ACCEPT ONE ANOTHER

Romans 15:5-7
Now the God of patience and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God. (WEB)

In today's Scripture reading, the Apostle Paul tells us to accept one another just as Christ has accepted us. How has our elder brother accepted us? Completely and unreservedly, with all His heart. He has forgiven us and restored us to our rightful place as sons and daughters to His Father. He has empowered us, equipped us and made us joint-heirs of all of His inheritance.

To accept each other as Jesus has accepted us is a very tall order apart from the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. As a matter of fact, I don't think it is really possible to do in our own strength. We may be able to be nice to each other and tolerate some of our differences, but to fully embrace one another as we have been embraced takes a work of God.

1 John 4:19 simply says... We love him, because he first loved us. (WEB) I believe that this is the key for us to be able to love each other. The degree in which we are able to receive the love of God for ourselves is the degree in which we are able to respond to His love and begin to love one another.

My prayer is that we would all know how accepted we are in the Beloved. We have been completely received by the Father as His very own because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. The more we know that we truly do belong to God, the more we will see others as He sees us. May a revival of love spill out from our own inner most beings as we realize more and more just how much we are loved and accepted by God.

John 15:9-10
Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love. (WEB)