Accepted and Accepting

 

Recently someone asked me a great question. Now, I get plenty of questions but many of them, to be honest, are not really good questions. The great question that I was asked was, “Are we to accept others?” This question was asked in the middle of a discussion about people who did not believe what we believed or people who do not accept our values.

 

What does the Bible say about accepting?

 

In Mark 4:20 and in 1 Thessalonians 2:13 and in James 1:21 we are told to accept God’s Word.

 

We are to accept God’s Word as God’s Word, not the word or opinion of humans

We are to accept that God’s Word is true and has no error in it.

We are to accept that God’s Word is to be the authority by which we live our lives.

 

In 1 Timothy 1:15 we are told to accept the truth that Jesus came to save sinners.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about accepting God’s Word as the truth and authority for our lives and that the central truth of God’s Word is that Jesus came to save sinners.

 

Paul addresses accepting others in Romans.

 

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

 

We are to accept other believers in the way that Jesus accepts us and in doing that we bring praise to God. Even when we disagree with other believers they are still to be accepted as our brothers and sisters.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about accepting other believers just as Jesus has accepted us.

 

Then in Romans 14:1 Paul writes, “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters.”

 

We are to accept other believers who may not have the same depth of faith we have or who do not agree with us in every area. We are to not quarrel over those areas. When we make ourselves the standard, then we want others to conform to our model and God’s Word clearly teaches us that Jesus is our model of faith.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about accepting our brothers and sisters whose faith is not as strong as ours.

 

The Greek word for accept means to take to one’s self, to receive into one’s home, to grant access to one’s heart, to take into relationship, or to receive one as a son. It does not mean that we have to agree with or like what they have done or are doing. It certainly does not mean to condone their actions or their lifestyle.

 

The model for this is found in Luke 15 in the parable of the prodigal son.

 

In verse 12 the younger son demands from his father his inheritance. Now, any inheritance that was due the son was not due until after the death of his father. So, the son is basically saying to the father, “I wish you were dead.”

 

In verse 13 we are told that the younger son went to a far country. He went as far from the father as he could. He then squandered all his inheritance in reckless living.

 

In verses 14 through 16 a famine hit the land and the younger son was broke and he hired himself out to feed pigs. This Jewish young man went to a country that was a pagan country and fed pigs (and lived among the pigs). He even began to look at the pigs’ food and want to eat it because he was so hungry.

 

Then in verses 17 and 18 the younger son realizes he could possibly go home and be a hired servant with food and a place to live.

 

In verses 20 through 24 we see the father’s response.

 

The father runs to meet the son.

The father hugs the son (remember the younger son had been with pigs and had not showered).

The father puts the best robe on the younger son (it would have been father’s robe).

The father puts a ringer on the younger son’s finger (a ring with the family crest).

The father puts shoes on the younger son’s feet (only slaves went barefoot).

The father has a fatted calf butchered and they celebrate.

 

The father did all this without asking the younger son to apologize or come back as anything but a son.

 

As a son, I was accepted even when I disobeyed and disappointed my parents.

As a father I accepted my son when he disobeyed and disappointed me.

 

God’s acceptance of me is based on His grace and that is the way that I am to extend acceptance to others - by grace.

 

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being accepted by grace and accepting others by grace.

 

In the Grace of Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

                                               Joe