Dealing with Each Other’s Differences Peacefully - Romans 14:1-23
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Today we're going to be talking about something that we all need to hear. be difficult for us to hear, but it's important. Paul thinks it's important, so therefore we must think it is important. So we're gonna be talking about how to deal with each other's differences peacefully. Oh man, peacefully. That last part is so important. We all deal with each other in some way, but Paul says we have to deal with each other peacefully. We've been talking about, through the book of Romans in our series, about how all of us are equipped in different ways. we have different gifts, we're made uniquely, and that's to be celebrated, that's to be appreciated. But it also means, because we're different, that sometimes we ruffle each other's feathers, we get under each other's skins, and so we have to figure out how to deal with each other peacefully.
He's been talking, Paul has been talking a lot about living a transformed life. Ever since chapter 12, he's been talking about the first 11 chapters where all this belief and understanding, and now it's like, this is how to live it out. Chapter 12 and on is, this is practically how to live out your faith. And he's been emphasizing over and over again the importance of loving others, unity in the Spirit, and living at peace with each other. He says, "Because you are transformed by the Spirit, therefore live in this way." loving one another, unified in the Spirit, and living at peace with each other. And that's all been in general since chapter 12. He's like, "Hey, just generally do this." But now in chapter 14, he brings in a real-life example for the Church in Rome. He says, "I know that this is going on, so let's take this example and let's dissect how to live peacefully with each other through this example." And those examples are dealing with food and Sabbath. How perfect is that? It's our Sabbath day today, we have food, that's what the early church in Rome had some trouble over. Because Christians in Rome at the time were divided over the need to continue to observe certain Jewish traditional practices that derived from the Mosaic law hundreds and hundreds of years before the early church, and God gave the law to Moses, and then since then that meant that the Israelites lived in a certain way. And specifically about food, what they were to eat, and all that, and then there's Sabbath day. Well since that time, in those hundred years, it's developed a bit. And so there are some pretty extreme and very rigorous laws that they are to follow. And these things are ingrained in their minds. This is generation after generation after generation of the Jewish people living in a certain way. Living with certain food laws and living with certain Sabbath laws.
I don't know if you've ever had a habit that you've practiced for life and then tried to break. Or maybe you didn't need to anymore, you didn't need to do that thing, but you just kept doing it because you've done it all your life. I think of my dad, who, for all my life, woke up around 5 a.m. for work. And after he retired, he kept waking up at 5 a.m. And I was like, "I'm downstairs." I'd see him, and it's early morning, and I'm with Kinsley, and maybe it's just because I'm jealous of, like, "You don't have to be awake, and yet you are. I want to be asleep, but I can't. But I'd say, "Dad, you don't have to, why are you up?" And he's like, "I just, I am. It's fine. My body just wakes up." It was habit for him. Habits are hard to break, and that's maybe some of what we have to, what we're dealing with here with the Israelites. When it comes to these food and Sabbath laws, it was ingrained not only in their minds, but in their culture. They had practices that they all practiced together, And now, it seemed like life was changing. These food laws and Sabbath laws were potentially causing division in the church amongst believers. And that is, division is something that Paul really does not like. I don't know if you remember, if you were here for the beginning of our series in Romans 1, we talked about how this letter, in part, was to prevent division in the early Roman church. Paul doesn't want it. He doesn't want it for the Roman church, He doesn't want it for any church throughout history. He doesn't want it for our church today. He wants us to be unified together as believers. He loves unity.
So what's causing all this fuss? Well, let me give a little background before we dive into our chapter. These food laws were specific about what the Israelites could eat and could not eat. Now, to be clear, God's law does not forbid Israelites to eat meat in general. But many Israelites living in foreign countries chose not to eat meat because they were afraid that that meat had some association with a false god. In a foreign land, maybe that animal was offered as a sacrifice to a false god, and then it's somewhere down the line after the sacrifice did that, then it became food to sell. And so they just said, "No, we're not going to do that. We're not going to buy any meat, just in... We don't want the chance that it was associated with that." This comes from, if we were to look back in our Bible, and if this sounds familiar, this comes from Daniel. Do you remember Daniel in the Old Testament? Daniel was an Israelite who was taken into captivity, into Babylon. And there, he said to the king, "I'm not going to eat your meat." Maybe you who have grown up in Christian circles recognize the Daniel diet, the Daniel fast, which was just vegetables and grains. Sounds awful to me. I'm so thankful we have meat today. But Daniel said, "I'm not going to do it." And God blessed him, and he was very strong. He was stronger than all the other captives who did eat the meat. And so Israel's taking their cue from Daniel, saying, "Hey, it worked for Daniel. God blessed him. We're going to do the same. When we're in a foreign land, we're going to avoid meat, and we're going to be vegetables and grains." So that's some.
