A Few Thoughts on Romans

So...it's been a long time. I'm thinking of revamping my blog and starting over - I'm not sure how that would help me post more frequently, but it sounds good. 

At any rate, I have a couple of posts in mind today. The first is on something that struck me a couple weeks ago while I was helping one of the kids study for Bible quizzing. They are, as I've said before, studying Romans and James this year, and Romans has been a little tough for the younger kids to memorize. I hope, though, that they'll be able to tuck it away for later, because it is so good, and so thorough. So very, very thorough as Paul goes into depth - rather wordy depth at times - about many concepts. There have been more than a few times in which one or more of the kids on the team have said, "What does that even mean?", and we've done our best to find out, even though I admit, I'm not always sure. And on this particular passage, I may be missing the mark a bit. But this is how it struck me. Romans 13:8-10 says, "Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not covet,' and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor,' therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." What struck me about this is that it does not say, "The commandments are okay, but what God really cares about is LOVE." Love is the fulfilling of all the commandments, not instead of them. God still cares about everything he always has - he's still as holy and awesome as ever, which is why Romans ought to make us all the more grateful that Jesus has us covered. Not so that we don't have to worry about those pesky rules - but so the rules are met, the price paid, and the commandments - given for a reason, and still important - fulfilled. And fulfilling the commandments is loving each other.

And going on from that, he does talk about not passing judgment on each other as we love each other. But what I love so much about that chapter is that it isn't the picture of non-judgmental behavior we often get these days. It is not. "I am free to do what I want, and you ignorant, small-minded fellow believer can't judge me." I'm just going to say that I really, really loathe that attitude. What Paul says in Romans 14, however, is this - "Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother." He puts as much responsibility - or perhaps even more - on the one who feels free to eat a particular thing, or not observe a particular day, as he does on the one who does not feel as free. He not only says "don't pass judgment" (and we're talking about those gray areas here), he also says. "don't despise." And go out of your way to make sure your freedom doesn't cause a problem for fellow believers. And whatever you do, do it out of faith. because, God is still holy,  and righteousness is still of utmost importance. We ought to be a little scared of missing that! And then we ought to be extremely thankful that we don't have to achieve it ourselves. I think that ought to inspire something quite different than the "Don't judge me; I can do what I want." kind of thinking.