{"id":23561,"date":"2022-10-09T22:00:15","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/romans-16_1-16-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-09-27T15:04:56","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T22:04:56","slug":"romans-16_17-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/romans-16_17-27\/","title":{"rendered":"Part of Something Greater"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romans 16:17-27 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Romans 16:17-27.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Romans 16:17-19 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 17-19:\u00a0 Treating people with love, honour and respect does not mean that we must put up with behaviour that damages, divides or diverts the body of Christ off course.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Paul warns the Christians in Rome to watch out for those who cause divisions and who try to turn them away from sound Biblical teaching.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t contradict Paul\u2019s earlier teaching in Romans 14-15 about accepting one another; in fact they go hand in hand.\u00a0 When it comes to disputable, less important matters, we need to allow for diverse opinions, accepting one another even when we disagree.\u00a0 But\u00a0when it comes to indisputable matters and the foundational truths of the gospel, we need to be vigilant about uniting around the truth and protecting ourselves and our brothers and sisters in Christ from things that could steer us away from it.\u00a0 As Jesus says, we want to be shrewd as snakes, innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16).<\/strong>\u00a0 Paul says something similar here: \u201cbe wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.\u201d (v19)<\/p>\n

Romans 16:20 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 20:\u00a0 What situation is Paul referring to specifically when he says that \u201cThe God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet\u201d?\u00a0 Most likely Paul is referring to the situation he describes above in verses 17-19 about people trying to turn the Christians in Rome away from sound Biblical teaching.\u00a0 Apparently this was a real threat to the church in Rome and so Paul encourages them, basically saying, \u201cGod is with you and will crush Satan in this matter\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s a reminder that\u00a0the work of damaging, dividing or distracting the church is ultimately Satan\u2019s work.\u00a0 Since Satan\u2019s agenda is to steal, kill and destroy God\u2019s church, we must careful and courageous to stand up against Satan, knowing that our God is greater.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Romans 16:21-23 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Timothy, my fellow worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord.
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Gaius, whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings. Erastus, who is the city’s director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 21-23:\u00a0 Paul was not alone when writing this letter to the Romans.\u00a0 He mentions his teammates who were with him, including Timothy, Lucius, Jason, Sosipater (v21), Tertius (who transcribed the letter for Paul \u2013 v22), Gaius (in whose house Paul was staying \u2013 v23), Erastus (a high profile believer) and Quartus (v23).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0You weren\u2019t made to do life or ministry on your own.\u00a0 God made you to be part of a team where you can play off each other\u2019s strengths and cover off each other\u2019s weaknesses.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0What is one thing that you\u2019re doing right now where you would benefit from having a team rather than doing it on your own?\u00a0 You were made to be part of something greater.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0As Genesis 2:18 says, \u201cIt is not good for man to be alone\u201d and \u201ctwo are better than one, because they have a good return for their work\u201d (Ecclesiastes 4:9).<\/p>\n

Romans 16:25-27 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n25\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,
\n26\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him–
\n27\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 25-27:\u00a0 Romans contains Paul\u2019s most powerful and most thorough presentation of the gospel he was preaching, followed by Paul answering some questions about the nation of Israel, and ending with important practical advice on how to get along with one another.\u00a0 It is fitting that Paul ends this letter by giving the glory to God.\u00a0 Though Paul has shown tremendous wisdom in this letter, he writes \u201cto the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ\u201d (v27).\u00a0 It\u2019s a reminder that\u00a0since all wisdom comes from God, ultimately God is the only wise one.\u00a0 If we ever had any wisdom at all, it\u2019s because God, the source of wisdom, was gracious to give us a little piece.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That brings our look at the book of Romans to a close.\u00a0 What are the most important or impactful lessons you learned from the book of Romans?\u00a0 May God continue to give you wisdom to understand His Word and to live it out.<\/p>\n

Father, thank You for the good news about Jesus Christ, which saves me, strengthens me, secures my future and sets me in the most amazing family.\u00a0 May I live out well the lessons You teach us in the book of Romans, being clear and unashamed of what the gospel is, protecting the unity of my church, and loving people well.\u00a0 Thank You for every powerful statement and promise I can hang onto from the book of Romans.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Romans 16:17-27.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Romans 16:17-19 (NIV)
\n17\u00a0\u00a0I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
\n18\u00a0\u00a0For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
\n19\u00a0\u00a0Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.<\/p>\n

On verses 17-19:\u00a0 Treating people with love, honour and respect does not mean that we must put up with behaviour that damages, divides or diverts the body of Christ off course.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Paul warns the Christians in Rome to watch out for those who cause divisions and who try to turn them away from sound Biblical teaching.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23561"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23564,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23561\/revisions\/23564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}