Coming Up: Sonday October 19, 2014
Romans 16. Dealing With Dissenters.
Read Romans 16:1-2
It’s tempting as we glance over Romans 16 to quickly skim it and bypass it as a series of greetings that have little or no relevance to us 2,000 years after the cross. After all, Paul’s just sending greetings to some people he knew in the church at Rome, right? Not quite. These greetings reveal much to us and in this particular case teaches us much about how to deal with dissenters or trouble makers.
Initially Paul commends Phoebe to the Church at Rome. It was very common in Paul’s day to travel to various locations with letters of recommendation that introduce the traveller to certain people in the new location and encourage them to accept the traveller in good steed. But Paul is not bowing to tradition. He calls the church to receive Phoebe. The word ‘receive’ implies far more than just ‘welcome’ or ‘greet’ in the sense that we understand it. To receive someone as Paul encouraged the church to do meant to warmly and lovingly welcome someone into the fellowship. It meant that the church would include Phoebe and treat her with the respect and loyalty that a sister in the Lord deserved. It was akin to welcoming a family member home again.
Even more so, Paul adds the phrase ‘in the Lord’ to the encouragement to receive Phoebe. Again we see that a Christian receiving is far more than a welcome or a greeting. It’s welcoming someone into the fellowship in a way that is worthy of the Lord and befitting for His children. Paul adds as much with the next phrase ‘in a way worthy of the saints’. The love and unity and welcoming among the saints is to be nothing short of exemplary.
But the welcoming and receiving goes even further. Such receiving in the Lord and welcoming believers in a manner worthy of the saints creates unity. Church unity is the key element in driving away dissension or factions. You’ll notice that Paul warns against those who cause division in verse 17. Unity in the church fights against the division makers.
Dissenters thrive on disunity. Their basic attack is almost always the same. They pull someone aside and so seeds of dissension. They gossip, speak rumours and poo-poo the current leadership or structure of the church. When this person is visibly agitated they enlist that person to talk/gossip to others and thus create division.
If we are unified and receiving each other in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints then these dissenters will hit a brick wall every time they seek to sow division. After several such head butts they will do one of two things - they will either repent or leave the fellowship. The onus is on us to stand united and to make sure that the dissenters do not have fertile soil in which to sow division. Let us also pray that they repent and come to their senses.
Prayer:
Use today’s Bible reading and notes to pray along the following lines.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
¨ Pray for unity in your church. Pray that it would be a unity based on Christ’s love and the Word of God.
¨ Pray this too for the churches in your city/town and across the state and nation.
1. If someone were to pull you aside over morning tea one Sonday and say something like, ‘Did you realise that the leadership here is very ungodly…’ what would you say and do?
2. What are the implications of receiving someone in the Lord for our Sonday morning services?
3. How can we make sure new comers are warmly and lovingly welcomed into our church?
Intro: Greeting one another at church is so so so very important. If people are greeted well they feel loved and accepted. If they are greeted poorly, they might never come back.
Discuss some good and bad greetings you have received at various locations, not necessarily church. How did each one make you feel?
Read 1 cor 16:20
Who do you think the young girls at church could greet?
What kinds of things would make these people we greet feel loved and accepted?
Pray together that God would make you into a loving person who warmly welcomes and greets others.
Intro: Greeting one another at church is so so so very important. If people are greeted well they feel loved and accepted. If they are greeted poorly, they might never come back.
Discuss some good and bad greetings you have received at various locations, not necessarily church. How did each one make you feel?
Read 1 cor 16:20
Who do you think the young boys at church could greet?
What kinds of things would make these people we greet feel loved and accepted?
Pray together that God would make you into a loving person who warmly welcomes and greets others.
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