Being Thankful, Pt. 2

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Romans 1:20-21

This is Thanksgiving week, and so we are looking at some verses dealing with thankfulness and thanksgiving.  These verses give us some insight on what happens to a person (or a nation) who becomes unthankful.

The end of Romans chapter one is filled with the depravity of man.  It is filled with the things that man without God is capable of and will do, when given the opportunity.  The list given is one of heinous sins and pure evil.  But all of that sin and depravity starts here in verse 21: “…when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful.”

When a person knows God and refuses to glorify Him, they become unthankful.  When we start looking at ourselves as the source of the blessings in our lives, we lose our thankfulness to God.  And when we lose our thankfulness, we start to elevate ourselves above God.  And doing that will lead to just about every sin imaginable.

We need to be thankful.  Not being thankful is a sin.  We may not look at it like a “big sin,” but it is a terrible sin that will soon lead to other “worse” sins.  God says at the end of this verse that “their foolish heart was darkened.”  That will be our fate if we refuse to be thankful for what the Lord has given us, and none of us want that!

Wise and Simple

For your obedience is come abroad unto all men.  I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

Romans 16:19

Paul gives the Christians in Rome some advice here that we would be wise to consider nearly two thousand years later.  “…I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.”

“I would have you wise unto that which is good.”  We should be wise to the things that are good.  The Bible is good.  The things of the Lord are good.  Helping others is good.  Being an encouragement is good.  There are many, many things that are good.  We should be studying those things.  We should be learning more about those things.  We should be wise unto those things.

“I would have you… simple concerning evil.”  Our natural instinct is to be curious about things that we have no business being curious about.  Our flesh is naturally attracted to things that are evil and things that are taboo.  There are many things in this world that are evil.  We need to simply avoid those things.  We don’t need to learn everything about things that are evil.  We should even work to reign in our natural curiosity about those things.

Most people apply the “simple concerning evil” part of the verse to things that are blatantly evil.  But we could also apply it to “little things” like gossip.  We don’t need to know about every skeleton in every person’s closet.  We don’t need to whisper around about what “Brother or Sister So-and-So” did or didn’t do.  The Bible speaks of gossip as a sin, and, as such, it is evil.  We need to simple concerning even “little things.”

About what things are we wise and about what things are we simple?  The answer to those questions will tell us much about our spiritual walk.

Famous Obedience

For your obedience is come abroad unto all men.  I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.

In the first part of this verse, Paul commends the Roman Christians with these words that resound through history: “For your obedience is come abroad unto all men.”  Paul recognized these Roman Christians as being obedient.  He let them know that other Christians, even those in distant places, could see their obedience.

Obedience is one of the keys to being a good Christian.  This obedience is not blindly obeying some religious leader.  It is not blindly obeying anything.  It means being obedient to the Bible.

Many people say that they believe the Bible.  Many people say that they are obedient to the teachings of God’s Word.  But many of those very same people don’t even read the Bible.  Many of those same people wouldn’t know what the Bible told them to do if their life depended on it.  In order to be the obedient Christians that we ought to be, we need to not only believe the Bible, but we need to know what it says.  We need to search the Scriptures and we need to study the Scriptures.  We need to know what the Bible says and we need to obey it.

What a great testimony it would be if we were so obedient to the Bible that other Christians could recognize this obedience!  What a great testimony it would be if we were so obedient to the Bible that even non-Christians could recognize this obedience!  How are we doing?  Are we obedient to the Scriptures?  Do we even know the Scriptures?

Mark and Avoid

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.  For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Romans 16:17-18

In these verses, we find a group of people that the Bible tells us to avoid.  They are the people who “cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine that we have learned.”  There are people who would add to or take away from the doctrines found in the Bible.  They get their own ideas and start to look at themselves as the authority instead of the Bible.  These people can usually be found trying to convince other Christians that they are right and the Bible is wrong.  It is this group of people that we are told to “mark and avoid.”

The reason we should “mark and avoid them is found in the second verse: “For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly.”  They serve themselves instead of serving the Lord.  Our wants, desires and opinions should all be filtered through the Word of God.  Any want, desire or opinion that is not in line with the doctrines of the Bible should be immediately discarded.  If we are told to “mark and avoid” people like this, we definitely don’t want to be one of these people.

As long as we are submissive to the Bible and submissive to the Lord Jesus Christ, we will please Him and we will not find ourselves in this category.  And we do need to watch ourselves that we do not follow after the people who fall into this category!

Phebe, Priscilla, and Aquila

I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.  Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus

Romans 16:1-3

These are simple verses with a powerful message for us.  Paul is simply telling the church in Rome about a few people.  He mentions three in these verses, Phebe, Priscilla, and Aquila.  When I was younger, I wondered why God thought it was important to put verses like these in the Bible.  Phebe, Priscilla, and Aquila weren’t apostles or pastors or prophets.  They were simply some women in the church.  Paul was saying (about Priscilla and Aquila), in today’s vernacular, “tell them I said hi.”  Why would that need to be in the Bible?

As I have now become a little older, I think I understand a little better why verses like this made it into the Bible.  These three women were “helpers.”  They had helped Paul and been an encouragement to him.  It says of Phebe that she had been a “succourer of many.  “To succor” means “to assist and support in times of hardship and trouble.”

We may not think of being “a helper” as a big job in the church.  But having people who would help him was a big deal to Paul.  And it is a big enough deal to God that He chose to include Paul’s commendation to these helpers in His Holy Word.

We should all be known as “helpers,” both in the church in our families, neighbourhoods, and workplaces.  Simply helping people might not seem like a very big deal, but it is!