There were others in the early church who lived adhering to the words of Jesus, recent words for them. And he says in Mark 7-19, he declares that all foods are clean. Mark 7-19 says, "Are you so dull," this is Jesus speaking, "Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn't go into the heart but into their stomach and then out the body." In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean. So, we have two different camps forming. Now, if Jesus said that all foods are clean, why are some people still practicing the law? Well, we'll kind of get to that in Paul's passage here. I also mentioned Sabbath. So there's food laws and Sabbath laws. And Sabbath was, again, a custom practice for hundreds of years. And over time, that Sabbath list of what Sabbath meant, the list became a long list of what you can't do instead of here's what you are to do. And so in the new church, Sabbath started to take a different role, started to look different. And some were adhering to the very rigorous list of what not to do, and some were saying, "I think Sabbath is just this. It's changing." So again, we have these two parties, two sides forming in the early church, seemingly opposed? Paul's going to question that in a bit. But church, I wanted to ask us, can we relate it all to, in a body of believers, two sides developing within the church? Not talking about outside issues, but inside church issues, have we ever been a part of seemingly taking a side? Maybe it's something about worship, or baptism, or communion, or pews versus chairs, or something like, how do we do small groups? And these things that start forming, and there's a group of people saying, "We gotta do it this way," and there's a group of people saying, "We gotta do it this way." Well, Paul's heart, in our issues, or in the issues of the early Roman church, is that we live in unity with each other. And so we see the importance of dealing with each other's differences peacefully. I also wanna be clear here that Paul is less concerned right now with getting believers to a certain point of belief. Right now in this section of our passage, he's more concerned with the interpersonal relationship between believers. He's not necessarily going to address like, hey, all Christians, you need to be on this side. He's saying, we recognize there are differences. What's more important is how we deal with each other in those differences. Are we loving each other? Are we supporting each other? Are we pushing each other towards Christ? And he's saying this because sadly, the opposite is often true. Even amongst believers in a church, there's often hating each other, judging each other, despising each other, tearing each other away from Jesus with these church issues.
So Paul, in our passage, is gonna give us guidelines on how to live peaceably with each other. And Paul's advice is timeless. He's giving believers a guideline on how to live at peace because of what Christ did for us and for the sake of the gospel. It's so important for the sake of the gospel because of what Christ did for us. And so Paul's thoughts on the matter are laid out in chapter 14, and I wanna take the first 12 verses, which deal, or tell us how to deal with those who differ from us. That's our first section of the first 12 verses are telling us how to deal with those who differ. And he starts off in verse 1 saying this, "Except the one whose faith is weak without quarreling over disputable matters." I'm gonna stop right there, just verse 1. I want us to see that before we get to whose faith is weak and whose faith is strong, we can already sense the tone of Paul, which is again, beating that drum of unity in Christ, loving one another, living at peace with one another. He's going to say this over and over again. And so the sooner we get it, the easier this will all unfold in our minds, and we'll be able to live it out. But he also, I want to point out, the action that Paul tells us to take is not to persuade the other person, it's not to debate or ignore that other person of weak faith, it's not to shame or leave behind them who have weak faith, it's to accept them. It's to accept those who differ. Secondly, Paul states that there are disputable matters. There are secondary issues of the faith.
