Spiritual Worship

Romans 15:1-6
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, June 24, 2012
Copyright © 2012, P. G. Mathew
Language [Japanese]

The Bible says we are to worship God in the beauty of holiness. God is holy, and he has a people who are made holy for the grand purpose of worshiping him in holiness. In the Old Testament, the people of God worshiped him by sacrificing certain prescribed animals. But in Romans 12 believers are asked to offer their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God as spiritual worship.

God is a spirit, and his worshipers must worship him in the Holy Spirit and in truth.  All other worship is unacceptable. God rejects the worship of the wicked, but we who are born of the Spirit, who repented of our sins and trusted in Christ, who confess him as Lord of our lives, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and taught in the holy Scriptures, and who love all God’s people even as Christ loved us—we are to worship God with one heart, one mind, and one mouth. This is worshiping God acceptably.

The church is God’s family, and all believers are God’s children, though we are different. Yet we are all one. We are of one Father, of one Lord Jesus Christ who rules us, and of one Holy Spirit who guides us. We are members of one body and serve one another. When one suffers, we all suffer; when one rejoices, we all rejoice.

There are strong believers and weak believers in God’s church. Paul was a strong believer. He wanted the weak believers to grow up and become strong and mature. So first in this text we are told of our divine obligation to our brothers.

Divine Obligation

“We who are strong ought to bear with the weaknesses of the weak and not please ourselves” (v. 1). Love is not self-seeking nor self-pleasing. Love is considerate of others in the family of God. Paul was aware that there were selfish people in the church: “For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 2:21). But Timothy was different. He took a genuine interest in the affairs of the church of Philippi: “I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your welfare” (Phil. 1:20). So Paul exhorted the Philippian church, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:3–5).

Though Paul was morally strong and could eat all foods, he did not please himself. He refused to offend weak Christians by enjoying his freedom in their presence and thus wounding their consciences. He refused to destroy those for whom Christ died, even though he knew the truth taught by Christ himself that all food is clean.

The idea of uncleanness resides in the mind of the weak brother in Christ. But the strong are to receive the weak, love the weak, fellowship with the weak, help the weak, and teach the word of God to the weak that they also may come to enjoy a strong conscience. The strong majority should not crush the weak minority. They have a divine obligation: “We who are strong ought to bear with the weaknesses of the weak.”

The strong have a divine duty to bear with the failings of the weak. Paul’s policy was not to please himself, but to please the weak. So he exhorted, “Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks, or the church of God, even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor 10:32–11:1). Elsewhere he said, “Bear one another’s burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2).

Strong-faith people are to help little-faith people so that they also may become strong. Remember the story of the paralytic in Mark 2? Thank God, he had four strong friends to carry him to Jesus so that he could be healed. He got up and took his mat and walked home with his strong friends. The weak need the strong. Paul reminds us, “When we were still [weak and] powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6). The strong may also become weak, but God’s grace will make them strong again to live for God’s glory. So Jesus told Paul, who was weak because of a thorn in his flesh, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Cor. 12:9).

Many people are looking for happiness. But think about this acronym. JOY is spelled this way: J is for Jesus first, O is for others second, and Y is for you third. If we seek to please Jesus first, then others, and ourselves last, we will experience true joy in the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself told us, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Luke 10:27).

Unbelievers are self-centered and twisted. They are incapable of pleasing God or their neighbor. Paul writes, “Those controlled by the sinful cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). But believers do not please others for our own selfish purposes, like some politicians and most preachers. We do not want to be like Absalom, who was a successful politician who pleased everyone and stole the hearts of the Israelites, so that he could become king in place of his father David (2 Sam. 15).  Rather, let us emulate Paul, who refused to please men by compromising essential truths. He refused to please the Judaizers who taught that salvation comes through lawkeeping. “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10). Paul did not please himself, especially in matters indifferent. In all things he pleased God.

