Romans 15

http://www.esvbible.org/Romans+15/

Those of us who have strong faith must practice patience with those who have weak faith. We must not think only of ourselves, just as Christ did not think only of Himself. Imagine if He had chastised everyone about the small things they did wrong. He would have never had as much influence in helping people see that faith is all that matters. The bottom line of the Scriptures is faith, so Jesus did not let Himself get caught up in the surrounding decisions people made based on their faith. He only looked at the one literal life or death decision. In the same way, concern yourself with people who see you and what will further them in faith.

The Old Testament Scriptures exist because they give us confidence through endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures. It would be much harder to have faith in Jesus if the prophets had not written about Him long before He came. Having a Savior would not matter if we did not know what we needed to be saved from. The whole context that comes from the Old Testament puts the gospel into perspective. It deepens our understanding of just how powerful God is. God gave us the ultimate example for living together in unity by giving us Jesus. The bottom line of Jesus' message is love (faith comes through love). This unity within the church is important because we all have the same goal of brining praise to God the Father and Jesus. When we break down along certain belief lines, we fall out of unity, and that shows nonbelievers that we don't know what we're talking about. It displays a limited power to God instead of the limitless. Another importance in unity is that Christ accepted all of us, despite how messed up we all are, and now we must continue to follow His example and accept each other. Paul lists some very good verses about unity. When God fills you up with joy and peace through your faith, you will overflow into the lives of others. You will feel like you have no other choice than to pour out into those around you. God looks for that in all of us.

Paul talks a little bit about why he shares the gospel. He writes to the Christians in Rome to remind them of certain things that Jesus teaches. God gave him a gift, he calls it, to spread the gospel to non Jewish people. Paul considers this a great blessing from God to have the honor of telling people about Jesus, yet this is something many of us fear doing today. Part of Paul's offering to God is to bring people to a relationship with Christ. He builds on new territory for God because the Scriptures say that those who do not see will be shown. For the rest of this chapter, Paul talks about visiting them on his way to Spain. He asks them to pray for his safe travels.