“But now I am going to Jerusalem to minister to the saints. For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem. It pleased them indeed, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things” (Romans 15:25-27)
Here is yet another passage that indirectly addresses the relationship between Jew and Gentile in the first century church. Jews had certainly not, in every instance, been kind to the Gentiles, as we have noted throughout the series. Yet here is the chance that Gentile Christians had to show benevolence to their Jewish brothers in Christ. I love the response that Gentile Christians were admonished to give when the Jews needed them. They did not demand reparations for all of the past injustices; rather, they sent them aid.
We notice that this attitude was the one that Had God’s approval. It is important that all of us within the body look today to the Word for the attitudes that characterize our treatment of one another rather than to the various cultural movements and dissensions that may be occurring around us. Souls do not come in colors and it is quite appropriate for us to say, as children of God, that ALL souls matter.
While I understand that what I am writing would not garner the approval of national Black Lives Matter representatives, I have considered and prayed long and hard about this issue and I believe the passages are specifically applicable in the ways I am presenting them. I further know that I am nothing and my personal opinions about race relations are so very unimportant. Thus, while I know that what I am writing would not be sanctioned by the leaders of the BLM movement, I believe they have the approval of the King of Kings Who has declared us to be one in Him.
There was a time not so very long ago when I was stranded in an automobile with a dead battery in a place that most people in Huntsville would acknowledge is a dangerous area of town. It was a late hour of the night. My husband was out of the country and my heart was sinking fast. A man of color approached me and went about five “second miles” to be sure I was safe and on my way home on that evening when I was feeling great trepidation. Let me just tell you that, at the end of the day, I was delighted to find out that he was my brother in Christ…someone from another congregation whom I’d never met. I praised God that he had been introduced to and affected by the teachings of the New Testament. I pray that my heart has been affected in the same way by the Jesus who talked with the Samaritan woman, healed the daughter of the woman of Tyre, healed the Samaritan leper, and died for every one of every race. I know that there are many in our society who are not New Testament Christians but nevertheless have been influenced by the teachings of Christ that make us love each other without respect to color. For those of us in the body, it is a given. We are not about gaining for ourselves some position or recognition or reparation or station. We are focused on becoming the greatest as “greatness is defined by our Lord: “Whosoever would be chief among you, let him be your servant.” I’m praying personally for that heart.
