GLORIFY GOD

Background Passage: ROMANS 15:1-13

Lesson Passage:ROMANS 15:1-13

BIBLICAL TRUTH: CHRISTIANS ARE TO BEHAVE IN WAYS THAT WILL GLORIFY GOD AND WILL LEAD OTHERS TO JOIN THEM.

KEY BIBLE VERSE: ROMANS 15:5-6

When my wife and I made the commitment to full-time Christian ministry, many questions about how God would provide remained unanswered. As I realized over time, this was God's way of building our faith to prepare us for the ministry opportunities that were ahead. Each unexpected blessing and each answered prayer became another opportunity to believe God and glorify Him.

After beginning seminary, our ongoing challenge was finding the means to buy the books I needed for study. In one example of how God provided, I was standing down front in my home church auditorium shaking hands with well-wishers following my ordination. Person after person came by hugged my neck, and showered me with love and encouragement. One older mentor, a member of our small group, shook my hand. I noticed when I took my hand away that he had left something small and folded in my hand. I put it in my pocket, only to discover later that it was a one-hundred-dollar bill.

For a struggling seminary student, this gift helped to meet an important need in my ministry development. I took the money and invested it in a set of Bible commentaries that I used often, both during and after seminary. More importantly, my friend's gift prompted me to glorify God for His goodness and provision. In fact, every time I think of this man's gift, I give glory to God.

Did you know you can begin glory to God by the way you act? You may have the opportunity to serve the needs of another person, just as my friend performed this service in my life. Through reconciling with another church member in order to restore harmony within the body of Christ, you could bring glory to God. You could receive another church member into your life as a way to bring God glory. This might even be someone you have little to do with because he or she does not agree with you on secondary faith issues. To glorify God and to lead others in glorifying God are wonderful privileges for believers.

BACKGROUND PASSAGE OVERVIEW

Christians have a duty to be selfless when faced with the opportunity to build another person up in the faith. Our model is Jesus Christ. He chose to leave the position of glory He had every right to enjoy, in order to endure insult and suffering for a greater purpose. What purpose? So you could fulfill the life plans for which God created you.

Harmony among believers brings glory to God. Christian unity is based on Jesus Christ rather than on secondary issues that divide church members.

God calls you to accept other believers with whom you may disagree and to welcome them into your heart. Calling a truce is not enough. Even if the division is as great as that which existed between Jewish and Gentile Christians, God is glorified when the two “sides” truly accept each other as friends.

You glorify God when you trust in His promises and live in hope rather than in despair. In this world, living in despair is much easier; however, God calls us to live in hope.

God created everything in the world for His glory, including you and me. God's glory is who God is. It is His essence, His radiance, His power, and His presence. God's glory is the expression of every quality that makes Him God. Though you cannot add to God's glory, you are commanded to acknowledge His glory, declare His glory, praise His glory,and live for His glory.

Any act or attitude that calls positive attention to God is behavior that glorifies God. You might do or say something that causes others to recognize that God is at work in your life, or you may point them to God in a conversation, or you may overcome differences and join them in praising God. All of these result in glory to God. In this passage, Paul challenged the Roman believers to glorify God by serving one another, getting along with one another, and treating each other well.

STUDY QUESTIONS 1.The more mature Christian has a duty toward less mature Christians. What is it? (15:1-4)
2.Why should Christians seek harmony with each other? (15:5-6)
3.Why should you accept another Christian into your life, even if you disagree with him or her on secondary issues? (15:7)
4. What Christian virtue keeps us focused on God rather than on the differences among church members that could keep us from glorifying God together? (15:12-13)

SERVING OTHERS (ROM. 15:1-4)

Romans 15 1 We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
2 Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
3 For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

VERSES 1-2 ~ Obligation describes the debt or spiritual duty that more mature Christians have to the less mature in the faith. Your spiritual duty is to help others grow in Christ, even if doing so means giving up spiritual freedoms that are rightfully yours. Paul described this obligation as something Christians bear or carry like a burden. One of the best barometers of spiritual maturity is selflessness when given the opportunity to help others grow in Christ.

Being selfish is the mark of a child who needs to grow up. The selfish child sees the entire universe as existing to fulfill his or her needs. Some Christians mature in physical years but remain spiritual babies. How can you tell? They are selfish. They life for themselves in spite of claiming to be followers of Christ.

Moreover, a Christian can be selfless but for the wrong reasons. Some of the most selfless people I have known in life were not selfless out of love for others. They were selfless out of love for self. They went without so others would honor and praise their sacrifice. The selflessness Paul described was performed with the motive of helping others grow in Christ (to build them up). For his good refers to our helping someone fulfill the highest good God has planned for that person.

VERSE 3 ~ Paul pointed to Christ Himself as the supreme example of someone who bore this burden of selflessness for others. Jesus, as Deity, was free to enjoy the glory that was due Him as a part of the Godhead. Instead, He willingly chose to take the form of humanity and suffer the insults He did not deserve.

Did He do this for Himself? No. He suffered hatred and punishment so that you might fulfill the purposes for which God created you—a fulfillment not possible until you are reconciled to God. Christ chose to bear the weaknesses of those without strength. Becoming strong and mature in Christ means that the Christ-follower willingly carries the same burden (through not the same sacrifice) as Christ. Paul's use of a messianic psalm (ps 69:9) shows clearly that Paul believed Jesus to be the Messiah (“the Christ,” the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah).

