God's Love Changes Us

By Jack Broomell
I believe this series “Life Together” has been a great one for us to hear and Mike, Bill and Eddie have all done a great job in speaking plainly and relevantly to all of us. This country has a lot of division in it yet we can look to the guidance of the Scriptures to see how we can live a life that God has called us to do. There are so many passages that lay out why Jesus sacrificed his life for us but I love this one from Romans 15:8-13 "For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written. ‘Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.’ And again it is said, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.’ And again, ‘Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the people extol him.’ And again Isaiah says, ‘The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.’ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
These verses repeat the fact that Jesus gave himself for the sake of others, even pointing out ‘the circumcised’ who were the Jewish people who had mostly opposed and rejected him. This sacrifice, for people who opposed him, provides us with an example of how we should be treating one another, even if our opinions are opposing. The personal differences may have been especially intense in the Roman church, where Jews and Gentiles had different ethnicities, backgrounds and habits.
Yet these verses teach us that God has always desired to bring Gentiles into the kingdom in order to show them his mercy and be glorified. Paul wants to use this truth to encourage the Roman Christians toward mutual love. He wants to remind them that God has always planned to create a multi-ethnic gathering of worshipers.
God has called us to live a life together with people that we hate, disagree with or whatever the reason might be. This is all shown at the cross, Jesus came to this earth to die for his believers but also to die for his enemies.Yet to fuel our love for others, we must first allow ourselves to be impacted by God’s unshakeable love for us. Allow His love into your life and it will change how you view your love for others.

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