THE BOOK OF ROMANS Friday – September 6, 2013 – Romans 14:20-21 “For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.” As I read these verses, I was reminded of some verses from the book of Luke, chapter 22. The last supper had taken place, Judas has been ‘dispatched’, and Jesus goes to the Mount of Olives to pray. Two of His disciples follow Him, but He admonishes them to “pray, that ye enter not into temptation”. Jesus walks a little farther away, separating Himself from them, and kneels to pray His own prayer. His words, as recorded in Luke 22:42, tell me so much about His relationship with His Father, as well as His knowledge of what is about to take place. He says, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Jesus knows that what He is about to endure is not going to be pleasant, He knows the pain and public humiliation the Romans are about to inflict on Him, and He prays. ‘Father, please don’t make me go through this. Please find some other way, if possible. But do not misunderstand me, Father, for it is Your will that I seek to follow, not my own.’ Jesus had the power at His fingertips, but a breath of prayer away, to put an end to the events that lay before Him, yet He knew that those very things were necessary for man to have any hope of salvation. He knew that His Father wanted to save mankind, forgive them, and commune with them for all of eternity. He also knew that the sinful state of man prevented him from rising to the point of righteousness needed to ever stand in the presence of God. Jesus, in human flesh, put His own preferences aside and desired to do what His Father wanted Him to do. None of us can ever hope to measure up to the example Jesus set for us. We are only fooling ourselves if we think that we can live without the stink of sin on our lives; yet, because of what Christ prayed that day, and because of the events that soon followed that prayer, we can one day stand before Him in heaven, clothed in His righteousness, washed in His blood. Natural man does not see what Jesus did for him, he is blinded by sin and bound by sins’ chains, dead to God in his heart. His only hope is you and I being willing to show him the grace of God in our lives, leading him through our faith to the foot of the cross. We, however, tend to be a selfish creation. I say we, because I know that in my own life that selfishness exists. The vast majority of things that I do are for my own pleasure. The meals that I eat are to satisfy my own appetite and my own tastes and seldom ever consider what others might think about it. I am of the culture that has been taught that you cannot please everyone, so you need to please yourself. Paul says, “For meat destroy not the work of God.”, but he follows it with a curious statement. “All things indeed are pure”. As a child of God, and as a joint heir with Christ, the world and all that is in it are pure. Sin, by definition, is the absence of God in a thing, an action or thought that is against God’s will. As a born-again child of God, I am forgiven of all sin and stand pure before Him, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Just as Peter was told in Acts 10:15, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”, our lives are now reflections of Jesus and are no longer ‘common’. In other scripture we are told that we no longer belong to our own selves but have been bought with a price and are a temple unto the Holy Spirit. In other words, we are to consider the effect our choices, our preferences, our desires have on our fellow man, especially our ‘younger’ brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul touches on eating and drinking first, as he has in previous verses, but then goes one step farther with, “nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.” Am I perfect? No, I am not. Can I live the scriptures without fail? No, I cannot. Will every decision I ever make consider its’ effect on my brother and sister in Christ? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean that I can ignore the fact that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write what he wrote in these verses. We live in an evil world today, but we do not have to follow the world’s ways. If we know that something we do causes our brethren to stumble, we need to stop doing it. My prayer for today- Oh, that my life would be strictly in line with Your will, Father. That I would walk and talk and breath the scriptures and reflect Jesus in all that I think, do, and say. The flesh wars against the Spirit and I sometimes fail, but I pray, Lord, that I would never, ever, cause my brother to stumble, and that I would never be the reason someone rejects salvation. Strengthen me, Lord, and help me to be completely and totally Yours. For these daily devotions/studies to truly apply to your life, you must first belong to God. He will welcome you because He loves you, even before you love Him. He loves you so much that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). Scripture tells us that if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation, (Romans 10:9-10). Won’t you confess today and ask Jesus to forgive your sins and be your Savior? He is waiting with open arms…
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 11:57:45 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015