Please note, the sermon was interrupted by an alarm going off 9 minutes into the sermon. We moved to the veranda and finished the service.

Is there ever a lack of harmony in your relationships with your spouse, your parents, your children, your boss, your neighbour, or someone else? If so, what is the main cause of the disharmony? Is it not selfishness? Often it is! How then can we cultivate harmony?

This month, I am cultivating my garden by digging, weeding and fertilising. I am preparing the soil for a new planting of vegetables. Cultivating in the garden takes work. Cultivating harmony in our relationships takes even more work.

Transition

God wants us to cultivate harmony with others by conquering selfishness. To help us with this daunting task, He gave us seven admonitions in Romans 15:1-7. I encourage you to write them down and work on them.

Bear the weaknesses of others (v.1)

  1. He addresses this to the strong.
    1. He is not speaking of physical muscles, but of spiritual maturity.
    2. The spiritually strong have a duty to empathise with those who are spiritually weaker. He said that the strong are to bear the infirmities of the weak. In other words, they are to carry whatever difficulties their weak consciences cause. In context, this may mean not eating meat when dining with someone who thinks eating meat is wrong.
  2. Do not just please yourself.
    1. The word “please” in this verse is the same as in verses 2-3. It means to seek to gratify or to accommodate oneself. It is doing what please self.
    2. Pleasing ourselves is selfishness. To cultivate harmony, we must deliberately choose NOT to please ourselves. Selfishness is often deeply rooted in our character. It is a difficult “weed” to pull out.

Accommodate the feelings of others (v.2)

  1. Make room for other opinions
    1. God here charges us to choose deliberately to please our neighbour (i.e., the person with the opposite opinion).
    2. For you, that may mean changing your plans. It may mean honouring another’s wishes. It may be a sacrifice for you. Perhaps it will mean doing something that you do not really enjoy doing. You may need to give up your rights.
    3. Remember, this is not giving in to something sinful. It is cooperating with something that is not your preference.
  2. Do this to edify others
    1. Edifying or building up the harmony in the relationship is to be our reason.
    2. It is for the good of the other person. Selfishness never has the good of others in mind.

Follow Christ’s example (v.3)

  1. Christ lived an others-first life.
    1. The phrase, “for even Christ pleased not himself,” is packed with meaning. Christ is God. He is the Creator of all things. For Him to leave heaven’s glory, come to earth, live in a human body, endure rejection, and die on a cross for the sins of the human race is the ultimate of not pleasing Himself. That is self-sacrifice to the highest degree. No sacrifice we could ever make could match Calvary.
    2. With Christ as our example, even our slightest selfishness glares shamefully. If you have trusted Christ to save you from hell, He is to be your pattern for life.
  2. He fulfilled Scripture in doing so.
    1. Here, the Holy Spirit applies Psalm 69:9 to Jesus Christ.
    2. Rather than demanding His rights and selfishly defending His desires, He accepted the reproaches of others without complaint.

Learn from the Scriptures (v.4)

  1. Find Bible examples for motivation.
    1. This in part speaks of the Psalm Paul just quoted.
    2. It also reaches out to every example recorded in the Bible. This explains why the Bible includes both good and bad examples of men and women. Each example contains principles from which we are to learn.
  2. The Scriptures enable us to expect good.
    1. Note the phrase, “through patience and comfort of the scriptures.” We need both patience and comfort (i.e., exhortation) found in the Scriptures in order to deny self and promote harmony.
    2. The Bible does this that we might have hope (i.e., to expect a good end). By learning from Bible events, we learn how to be patient and are encouraged to do so.

Depend on God’s help (v.5)

  1. God wrote the Scriptures for our aid.
    1. Paul repeats the phrase from verse 4 (same Greek words).
    2. God is behind that patience and consolation.
  2. God can help us to live like Christ.
    1. He alone can grant you to be likeminded one toward another, as Christ lived.
    2. Not only is Christ our example, but God is the one who can enable us to follow His example. We must depend on God for help to live in harmony with others.

Seek to glorify God (v.6)

  1. The word “that” points to God’s goal
    1. God’s challenging us, giving us Christ’s example, and inspiring the Scriptures for our learning were all for a specific purpose. He has a goal in mind.
    2. His goal is that we glorify God the Father. To glorify God is sometimes misunderstood.
      1. It means first to hold Him in honour in our minds and opinions. Thus, glorifying God begins in one’s heart and thoughts.
      2. It also means to praise Him or magnify Him. Such glory causes the dignity and worth of God to become manifest and acknowledged by others.
      3. Glorifying God is a form of worship.
  2. We are to do this with mind and mouth.
    1. God wants believers, even those who differ with each other in non-essentials, to be of one mind. He wants us all to be of one mouth. Disunity and disagreement do not glorify God; they rob Him of glory.
    2. Conflict does not glorify God.
    3. In other words, God wants us to be in harmony so that we can glorify God the Father.
    4. Turning that around, we conclude that we cannot glorify God the Father if our selfishness prevents us living in harmony with others.

Receive others as Christ received you (v.7)

  1. Christ has received us.
    1. To “receive” is to take one to Himself.
    2. If you have trusted Christ to save you from judgment, He received you to Himself. Scripture states of God, (1 Timothy 2:4) “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (John 6:37) “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.“
    3. As a Christian, Christ does not turn you away just because you are not yet perfect.
  2. We are to receive others in the same way.
    1. These verses are not talking about ignoring heretical doctrines. They are teaching us to overlook petty issues, renounce selfishness, and live in harmony.
    2. We are to receive others as Christ has received us, with our many flaws and room for improvement.

Conclusion

While Paul wrote these verses to challenge Christians to live in harmony with other believers, the principles in these verses can help us deny self and live in harmony with all those in our daily relationships. (REVIEW)

Are you struggling to live in harmony with someone? It is true, some people are not easy to live with, but God wants us to use the principles found in these verses to help us overcome selfishness and promote harmony.

If you have not yet trusted Christ to save your soul, you are not yet in harmony with God. God invites you to trust Him right now so that you can be in harmony with God.

Song: I Surrender All – 394
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Cultivating Harmony
2 April 2023 AM – Romans 15:1-6 – Series – Scott Childs