Sunday Praise & Worship 10:00
Christian Education - 10:00 - Casual Dress - Loving Childcare
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S—Supportive relationships within Skyline community. We celebrate God’s gift of community and encourage relationship building through small groups, where people experience care through prayer, support and unconditional love. (See Colossians 3:12-17.)
This week we begin a series where we look at the spiritual discipline of community through the lens of our community’s core values. Three years ago, the Council embarked on a process of strategic planning which started out by refining our vision and mission and identifying our community’s core values. We decided the best way to uncover our community’s core values involved listening to the stories our community told. As we listened to the various stories, several patterns emerged about what we valued as the people of Skyline. We organized these into an acronym to help us remember them—SUPER! Today, we’ll examine the first of these values, the value of living together within supportive relationships.
The chapter in Romans addresses how Christians who have different beliefs can and should live side-by-side. It specifically talks about two practices within the Roman Christian community over which arguments arose: eating meat and observing special holy days. Paul calls us to accept each other because God accepts us. He instructs us not to condemn but to instead assume that each one is trying to live in a way that honors the Lord. He reminds us that we belong to God in both life and death, so we have the Lord’s power to do what pleases God.
When we get to our passage for today, Paul continues along this theme by asking why Christians condemn or look down upon each other. He calls us to remember that each of us will stand in judgment before God to give an account, and each of us will only be able to stand because of Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us. In reminding us that God is the judge, Paul lets us know that if we judge another Christian, we are usurping God’s role as judge, which is sin. We can avoid judging others by understanding that all Christians are attempting to live out a relationship with God to the best of their understanding. None of us knows everything, so we cannot presume to be another’s judge.
Paul goes on to say that not only should we not judge, but we also should not put an obstacle in another Christian’s path. In other words, we don’t live to please ourselves but to please God and to help others grow deeper in their relationship with God. This type of living requires that we sometimes sacrifice our own desires or even comfort levels so that others may draw close to Christ. As Jesus-followers, we recognize that Jesus did not live to please himself, but instead sacrificed for others to the point of giving up his own life. So, part of living in a community requires self-sacrifice, not forced sacrifice but a willing offering to submit to one another as an act of service to God.
Paul continues to invite us to live in harmony within our community and in our final verse today, Romans 15:7, he instructs us to accept each other as Christ accepted us so that God may be glorified. In other words, living in harmony with each other is not an end in itself nor is it solely to avoid hurting each other. We live in harmony so that together we may lift our voices and our lives in praise to God as a witness to the power of God’s love. Remember, too, that harmony does not mean that we all sing the same note, but that our notes blend to make a chord of love. Questions for Reflection 1—Have you ever been judged? What did that condemnation feel like? How did it impact your relationship with Jesus? Do you feel judged at Skyline? How have you experienced supportive relationships at Skyline?
2—When are you most tempted to judge another person? How does that judgment show in your dealings with that person? Why do you struggle to accept them? Are there certain “hot topics” for you that make it hard to accept someone? How might God be calling you to live in harmony with them even if you disagree about something?
3—Have you experienced Christ’s complete acceptance of you? What does that acceptance feel like? In what ways do you resist that acceptance? How can you let that complete unconditional love seep into your soul?
4—How did the Holy Spirit speak to you in worship today?
For next week: Read James 1:17-21. What message has God planted in your heart? How is your relationship with Jesus Christ unique?
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Key verse:
Romans 14:13 “So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in
such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.”