I had a professor in seminary who really So stuck with me ever since, I'm gonna share it with you. But he gave me some categories, the class with some categories, about how to think of certain things in our faith. And so he has these categories, there's four categories. And the first is the die for category. These are issues of the faith that we are, as Christians, should be willing to die for. These are the most essential, important issues. And these are, no matter what denomination, If you are a Christian, I'm expecting that you adhere to these, you believe these. These are things like Jesus is God. We believe in the Trinity. We believe that God's Word is truth. This Bible is God's spoken word. Those are the die for category. There's maybe a couple more, but those are the die for things. The most important, be essentials. The next category is the divide for. These are issues central to life and worship that maybe we cannot be at the same church. It's worth maybe. These could be things like preaching. Are you a, do you favor expositional preaching or exhortation, just encouraging words every Sunday? Maybe it's worship. I'm saying maybe because these are some of the categories that we might differ on what goes into the some of these categories after the die for. I think we should all agree on the die for, but after these, we might have a couple different differences. So maybe worship. I like this style of worship. I like this style of worship. Well, this church does this, so I'm going to go over here. The next category, third category, is the debate for. These are issues where we disagree, we might even growl at each other, but we work positively to live and laugh together in the the same fellowship. So we might have a good debate, but we're at the same church. We're in the same community. These might be who baptizes who, or maybe the date of creation. How old is this earth? Is it 7,000 years old? Is it 10,000 years old? Is it 100,000 years old? Let's have a good debate, but we're going to worship together. We might disagree. You might say this, I might say that, but we're at the same church together. The fourth category is the "decide for" category. These are issues where the differences are really no issue at all. Like, am I going to raise my hands in worship, or am I not? That's just a personal decision. Yes, I will, or no, it doesn't really affect anyone else. These are just things that some people do, some people don't. We're definitely in the same community, we don't all do it in the same way, right?
So those are four categories. Church, too often, we put things in the wrong categories. And especially the divide four category. Just because we differ on something does not mean that we cannot worship together. And I'm saying this all with not including the die for. We'll all agree, that's a given, we'll all agree on the die for category, but everything else, I think we put too much in the divide for. I think Paul says that too. These discussions often actually push people away from faith, away from the church, away from the people that we're supposed to be in life with. That's not what Paul wants at all. So he's recognizing that there are different categories of issues of faith, disputable matters. But he also brings up who's weak and who's strong in their faith. in their faith. And verse 2 explains, it says, "One person's faith allows them to eat anything, but another whose faith is weak eats only vegetables." So why are they weak and strong? Well, weak because their faith is not large enough to see that Jesus has changed the way that they are to live life by faith. They are still bound by parts of the old law. Paul is saying those who are strong in faith are those who believe that Jesus has changed what is needed to live by faith. Because faith is a—this is earlier, a previous sermon—but faith is a matter of the heart. It's not just our actions. It's not just, "If I do this, this, and this by the law, therefore God loves me." No. It's a matter of our hearts. So in our scenario here, Paul's saying that the weak are those who feel like they have to adhere to food laws. The strong are those who see that all food is clean, and they don't need to do that anymore. But again, as I stated before, Paul's not concerned about getting a certain, like, the weak becoming strong. He's more concerned with their interpersonal relationships. He knows people will disagree, but how do we live together? How do we live at peace with each other? Well, he says an important reminder in verse 3, "The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not. And the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does. For God has accepted them." That last part is key. "For God has accepted them both." The weak and the strong, God loves them. Christ died for them. They are a part of God's family. And verse 4 brings up the point of who are we to judge? It says, "Who are we to judge someone else's servant? So their own master, servant, stand or fall, and they will stand for the Lord is able to make them stand." Paul is reprimanding the early church here for thinking that they have the authority to decide who is acceptable in God's sight. Paul is reminding believers that the fate of Christians is not dependent on all of our opinions, but it's fully in God's hand. It's dependent on God's grace and power. It's not majority vote of, "Hey, we all, all of us believers think it's mostly this way, so God, if you could do that, carry that out, please." No. God is the judge. We are not.
