Romans 15:14-16 (The Message and TNIV)
Paul seems to begin verse 14 with an outright lie. I mean, I've listened to every word of this letter from verse 1 of Chapter 1, through verse 13 of Chapter 15 yesterday. For Paul to say he is "completely satisfied" with who they are and what they are doing blows my mind. So what in the world does he mean?
I speculate that Paul, amidst his intense passion for the kingdom of Jesus, realizes that his language has been strong and might be misunderstood as criticism. Haven't you been there too? I have. There are times with my kids when I so want them to do well, that my language takes on an unwanted tone. I think Paul felt this way, thus the need to clarify.
His intensity is not reflective of their behavior, but rather the gravity of the message he has delivered to them. If the Message is going to take root in the world, it must take root in the people at Rome. Paul cannot do this alone and he has to have their help, so he is pushing them to new heights. The serving of the spiritual needs of the "non-Jewish outsiders" is of vital importance to the kingdom of Jesus, thus ought to be of vital importance to Jewish Christians there as well.
This beckoning is as relevant for us today as it was for the Romans. The kingdom of Jesus is not about exclusion, but including those who have been left out, tossed out and run out. They've been included by Him, now we must follow the Christ that we say we follow. Right?
Showing posts with label correction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label correction. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Romans 11:16-24 :: Grafts and Grace
Romans 11:16-24 (The Message and TNIV)
The “holy, God-planted, God-tended root” is the place of privilege with God that Israel first enjoyed. The natural branches are Israel and the grafted branches are the Gentiles. The Gentiles were added into the family and are as holy as the core of the tree they were grafted into. The Israelites who did not believe were considered deadwood and were pruned from the place of privilege.
Paul employs a very interesting metaphor here. He references an olive tree (TNIV). In Palestine, an olive tree that failed to produce foot would be trimmed back, or pruned. A branch from a wild olive tree would be grafted to the pruned branch and the sap from the wild olive tree would invigorate the deadwood and new life would result in this process.
There are times when we must prune back our beliefs and practices that fail to produce any good fruit. This pruning back allows for new life to be grafted into our wounded and pruned area. We then will be able to grow new life and bear new fruit. The branches that were pruned are not necessarily thrown away for good either. God can take those old beliefs and graft them into the tree as well. An old dead belief or practice, now comes alive again.
An example in my life of God doing this for me is in the area of spending time alone with God. As a teenager, I was taught how to have a "quiet time" with God. It was very ritualistic for me. I had a journal that was divided up into days and I couldn't stand to have one of the days blank. I took great pride in maintaining consistency of day-to-day quiet times. Over time this ritual became a dead practice. I would go through the motions, but it was a practice that was not bearing fruit in my life or in the lives of others. I was checking off a box of spiritual maturity...or so I thought. For a season of my life, I quit having "quiet times." That was simply a deadwood practice for me. After a couple of years of God instilling in me the "new graft" of relational connections and community in God and with God, a new shoot was growing from my tree. The root of spending time with God was holy and pure, but my additional legalism was deadwood. Now that root of spending time with God, bears the fruit of a relationship with God that goes beyond a 15-minute window with a spiritual journal. It bears the fruit of actively searching ways to encourage and build-up others around me as a result of the relationship I have with God, through the work and grace of Jesus. My "quiet times" today don't look like they did, and might not even be considered such by my mentors, but they are what they are and right now, I think God is pleased with the fruit they produce...at least most of the time.
What about you? Have you ever had an experience where God has had to prune some deadwood in your life?
Paul employs a very interesting metaphor here. He references an olive tree (TNIV). In Palestine, an olive tree that failed to produce foot would be trimmed back, or pruned. A branch from a wild olive tree would be grafted to the pruned branch and the sap from the wild olive tree would invigorate the deadwood and new life would result in this process.
There are times when we must prune back our beliefs and practices that fail to produce any good fruit. This pruning back allows for new life to be grafted into our wounded and pruned area. We then will be able to grow new life and bear new fruit. The branches that were pruned are not necessarily thrown away for good either. God can take those old beliefs and graft them into the tree as well. An old dead belief or practice, now comes alive again.
An example in my life of God doing this for me is in the area of spending time alone with God. As a teenager, I was taught how to have a "quiet time" with God. It was very ritualistic for me. I had a journal that was divided up into days and I couldn't stand to have one of the days blank. I took great pride in maintaining consistency of day-to-day quiet times. Over time this ritual became a dead practice. I would go through the motions, but it was a practice that was not bearing fruit in my life or in the lives of others. I was checking off a box of spiritual maturity...or so I thought. For a season of my life, I quit having "quiet times." That was simply a deadwood practice for me. After a couple of years of God instilling in me the "new graft" of relational connections and community in God and with God, a new shoot was growing from my tree. The root of spending time with God was holy and pure, but my additional legalism was deadwood. Now that root of spending time with God, bears the fruit of a relationship with God that goes beyond a 15-minute window with a spiritual journal. It bears the fruit of actively searching ways to encourage and build-up others around me as a result of the relationship I have with God, through the work and grace of Jesus. My "quiet times" today don't look like they did, and might not even be considered such by my mentors, but they are what they are and right now, I think God is pleased with the fruit they produce...at least most of the time.
What about you? Have you ever had an experience where God has had to prune some deadwood in your life?
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