Reading for September 15th

Read Romans 14.1-9
In 14.1-15.13: Dealing with differences.
Here Paul offers instructions about what is required when people from different backgrounds with strongly held opinions try to live together as a community of faith (1 Cor 8-10).
In verses 1-6: What to eat and what holidays to observe.
In verses 1-2: The weak, those with stricter views about what to eat, may be Jews or gentiles.
In verse 2: Those willing to eat anything reflect Paul's more open view about food laws (14.4; 1 Cor 8.8).
In verse 3; God's acceptance of weak and strong requires mutual respect from both.
In verse 4: Their own lord may be the principle they hold dear, or the way they understand what God requires.
In verses 5-6: The day may be the sabbath or other Jewish holidays gentiles do not observe (Gal 4.10; Col 2.15).
For gentiles who did not observe the sabbath, all days were alike.
Every day was a work day.
In verse 6: devotion to God can produce opposite religious practices.
In verses 7-9: Living for the Lord not ourselves.
Being the Lord's makes living in isolation impossible.
Christ's death and resurrection is a shared reality linking all Christians together, both dead and living (1 Cor 12.27).
Comments or Questions..