Each one must please the other

“Let each one of us please the neighbor unto the good,” that is, for his edification (v. 2). Paul exhorted earlier, “Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8). He also wrote, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves” (Rom. 12:9-10). When the word is preached, we must listen to it, understand it, add faith to it, and do what it says. Then we will be all right.

“Each one” must please his neighbor. The strong as well as the weak has this responsibility. The weak cannot say, “You are strong, so you must please me all your life. I will remain weak.” No. “Let each one of us please his neighbor.” Jesus tells all of his disciples, “Deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). We are to deny ourselves, not assert ourselves.

In the Corinthian church’s agape feasts, the rich neglected the poor. So Paul told them, “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!” (1 Cor. 11:20­–22). The rich Corinthians were not acting in love. They were pleasing themselves and neglecting the poor. They did not pursue the ways of peace and edification of one another. When we please ourselves, we cause the weak to stumble and fall. They are wounded, destroyed, torn down, and crushed. How then can such people worship God in holiness, in Spirit, and in truth?

We who are strong need to take the initiative to help our weak brothers and sisters. Receive the weak into your hearts and fellowship with them. The temptation is for us to fellowship with those like us—the rich with the rich, masters with masters, slaves with slaves, and vegetarians with vegetarians. But the command is, “Let each one not please himself but his neighbor for his good.” Love seeks the interests of the other. Love considers others, consults their views and interests, and does everything to build them up.

As believers in Christ, we do not live alone. We are a family. A mother will wake up quickly at the cry of the newborn infant and will feed him without complaining. So each one of us must please his neighbor. This is the way of Jesus, the way of love.

Paul introduces himself to the Romans as the bondslave of Christ (Rom. 1:1). We all are bondslaves of Christ. So we also serve one another. Let each one of us please his neighbor. Paul uses a present imperative (aresketô), denoting a continuous action. We are to do this until our death. It is not a one time thing.

Love builds up, not tears down. Earlier Paul wrote, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Rom. 14:17-19).

Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and 1 Peter 4 tell us that each believer, weak as well as strong, is given certain spiritual gifts to serve the church for the edification of all. And the greatest edification comes to us through the preaching of the word.

The Word of God

In Acts 20 we read Paul’s last words to the elders of the Ephesian church: “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).

Even Christ did not please himself. Paul quotes a fragment of the Old Testament (Ps. 69:9b) to prove this point. This is the first of six quotations from the Old Testament in Romans 15. So we read, “The insults of those who insult you [i.e., God the Father] have fallen on me” (v. 3). In Psalm 69, David was prophesying about the Messiah, David’s own Son.

As prophesied, Jesus did suffer in his person the insults directed by the wicked to God himself. If Christ had pleased himself, he would not have died on the cross, and we would not have been saved. But Jesus did not please himself. We read in John’s gospel that he always pleased his Father by doing exactly what he had told him (John 8:29). It was his food to do the will of God and to finish it (John 4:34). The purpose of his incarnation was to fulfill what was written in Scriptures. He said in his high priestly prayer, “I have brought you glory on earth, having finished the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4). We bring honor to God when we obey his word. And from the cross he cried out, “Tetelestai – It is finished,” meaning, “The work you gave me to do is done” (John 19:30).

Elsewhere, Paul says of Christ, “Being in very nature God, [he] did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Phil 2:6–8).

Psalm 69 itself speaks of the many enemies of the Messiah (v. 4). It says his own brothers did not like him or believe in him (v. 8; see also John 7:2–5). Jesus had at least four brothers, but we do not see them at the cross, so Jesus gave his mother to John to take care of her (John 19:26–27).

Psalm 69 also foretells that rulers would mock the Messiah and he would become the song of the drunkards (v. 12). So it happened: “In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, “I am the Son of God.”’ In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him” (Matt. 27:41–44).  (PGM) It is the height of cruelty to mock an innocent, dying man.

This psalm is speaking of Christ’s substitutionary atonement. Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and he was raised for our justification (Rom. 4:25). Thank God, he did not please himself! Rather, he said, “Not my will but thine be done.” So we are saved. “He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). The writer to the Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (Heb. 4:15).  He also says, “Such a high priest meets our need, one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens” (Heb. 7:26).