Praying for the Man of God

Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me; That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints.  That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.

Romans 15:30-32

We all know that we should pray for our pastors and teachers.  But in this passage, the apostle Paul gives us some pointers on how and what to pray for when we are praying for them.  He asks the Christians in Rome to pray for him and with him, and then he gives them some specifics.

The first thing for which he requests prayer is “that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea.”  Paul faced an ever present physical danger from unbelievers, as evidenced by his being beaten, stoned, and, eventually, martyred.  While our pastors may not face that kind of physical danger, they do face constant attacks by the world and the Devil.  We need to pray that they would be protected from those attacks.

Next, he wants them to pray that “my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints.”  He wanted to make sure that he was doing the right thing, and I’m sure that our pastors want the same for themselves.  We should pray that they would have the wisdom and guidance to know and see the right way and the strength they need to make those right decisions.

Basically, Paul wants the Romans to pray that he would be protected from the unbelievers and would be a blessing and encouragement to the believers.  We should pray the same things for our pastors and teachers!

Christian Unity

That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

Romans 15:6-7

Christians should have unity.  There are so many things that Christians share in common, that one would think they would be able to get along with each other.  And yet how often do we not get along with each other.  How many churches have people who don’t talk to or associate with other people?  How many churches are divided into little cliques that shun anyone not in their “group?”  How many stories are there about churches splitting over the silliest things?  I once read of a church that split because they couldn’t agree on what color of carpet to put in the church auditorium.

The main cause of all of those things is the fact that we start looking at ourselves and at each other instead of keeping our eyes on the Lord Jesus.  If we would keep our focus where it is supposed to be, we could probably avoid most of these disputes.  But I digress.

Verse 7 tells us to “…receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.”  We are supposed to receive others and have some unity in our families and churches.  God received us.  We should receive others.  As verse 6 says, we should “with one mind and one mouth glorify God.”  But, when we stop glorifying God and when we stop being thankful for all that He has done for us, we can tend to get a little cranky and we can tend to start not having much patience with each other.

How are we doing in the area of Christian unity?  Are we focused on glorifying Him with other Christians or are we focused on glorifying ourselves?

One Mind and One Mouth

For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:4-6

“That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God…”  There is much to be said of Christian unity, and the Bible does say much about Christian unity.  All of the things mentioned in the previous verses as given to us so that “with one mind and one mouth” we can glorify God.

God should be getting all of the glory for everything in our lives.  He should be getting all of the glory for everything in our churches.  Often, and sadly, He doesn’t get all of the glory in our lives and He doesn’t get all of the glory in our churches.

We can look in the Bible and we can look in our lives and see how gracious and merciful the Lord has been to us.  We can read in the Scriptures about His longsuffering and goodness even to those who absolutely do not deserve it.  We can see that in our own lives.

If we can start seeing what the Lord has done for us, we will start glorifying Him.  Then maybe another will glorify Him.  Then maybe our entire church will start glorifying Him.  Then maybe it would spread to another church.  Can you imagine what a testimony for Christ there would be if Christians truly glorified Him “with one mind and one mouth?”  I believe that having a revival of thankfulness and glorifying God would give us a revival of Christian unity and a revival of Christian unity would give us a revival in our churches!

Things Written Before

For whatosever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:

Romans 15:4-5

I have heard some people say that we really don’t need to read and study the Old Testament.  Everyone loves the Psalms and Proverbs, but how much do we really pay attention to the books of the prophets or to the historical books of I and II Samuel or I and II Kings?  God has given us a complete Bible, and we need to read and pay attention to the complete Bible.  These verses tell us that all of those things “written aforetime were written for our learning” and they were written that we “might have hope.”

We need to read all of those things that we written long ago in the Old Testament because they will teach us some things.  They will teach us things about God, they will teach us things about ourselves, and they will teach us things about following Him and serving Him.  We can read about the Israelites coming out of Egypt and complaining right after seeing great miracles (we would never complain, would we?).  We can read about the kings of Israel, the pride in their hearts, and God’s judgment on them.  We have a lot to learn.

Those things are also given to us so that we “might have hope.”  We can see how God’s people failed Him over and over again and how God still continued to have mercy on them.  We can see how God loves His people and wants only the best for them.  We can see those things repeated over and over again and we can have hope.

We may not study some parts of the Bible as much as we study other parts, but every part is given to us for a reason.

Christ Pleased Not Himself

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.  Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.  For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.

Romans 15:1-3

We have looked at the first two verses of this chapter and how they tell us to “bear the infirmities of the weak, not please ourselves, and please our neighbours.”  As Christians, we should be doing all of those things.  And, as always, Jesus Christ is our perfect example in these areas.

Verse 3 tells us that “Christ pleased not himself…”  We are told to please our neighbours and not ourselves.  Jesus did exactly this during His life here on Earth.  Everything He did was about others.  During His Earthly ministry, he helped people.  He healed the sick, caused the blind to see and caused the deaf to hear.  He even raised people from the dead.  I’m sure that, humanly speaking, He got tired.  I’m sure that He was weary and just wanted to sleep some days.  I’m sure that He could have devoted much more of His life to Himself if He had chosen to do so.  But He didn’t.  He made his life about pleasing and helping others.

I’m sure that Jesus did not enjoy dying on the cross.  I’m sure that He did not enjoy being beaten and spat upon.  None of the things He endured were pleasant things that He would have enjoyed.  But He did all of those things for us.  He suffered and died on the cross for others – us included.  That is the greatest example in all of history of someone loving others and living for them rather than themselves.

He has set the perfect example.  How are we doing at following it?