and out; he did not criticize to cause hurt and pain; he spoke with honesty and with severity but he always spoke because he wished to enable a man to be what he could be and had never yet attained to being."
And that in truth has been the subject of all that we have learned in Romans. And sometimes we must plainly say it has been a hard word for us to hear - particularly about how we treat one another. But it was word nevertheless we need to hear. For God sees in us the sainthood that can be ours. He sees our shapeless sinful mass and wants to help us become what we ought to be. And we are encouraged to see that potential in others as well.
Paul then in a certain manner lays his credentials before them and there are some stunning and relevant phrases here. But underlying it all we find that great truth he speaks of in verse 18 - "I will be bold and speak only about what Christ had done through me to lead the gentiles to obey God." And back a little at verse sixteen he calls himself a servant of Christ Jesus and then again he says, "I serve like a priest in preaching the Good News from God, in order that the Gentiles may be an offering acceptable to God., dedicated to him by the Holy Spirit."
Do you see that Paul sees himself as an instrument of God. he does not talk here of what he has done but of what Christ has done through him and with him. He never says - I did it - or I did it my way - rather he always says - "Christ used me to do it."
And so he encourages us not only to think hat way but also to act that way. And in all that he writes in these verses we see that great commission of Jesus being fulfilled. That great commission given not only to Paul but to all of us.
Matthew 28, 19-20:"Go then to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples; baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always to the close of the age."
These are the final words of Jesus to his followers. His final words to each one of us. I have heard people say - oh I am not an evangelical - and I always want to say to them well what are you then? What else can you be? The words of Jesus are quite plain and unequivocal and cannot be understood in any other way. There can be no fudge. As Paul is also making quite plain in these verse our primary duty is to win others for Christ. That quite simply is what the Bible says. It cannot be read any other way. Paul reminds us all of it also.
And this is the truth that God is laying before us all at this time in Mure Memorial in our study together of his word. For too long we have been like the jellyfish in our illustration earlier - there is no place in the economy of God for the sedentary jellyfish - God is calling us to active outreach and teaching. Calling us as individuals to use our God given talents in his service and to bring to him those who currently lie outside the faith. We are called upon to Build For the Future - not just in bricks and mortar but in living stones!
We can go anywhere we like but we are called to go forward and to look outward. And don't ask what can I do? Rather ask God what he can do with you!
As Barclay said, "It is when a man ceases to think what he can do and begins to think of what God can do with him that things begin to happen!"