VERSE 4 ~ Whatever was written refers to only to Psalm 69:9 but also to any Scripture that encourages you to remain strong in spite of the burdens you carry as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. So that has the idea of purpose. One reason God intended for His Word to be written and preserved was for your encouragement (paraklesis in the Greek) or comfort.

Some selfless acts you may perform for the good of others will give you great joy, perhaps because of the results you see or the appreciation you receive. Others selfless acts bring anything but joy. Perhaps the good you do is received without notice or appreciation. Worse, your choice to show love selflessly might be rejected or scorned by another person. The hurt, sorrow, and defeat can be devastating.

To experience this rejection is to share in the sufferings of Christ. He gave His life for the world. Yet the good He did for others was rejected and scorned (and still is today by some). Through the Scriptures we may have hope. That means seeing beyond the present to the eternal purposes of God. Hope is not wishful thinking but, rather, is a certainty based on the promises of God yet unfulfilled.

GETTING ALONG ( ROM. 15:5-6)

5 A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.
6 Many will intreat the favour of the prince: and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.

VERSES 5-6 ~ Agreement (literally “the same mind”) carries the idea of harmony. It does not speak of Christians having the same beliefs about everything but a unity in perspective concerning Jesus Christ.

Paul's prayer was that his readers would find this unity so that they could glorify God as one. That is, as long as they were divided about secondary issues, they were unable to enjoy (for the sake of God's glory) any degree of harmony on the primary issues. Divided church members have a difficult time glorifying God as the body of Christ.

TREATING OTHERS WELL ( ROM. 15:7-12)

7 All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.
8 He that getteth wisdom loveth his own soul: he that keepeth understanding shall find good
. 9 A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.
10 Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.
11 The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.
12 The king's wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.

VERSE 7 ~ One another refers to both sides of the disagreeing parties. Accept means “to take another person into your heart.” Paul did not ask just for peace but for oneness. It was not enough for the parties to declare a truce, draw the dividing line, and live in peace. Paul called them to come together in friendship.

The opportunity to glorify God was at stake. Both parties were accepted by the Messiah with the ultimate perspective of bringing glory to God. Why, therefore, could they not receive each other in relational harmony if , in so doing, God would be glorified? VERSES 8-9 ~ In this case, the disagreeing parties were Jewish believers on one hand and Gentile believers on the other. Each group was part of God's grand work of reconciliation through Jesus Christ. To the Jewish Christians (the circumcised), Christ became a servant (diakonos in the Greek) so that the messianic promises to Israel might be fulfilled. The fulfillment of these promises by the Messiah was a means to an end—that the Gentiles might be brought to God through Israel. Consequently, Gentile Christians glorify God for His mercy.

In quoting Psalm 18:49, Paul was assuming the speaker in the psalm to be Christ. As the Gentiles praise God through Christ, in turn Christ praises God from among the Gentiles. Paul's point was that Gentile Christians should not show contempt for the conscientious and scrupulous worship practices of Jewish believers, especially when the practices relate to the old covenant. Like wise, neither should Jewish believers have scorn and contempt for Gentile believers' liberty, especially since is is based on the sacrifice of Christ.

VERSES 10-12 ~ To support his call for unity among Jewish and Gentile Christians, Paul quoted three additional Scriptures. First, Paul used Deuteronomy 32:43 to illustrate the harmony God expects between Gentile believers and Jewish believers. (Jewish believers and Gentile believers are to rejoice together in spite of their differences over secondary issues.)

Second, Paul's use of Psalm 117:1 was a reminder that God created the Gentiles to be a source of praise to Jehovah. Third, Isiah 11:10 affirmed that the Messiah came forth to rule both the Jews and the Gentiles. Root is literally “a sprout coming from the root.” Jesus came forth from Israel and became the focus of hope for both the Jew and the Gentile.

EXPRESSING HOPE (ROM 15:13)

13 A foolish son is the calamity of his father: and the contentions of a wife are a continual dropping.

VERSE 13 ~ God is hope refers tot he God who gives believers the hope they have in Jesus Christ. This hope is to self generated or bargained for. The joy and peace God offers come through the channel of saving faith. Through faith, you experience justification (you are made just in the eyes of God on the basis of Jesus' sacrifice) and reconciliation (you are brought into a personal relationship with God). To be justified in the eyes of God should fill your heart to overflowing with joy, especially because this justification is given as a free gift. To be right with God should bring peace..

In believing means “in the believing” -- in the habitual trusting of God day by day. In saving faith, you receive justification and reconciliation. In living faith, each day you realize with fresh gratitude and love the meaning of your salvation in Jesus Christ. Overflow carries the idea of affluence, having more hope than is necessary so that it spills on others around you. As your hope overflows to others, you transcend secondary issues and glorify God because of Jesus Christ.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Think of your life in terms of opportunities to glorify God—to acknowledge His greatness, to mention His power, to give an example of His goodness, to describe His grace, to demonstrate His selflessness, to seek harmony, and to overlook secondary differences. Since God seeks to be glorified in and through every part of your life, consider how you can glorify Him and lead others to glorify Him this week in......

your family life;
your work life;
your social life;
your church life;
your neighborhood;
your bank account;
your calendar;
your recreation;
your reading;
your rest;
your exercise;
your eating;
your shopping;
your thoughts;
your motives;
your dreams.