Psalm 69:9 proved that Christ did not please himself. He pleased his Father, accomplishing our redemption by his cruel death on the cross. You may ask why Paul always quoted Scriptures. For Paul, Scripture puts an end to all arguments. He himself declared in Romans 15:4: “Whatever is written formerly is written for our own instruction, that through endurance and through encouragement of the Scriptures,” that is, through the encouragement that comes to us by the reading of the Scriptures, “we might have hope.”

Do you know that when Harvard University started, it made the entire Bible its textbook and taught everything from the perspective of God’s word? The Bible is written for our education.

Dr. John Stott speaks of five truths about the Scriptures:[1]

1. The contemporary intention of the Scriptures (1 Cor. 10:11): The Bible was written for our instruction, for the education of all the people of God, though it was written formerly. Paul says that all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable, first, for teaching (2 Tim. 3:16).
2. The inclusive value of the Scriptures: Not just is Psalm 69:9 profitable for education, but every Scripture written in the past is profitable.
3. The Christological focus of the Scriptures: Jesus himself said that all scriptures speak of him (Luke 24:27; John 5:39).
4. The practical purpose of the Scriptures: What is the practical purpose of the written Scriptures? It is to give us hope of salvation, to make us wise unto salvation, to give us endurance, encouragement, and the hope of the glory of God, to give us hope of eternal life, to give us hope of the redemption of our body, to give us hope of the new heaven and the new earth, and to give us hope of dwelling with God, the hope of the beatific vision, which is happiness to the ultimate degree.
5. The divine message of the Scriptures: Romans 15:5 says that God himself is speaking to us through the Scriptures. That is why a minister of the gospel will not preach politics, psychology, science, or philosophy. We preach the word of God, which alone is capable of educating us and giving spiritual muscle, endurance, and encouragement to people who are gloomy. It is the word of God that lifts us up into the heavenlies so that we can behold Jesus Christ, our life and hope, our Savior and Lord, our high priest and soon-coming King.

Friends, the Bible is the word of God to us. Everything in the Bible is written for our education, endurance, encouragement, and hope of glory. Therefore, nothing in the Bible is without value. Turn the television off; it cannot help you. All other books cannot help you spiritually. Start reading and believing the Bible. Start listening to the preached word. Start listening to your father when he teaches you the word of God at home.

“All things written formerly” now includes the whole Bible, both Old and New Testaments. And no other writings are profitable in this manner. So if you desire to have a good education, moral strength, spiritual muscles, encouragement, and hope of salvation, you must study the Scriptures diligently. If not, you will be fearful, weak, sick, hopeless, complaining, arguing, and disobedient. You will be weak all your life. The pagans are characterized as being without hope and without God in this world. When you claim to be a Christian yet you complain and are miserable, weak, and hopeless, others must conclude that you are not a student of the Bible. We receive endurance and encouragement through the Bible.

Not only do tribulations produce endurance and hope, but also study of Scripture gives us endurance, encouragement, and hope of the glory of God.  Yet when we read Romans 15:5, it says that God is the author of endurance and encouragement. This means God gives us endurance, encouragement, and hope when we read his word in faith. The author of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, opens our eyes as we read, study, and listen to the word of God preached with total attention. The Holy Spirit through the Scriptures ministers to us all grace necessary. So the Scripture is the word of God’s grace to us. It is the first and primary means of grace. If we neglect the word, you will become graceless. We receive abounding grace from God through the Scripture that we may abound in all good works (2 Cor. 9:8).

Unity for Worship

Unity is the necessary precondition of worship of God in holiness. God also grants us unity of mind so that we may worship God acceptably. When we fight and quarrel, we may think we can worship, but we cannot offer true spiritual worship. It is the will of God for all—the weak and the strong, Jews and Gentiles, masters and slaves, rich and poor—to come and worship our triune God with oneness of heart and mind.

