This Is Us | Journeying Together | Accept One Another

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

“This doesn’t look like any life group I’ve ever been to,” whispered Todd. “All the colors of the rainbow. Bikers sitting next to blue-haired ladies…” Gary shot him a look. “I told you, we’re a little different. We’ve stopped thinking of church as a showcase for the highly socialized. We want to meet people where they are like Jesus did. Got lots of new believers and skeptics, but we welcome them no matter what.” A tall man cleared his throat and Todd’s eyes widened. He whispered, “Man, that guy’s got more tattoos than facial hairs and he’s…oh wait, is he the leader?” Gary grinned, “Oh yeah, and you should hear his story!”

We sanitize our ideas about the early church, picturing halos around the heads of perfect saints, but history tells a different story. The first Christians didn’t have our New Testament, and most were saved out of paganism or idol worship. Goddess shrines dotted the landscape of the early Roman Empire, and many of the first converts were slaves or earned a living in the idol industry. Only in Christianity were slaves and masters treated as equals. Former prostitutes, male escorts, idol craftsmen, and Roman officers sat next to godly scribes and law-keeping Jews. Each early church was a hodge-podge of dissimilar human beings bound together by a crimson cord—faith in the risen Savior. That cord still makes us equals in God’s family.

Final Thought:  What kind of person is the hardest for you to accept? Ask God to show you that person through His eyes.
Prayer: Father, I want to be open-minded and welcoming, but I have my secret prejudices. Only you and I know what they are, but they are wrong. I want to overcome this wrong attitude. Help me learn to love______ like you do. In Jesus’ name, Amen