Verse 5 continues, "One person considers one day more sacred than another. Another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind." Now he's switched over to Sabbath, he's talking about some Sabbath issues, and he's talking about the importance of one's convictions and conscience. Each person must operate with a clear conscience, regardless of their practice. Paul does not want any believer to be forced to do something that is against their conscience. And he's saying this, again, in the church, there's a baseline of "these are believers," he's saying this because oftentimes, isn't it that God speaks through our conscience, through the Spirit? We are discerning that God is pulling us in this direction or that direction. So he's saying, don't force someone who is in their conscious, fully convicted that this is the right thing to do. As a Christian, don't force that other believer to do something that they think is wrong. Verse 6, he says, "Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God. And whoever abstains, abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. He's saying both sides have sincerity. Both sides are acting out of good motives, trying to obey and honor God. At their heart, both the weak and the strong are striving to pursue God in their lives. And that's Paul's goal. That should be our, that should be an encouragement to all of us. If we are all striving towards God, maybe it looks a little bit different in these secondary issues, but that should be celebrated. That is a good thing. Paul continues, "For none of us lives for ourselves alone, "and none of us dies for ourselves alone. "If we live, we live for the Lord. "If we die, we die for the Lord. "So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. "For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life "so that he might be the Lord of both "the dead and the living." I mentioned this last week. Paul, he's a little crazy, right? He lives all out. He wrote in Philippians to live is Christ and to die is gain. He's like, God take me now, if not, I am just like, I don't care if I die, I'm gonna be with you. If I'm here, I'm gonna live all out. He's saying the same thing. If we live or die, all of what we do, all of our lives are unto God. Christ died on the cross for all believers. So don't be judging other people because ultimately we will all stand before God and be judged. Judging others in this scenario is the role of God, and really, again, judging puts distance between us when there should be unity.
My senior year of high school, I just graduated, and me and some of my guy friends, we went on a road trip. And I look back, and I don't know why we did this, but we decided we were in another city, We said, "It's Wednesday, let's go to a small group." In a city we don't know anyone, but we found this small group of a Bible study. And we go and it was a college Bible study, and we get there as brand new, we haven't even been to college, we just graduated. And they had alcohol, and they had beer and wine at the Bible study. And I remember being so uneasy. I was saying, "What are these sinners doing? "Are you serious? Is this even a Bible study? Do they love God?" Now, again, we're not gonna get into if that was good or not, but I think it's very applicable to this situation. And I just sat in the corner and I think they could tell, I was just like, I was like this, and I was like, "I do not wanna be here, these Christians." And they had such a good conversation about Jesus. And they were, but the whole time, you know, they had their cups and everything. I was like, "So, so, I can't even do this." And we left, and I remember having a good conversation with my friends. They seemed less bothered than me. And it was an issue of, was that a sin? Was that a sin that they were doing that? And it's very much this conversation, and it was a growing point for me. Whether I would do that or not, separate issue. But if I look back, I don't think they were sinning. Was it the wisest thing? I don't know. But was it a sin for them to do that? Probably not. Were they fully convicted and saying, we are here gathered together. Let's assume they were all of legal age. That's totally fine. That is, they're worshiping God in a way that they are fully convicted, their conscience is clear. For me, it was not. And, but I was judging them. I was sitting in the corner of that room, judging them to the fullest extent, saying, "God, you should just smite them now. "Like, why continue? "This is terrible." And I had to learn that that was not okay on my end. That was not my place. Now, I should, I'm glad I did. "held to my convictions," as Paul will say, that's important, but I don't need to judge that other Christian for what they're doing.
