Romans is full of complex theological teaching – about sin and atonement, about law and grace and justification, about Spirit and flesh. But the apostle Paul has not written any of this complex theology for its own sake. It’s all adding up to something: a church. A church composed of people from different ethnic, social, and religious backgrounds who now bring different religious priorities into the church. All the rich, dense teaching that Paul offers in Romans takes on a new look in the letter’s final five chapters as Paul now shines a light on the Christ-centered community in Rome itself. Whatever Paul has to say about atonement and justification and the Holy Spirit, it’s all for the sake of getting the Christ followers in Rome to be united to each other as one unfractured church. The theology of Romans is a lived theology, lived in community, lived for one another.
In Romans 14, Paul writes, “Welcome those who are weak in the faith… for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment? Why do you pass judgment on a brother or sister? We will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” The Roman church is composed of both Jews and Gentiles, and likely the Gentiles make up the majority. And so Paul refers to the Jewish Christians in Rome as “weak” because they are a minority, because they are likely newer to the church than their Gentile counterparts, and because they have some religious hang-ups about sabbath, Jewish festivals, and which foods are acceptable to eat. The Gentile Christians in Rome have none of these hang-ups, so Paul calls them “strong,” though these categories, for Paul, are artificial and fading away. Because these Jews and Gentiles have been baptized into Christ, they belong to new categories that will hold for all eternity. Brothers. Sisters. Siblings in Christ’s one, unfractured family. And another new and real category for each other is: guest of honor, welcomed by Christ. To be the Church is to see one another in these ways, to welcome one another because that’s what brothers and sisters do, because who are we to deny Christ’s guest of honor? When we look at each in the Church, we are to see someone who has been intentionally and lovingly invited by Christ.
Of course this is difficult (if it were easy, there would probably never have been a need for Romans to be written!). Every Sunday we worship in the same room as someone who has hurt our feelings, someone whom we find off-putting in some way, someone whose theology and practice differs from our own. It’s as true today as it was in Rome 2,000 years ago. Bickering happens, or, worse, factions arise and fellowship across differing views and practices stops taking place.
This is simply not an option for Paul and for the Roman church. It’s a plain fact of the Christian faith that Jesus will always welcome and include people that we don’t want to welcome. Jesus will always embrace people that we would rather stay at the periphery of our vision and worship. In Christ, love has a flattening quality in which all of Christ’s guests stand before God together. Paul, also in Romans 14, quotes Isaiah to say, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” Every member of the Roman church is a brother, sister, and guest of Christ whose heart is undeniably being drawn into an eternal posture of Christ-centered love, humility, and praise. We simply cannot see each other in any other way.
We are Church because Christ has welcomed us, each and every one of us. We are Church because it is God’s will. Let us be awakened to the divine hospitality that has gathered and melted away every other category.
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