INTERCONNECTED FOR MUTUAL GROWTH

Tanzania Update: It is just over a week before my trip begins. Preparations are going well. I will be spending extra time on my lessons next week. Please pray that other immediate needs do not interfere with this preparation time. My primary concerns at this time are the preparation of my lessons and teaching them through a translator; the extra burdens that will be upon Gloria and Michelle while I am away; maintaining good health and stamina before and during my time away; and my flight connections. If you could especially hold up these concerns I would much appreciate it. Please pray that God will teach and show Himself to the students both in the formal setting of the classroom and in the time we spend with them in the college compound. I thank God for your fellowship in the Gospel.

"We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings (weaknesses) of the weak, and not to please ourselves". (Romans 15.1) This verse is part of a larger section of teaching (Romans 14.1 to 15.7) on not allowing personal convictions and practices about food and drink and special days to bring disunity and destruction to the body of Christ. Some believers were still influenced by their Jewish rituals and beliefs, and some by their Gentile practices. Paul calls the believers who have carried some of these influences and convictions into their new Christian life, "weak in faith". They did not yet understand and practice their full freedom in Christ.
To some degree we can apply "weak in faith" to Christians in our churches today who still believe and live from their unchristian, worldly upbringing. In the scriptures above we are told that the convictions of these weak believers were to honor the Lord. This is not the case with these new recently-delivered-from-the-world believers but they are still "weak in faith". The church has many such people and should expect many more to come to faith in Christ. They become believers with little biblical background and often with distorted beliefs and practices. They will carry into their Christian life convictions and practices with no biblical basis or from a misunderstanding of the Bible's teachings.
Paul has some clear instruction on how the "strong" in the faith are to respond to those "weak in faith". First we are to welcome them (14.1). Paul's idea of welcome is not that of a man wearing a big grin, rubbing his hands together, ready after greeting the weak believer to pounce on him with a rebuke from the Bible, an itemized list of new behaviors and ideas, with a fierce determination to make him into his envisioned christian icon. No! Paul says in the same breath as welcome them, "but not to quarrel over opinions". We are not to despise them or pass judgement on them (14.3).
In 15.1 Paul says we have an "obligation to bear with the weaknesses of the weak and not to please ourselves". The strong are not to ignore the weak and hang only with the strong, nor are they to rule over the weak with an attitude of pride and disdain, but they are to bear with the weak in an unselfish way. This is more than pity and tolerance.

Paul does not say we are obligated to bear with the weak in their weaknesses but with the weaknesses of the weak. This is unusual wording and deserves some meditation. Paul is not asking the strong to approve of the weaknesses of the week but for the strong to accept the consequences that their weakness will have on the christian community as a whole, and to identify with those weaknesses and how they effect one another in the community in the day-to-day experience of life. In love and in Christ, this will promote hope and unity, opportunity for growth in love, in patience, in truth and in character both for the weak and the strong. God is strong in our weaknesses, and brings much fruit through weakness. The principle at work in these verses is more than toleration for the weak and putting up with the weak because we have to while living our own life in spite of the weak. This will only lead to a marginalization of the weak by the strong. No! God has a fuller plan to use the weaknesses of the weak to bring godly fruit, character, deeper love, sensitivity, mercy, compassion, dependence on Him, and a Spirit filled life to the whole community. Praise God for giving the community weak believers for as we respond to them God's way we will know God's growth as a body of believers.
Paul gives the example of Christ who was willing to identify with sinners to save sinners, and was willing to accept the reproach of others in this seeming unholy behavior (15.3). The end result will be the glory of God (15.6-7). "Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God".
Tell me, how did Christ welcome you? Did Christ tell you to become perfect and then to come to Him? NO! Come as a sinner and I will forgive you, come and I will fully accept you and love you, come as your are and I will teach you, and I will identify with you even though the world despises you, to the glory of God.
A lot more could be said about these verses but I leave off for now.