So there we have our first, did I read every, oh, I didn't read. Oh, first, I'm gonna reread it. If I did read it, I'm so sorry. "You then, why do you judge your brother or sister? "Why do you treat them with contempt? "For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. "It is written, 'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, every knee will bow before me, every tongue will acknowledge God. So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God." Input my story. All right, we come to the middle of our chapter here, and verse 13 serves as this transition. The first half of the verse, which reads, "Therefore, let us stop passing judgment on one another." That kind of summarizes the first 12 verses. And the second half of this verse will introduce Paul's point for the rest of the chapter, which says, Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. Paul's emphasis now is we need to pursue peaceful relationships. The focus is rather than being reactive, let's be proactive in initiating peaceful relationships with one another. We don't have to wait for some issue to arise. We can be proactive in developing healthy relationships, peaceful ones, knowing that there are issues, but keeping relationship as the focus. Paul's saying in this verse too, that not only is division amongst the church at stake, which is not okay, but people's salvations are at stake. When we put this division, we let that happen, when we let churches divide, people's salvation is at stake. Another quick story. I had a friend growing up. We went to church together, we went to a youth group together for years, we went to summer camps, Christian summer camps together. And then when we graduated, we went to different colleges and we'd come back during summer breaks and Christmas breaks and we'd hang out. In one of those breaks, we were up late at night having a conversation and he was telling me that he no longer thought that the Bible was inherently true. And I remember I just was torn. And I looked back, this is a bad story, by the way, this is an example of what not to do. But in that conversation, I got mad at my friend, and I keep shame on him. I said, "How could you think that? "You don't believe anymore?" And in this moment, I look back and I know that I pushed him farther away from Jesus in that conversation. Now, he's no longer walking with Jesus, and there's still hope, obviously, I haven't given up, I believe that God can do anything, but it pains me to see him not walking with Jesus now for years, and this kind of that time in his life and that conversation being a big point in which he left the faith. But I look back and I did not handle that conversation well. I was not concerned with unifying the body of Christ, living at peace with each other. I chose like battle in that moment. I chose to have, this is worth dividing over, This is worth so much more than what it was really worth. I know that His salvation is not on my hands, but I look back and I do know that I pushed Him farther away. Salvation is at stake when these issues arise.
We must be aware of that. We must love one another, live at peace with each other, and strive for unity. I'm going to keep saying it over and over again. Verse 14 reads, "I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean." Paul's reminding us that it's not necessarily our role to change people's minds. Paul makes his own stance clear, and he's saying, "Hey, I personally believe this. All food is clean. But for someone who thinks it's not, for them it's not clean. Let them be there. Let the Spirit do the work of changing hearts and minds. Right? Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2, "Transform through the Spirit." Not through other believers necessarily. We can contribute. Maybe God works through us. But it is not up to us to make sure that that person has to believe that thing. We are tools for the Spirit. We can offer. We can help. But we don't have to make sure, like, "Hey, we're not leaving this conversation until you believe this." That's, we can't do that. That's between them and God. Verse 15 says, "If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died." That's big. Guys, that's huge. He's saying, "Why antagonize them? If you know where they stand and you are doing something that you know is against their conscience, you are now pulling them away from Jesus. You are the one that needs a heart check in that moment." When we are antagonizing other Christians, we've lost sight of how to view them and love them like Jesus does. We are being selfish in that moment, prideful in that moment. Christ sees them as someone He died for, that He loves. When antagonizing someone and choosing to make those differences deal breakers, we are motivated by our rights that we think we have in Christ, not by Christlike behavior that we should be having between us and another person. Choosing stances and rights over loving behavior isn't the answer. Christ died for all, not just the strong in their faith, but the weak in faith too. Because both titles, as it's implied, they have faith. They have faith in Jesus.
Paul continues in verse 16, "Therefore, do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval." This is Paul having a big picture moment here. He's like, "Step back and take a look at what's happening. What we receive from God is less tangible than food and drink, but it is far more valuable. Our salvation is far more valuable than the issues of food and drink and what we eat at a table. If you treat other believers as more important than food and drink, you are serving God, You are pleasing God. And Paul says you'll be highly regarded by others as well. Let me ask you this. Have you guys ever been on the receiving end of someone's kindness, sacrificial love, special care and attention to your needs? Maybe it's different than what they usually do, but when they go out of their way to love you, to cater to you, have you received that kind of treatment before? And isn't it so special? Don't you feel so loved in that moment? And you think of that, Like that's a person that really cares. That's a person that went out of their way for me. I feel so loved in that moment. I like that person. I wanna be around that person. As Christians to each other, that's especially who we should be. We should also probably do that for people who are non-believers, but especially in the church, we should be doing that all the time. Should be known for that. All right, we're coming to the end of our passage. Verse 19 says, "Let us therefore make every effort "to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. "Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. "All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person "to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. "It is better not to eat meat or drink wine "or to do anything else that will cause "your brother or sister to fall.”