One holy Father planned our salvation because he, in love, chose us to salvation from eternity. One Lord Jesus Christ died and returned to life that he may rule us as our King. One Holy Spirit made us spiritually alive from the dead and dwells in us, guiding us daily. It is sinful, therefore, when we fight and quarrel. It is sinful not to get along with one another. It is sinful for the husband to fight with the wife and the parents to fight with the children. It is sinful for God’s children to fight with one another. It is sinful not to be of one mind. It is the will of God that we love God with all our heart and love one another. Paul is praying in this text that God will grant us unity of mind.

Know this: Sin divides, but love unites. So we read, “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited” (Rom. 12:16). Paul also says, “Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Cor. 13:11). God cannot be with us when we fight, quarrel, and are not of one mind with one another. Elsewhere Paul exhorts, “If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose” (Phil. 2:1-2). When children fight, their parents grieve. But when they love each other, their parents rejoice. Finally, he says, “I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord” (Phil. 4:2).

In his high priestly prayer, his longest recorded prayer, Jesus prayed for the unity of the church. So we read, “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. . . .  that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:11, 21–23).

If Jesus prayed for our unity, our Father will grant it to us. We can receive it and enjoy it now. And we cannot worship God acceptably without this love-unity. Husband and wife are not two separate entities; through marriage, they become one flesh (Eph. 5:31). In the same way, the people of God are many, yet they are one in the Holy Spirit. They all have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). How can we who have seen Christ crucified for us; how can we who denied ourselves to follow Christ; how can we who pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”; how can we who by the Spirit confessed Jesus Christ as our Lord and so we ourselves are his bond-servants; how then can we be disunited when we come to worship our triune God!  We therefore must strive to maintain the unity of the Spirit, that is, the unity the Holy Spirit has already achieved, in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3). Elsewhere Paul says, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Col. 3:12-14).

If we do not worship God in unity of mind, God will not be pleased and we will not be blessed. So before we come to worship, and before we come to celebrate holy communion, we must get right with God by getting right with his people. Let us pay attention to the following scriptures:

1. Mark 11:25: “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” If we come to church and remember that we have a relational problem with another person, we must go and deal with it; otherwise, God refuses to hear our prayers.
2. Matthew 5:23–24: “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” When we do this, the Lord will accept our worship.
3. 1 Peter 3:7: “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” If you fight and quarrel at home, pay attention to this.
4. Ephesians 4:26–27: “‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,and do not give the devil a foothold.” If we do this, then we can pray and God will hear our prayers.
5. Psalm 66:18-19: “If I had cherished sin in my heart,the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.”

The precondition to spiritual worship, to true worship in the beauty of holiness, is unity of mind. It is the will of God the Father and the will of Christ Jesus revealed in the holy Scriptures, kata Christon Iêsoun (v. 5) that we be united when we come to worship God.

The Final Purpose

What is the final, the grand purpose of our spiritual unity? So that “with one heart and with one mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 6).

The word “one heart” (homothumadon) is used eleven times in the New Testament. It is found ten times in the book of Acts, where the phrase “one heart” falls into two categories: “one heart” created by the Holy Spirit so that the people of God can worship God; and “one heart” created by the devil to oppose the people of God. The wicked also have one heart, one mind, one mouth to oppose God and his true church.

Thank God, we are here because the Holy Spirit created in us one heart, one mouth, and one mind to praise and worship God in Spirit and in truth, as the early disciples did: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. . . . (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2:4, 11).

Psalm 133 says, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! . . . For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore” (vv. 1, 3b).  Such worship ascends to the throne of God like sweet incense. The psalmist says, “O Lord, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice (Ps. 141:1-2). Such worship of God’s holy people with one mind, one mouth, and one heart will receive the divine benediction: “The Lord bless you and the Lord keep you.  The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen” (Num. 6:24-26). May God help us to worship him acceptably even this day!

 

[1] John R. W. Stott, Romans: God’s Good News for the World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1994), 370.