Acceptance of One Another

Romans 15:1-7

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

    We have reached the 4th of the One Anothers, having already looked at Love One Another, Serve One Another and Pray for One Another, today we look at Acceptance of One Another.  One another friends are willing to see past and through all of our faults and failures – all our fears and minor flaws or shortcomings – to accept us for us.

    The first thing we need to mention about acceptance is that this is not about giving a pass about sinful lifestyles in each other’s lives.  This acceptance that we are talking about is more about the over-looking the quirks and mistakes in people’s lives.  Sinful lifestyles are not something that God wants us ignoring each other’s lives, but we are not to focus on the things in a fellow believer’s life that are not affecting their spiritual lives.

    Every one of us have things in our past that we would rather forget.  One another friends aren’t the kind we hide our pasts from, they are the friends that we know we can share with and not be judged.  These are the friends that see our idiosyncrasies and still love us.  They may think we are a bit odd, but one another friends know that is what makes us who we are.  They also see the times we fail in life.  They see the times we stumble and they are the ones who are there to pick us back up, brush us off and help us take the next steps.

    Now let’s flip to the other side of this friendship blessing.  What about the times we are the ones needing to be the one another friends?  When our friends are struggling are we the friends they know they can count on?  If they can’t count on us then we need to reevaluate what kind of friends we really are.  We need to think about how we support those we say we care for.  There are times when our friend’s may have problems that seem more than we can help with, but they may just need us to be there, not to fix them.

    All of this comes back to being the friend we know Jesus is to us.  He loves us with all of our quirks and stumbling.  He hurts when He sees us sin, but He doesn’t let us continue in it without lovingly pointing out how we need to change to be in line with Him.  He never leaves us or forsakes us.  Now that is a true friend!

Making It Personal

    Do you have these kinds of friends in your life?  Are you this kind of friend?  Who needs this kind of a friend today that you could stand in the gap with?

Making It Personal Kids

    Do you have a friend that is there when you need a friend?  Are you that kind of a friend to others?  Who do you know that needs that kind of friend today?

Closing Prayer

    Father, thank You for showing us how to be the kind of friends You have called us to be.  Give us wisdom to be the one another friends our fellow believers need.  In Jesus’ name, amen.