Once again, he's saying salvation is at stake here. We can actually work against the Spirit in trying to exercise our strong faith, pulling people away from God. And so Paul gives his guidelines. If you're in that situation, he's talking to the early church, if you're in that situation, you know that other person does not eat meat, then don't eat meat around them. Simple as that. You meet them where they're at. It's better not to eat meat or drink the wine or do the thing that you know causes that person to stumble. The stronger faith actually looks like doing what is necessary to love the other person. That is a strong faith. You might have your own convictions. You might know this is, technically Jesus is okay with this, but that person is in that place, so I'm going to reach them where they're at. Verse 22 says, "So whatever you believe about these things, "keep between yourself and God. "Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself "by what he approves, but whoever has doubts "is condemned if they eat, "because their eating is not from faith, and everything that does not come from faith is sin. Paul's saying, "Have your convictions." Most importantly, have those convictions between you and God. It's the most important place to have those convictions. If there's opportunity to share, if you share your convictions with others, that's fine, but that's not the priority. You don't need to make sure that every other person has the same exact conviction as you and how to live that out. Remember those tiers, those categories. These lesser issues, let's work to continue to worship together in community with each other. So, we have Paul's guidelines for dealing with each other's differences in a peaceful way, to live at peace with each other. And we know why. It's for the sake of the gospel. It's for the sake of preserving and encouraging the work that God is doing through His Spirit in each other's lives.
As we close, I want you guys to take an inventory. I'll just kind of reflect right now in your own life. Take inventory of your interactions with people in the church or other believers in your life. Because today's passage is really like an in-house meeting, right? We're thinking of believers, fellow believers. How do we treat people in this room? You don't have to look around if you want to. You can make the eye contact if you want to. How are you treating people in this room? How are you treating people in this room who you know you differ with on some issues? Have you avoided them or are you loving them? Are you being proactive in reaching them? Are you judging others? Which is a heart issue, right? And if that's the case, if you're struggling, then ask God. Submit that before God. Say, "God, man, don't call God man. That's not, don't do that. Have more respect and reverence. God, I'm struggling with loving this other person. I'm struggling with not judging them. I just constantly judge them for how they live out their faith. Ask the Spirit to help you in that, to give you what you need. And then like I asked, how are you being proactive in pursuing peaceful relationships? How are you being intentional to love other people in this church? Even in areas or in ways that you you may disagree, how are you thinking about loving others? Not just reacting, if this happens, then sure I'll love. How are you going out of your way, intentional with your time, to love? I'll close with this. Becky and I had the privilege of going to a musical this weekend. We got to see Les Miserables on Broadway, which is a personal fave, we hadn't seen it before. I love it. If you don't know the play or the musical Les Miserables, about takes place in the French Revolution. It follows this man named Jean Valjean, and it's this hard, hard life that he lives. But at the very end, he—spoiler, it's been out for years—spoiler, he dies. Sorry, still worth it, go see it. But he's reflecting on his life, he's had a very, very hard life, and he says this line, he says, "To love another person is to see the face of God." And I love that. I mean, this whole musical I love, and there's a lot of biblical themes throughout this musical. But he, through his hard life, has chosen to go out of his way, when he didn't have to, to love people, to care for people. And he sings this song, "To love another person is to see the face of God." I think Paul would completely agree, and Paul would motivate us to say, "How many times are you going to see God in your life? How often do you want to see God? Well, if you want to see Him often, love other people. Because as Paul has said in previous chapters, "When you do that, you are loving me." That's God. When you love other people, you are loving God. Everything we do in life, everything we do, the words we speak, the actions we take, is all a living sacrifice to God. So in everything we do, when we love others, even when it is difficult, even when they are challenging, we are loving God. So will you choose to love someone this week? Will you choose to live peacefully with someone who may be challenging or difficult this week.
Let's pray. God, thank you for your word. Thank you for setting the perfect example through your son Jesus. Thank you for Paul's letter to the Roman church to help us understand what it means to live this Christian life. And not just in the easy ways, but in the challenging ways. living with each other when it's difficult. I pray that you would rely on your spirit for that, that you would give us compassion, grace, kindness, patience, perseverance to remain united as a body of Christ for the sake of the gospel and because of what you've done for us. God, put that on our hearts. Encourage us, empower us in that way. And we trust that we will see the glory and the benefit of doing what you have commanded through your word That your kingdom will grow People will come to know you We praise you for all that you're doing in our lives and through us god we pray this in your name. Amen.