NOTES for Rom 15:3-4

The main meaning we give to the word “accept” when speaking of someone is to accept that person as he or she is. The apostle certainly means this too: a call to bear with other people, accept them as they are, and not try to remake them. Even this alone is far from easy, because the passion for reeducating and lecturing those around us is characteristic of most of us.

But the word the apostle uses twice in this phrase has, in Greek, the primary meaning “to take to oneself, take along, bring into one's company.” It means not merely tolerating someone, but including that person in one's life, joining that person to oneself, taking that person along on one's journey into eternity. This is what the apostle calls us to do, grounding his appeal in the fact that this is how Christ took us to Himself, into the glory of God. Christ does not merely tolerate us as we are; more than that, He takes us to Himself precisely as we are.

And because He promised that whoever receives another receives Christ Himself, this inclusion of one another in our lives becomes an encounter with the Risen One Himself.

We know many different biblical names for God, and at the very beginning of chapter 15 of the letter to the Romans Paul gives us two more: the God of patience and consolation, and the God of hope. These are astonishing names, and what deep meaning is contained in them. They tell us about qualities of God that we often forget. Much more often we remember the punishing God, the almighty God who appears in lightning, power, and glory. And this too is wonderful.

But do we remember divine patience, and the fact that there is far more within us that ought to separate us from God completely? We often remember God on the difficult days of our lives, take offense at Him, present Him with long bills or even longer lists of our needs. But when everything gets better, we do not see a miracle in it; we find logical explanations for what is in fact a gift from the Lord. And He still bears with us, loves us, and always waits, even when we turn away from Him. And when we return, He comforts us again and gives hope that not everything is lost in our life.

And He calls us to this same thing: to bear with one another, comfort one another in sorrows, and give hope. "Receive one another, as Christ also received you, to the glory of God." This means forgiving injuries and insults, accepting without setting conditions ("if you behave well..." or "if you do such and such"). Accepting simply because Christ accepts us in exactly the same way: sinful, angry, touchy, forgetful, all kinds. Not because we have earned it, but simply because He loves us.