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Accept One Another.


          Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Romans 15:7)

          C. S. Lewis wrote about the sort of acceptance Paul’s talking about in his book The Four Loves. When we love a stray dog who has done nothing to deserve our love, we give it a home, food, shelter, and safety, but we also give it a bath, trim its nails, poison it slightly to remove worms, neuter it, and teach it to live according to our dictates (including not attacking/destroying things we value and obeying at least basic commands.) All of these are in the dog’s best interest, but the point is that those changes are part of our acceptance of the dog.
          When Jesus accepts a person, His doing so is not contingent on that person becoming acceptable. It is after Jesus takes that person in that spiritual bathing, etc., takes place. So, yes, Jesus accepts you as you are, but He isn’t satisfied to leave you as you are, and you really don’t have a say in what He does. I’m not saying this to suggest that we’re dogs to God, but simply to point out that acceptance does not include approving of all that we do – or even are – or leaving us to our own devices.
          Today’s passage says we’re to accept one another as Christ accepted us. If God accepts without approving and without leaving us as we wish to be, then it is possible and probably appropriate for us to accept without approving and to expect change. Yes, as some have put it, we are not the Holy Spirit. It’s not our job to change others. We don’t have the right to take on that role, but the Holy Spirit does use people to accomplish His goals. It’s not something we should take lightly, but neither are we free to disregard the encouragement, edification, and exhortation of others in the name of “acceptance.
          And the last phrase is the key. Our acceptance is to bring glory to God. If our acceptance brings glory to the accepted individual, to that individual’s sin, or to ourselves, it’s not the sort of acceptance God had in mind when He inspired Paul to write that we should accept one another.

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