I recently received a letter from a couple in our congregation who have been laboring for the sake of the gospel in the Congo for the better part of their lives. As I read, one line in particular stood out to me. “We pray,” they wrote, “that we all learn to love, forgive, and accept each other more in the time God gives us.”

This is one of the most important requests that any of us could ask of God. The Lord calls believers to love, forgive, and accept one another—precisely because He has loved, forgiven, and accepted us in Christ. This is one of the foremost truths that surfaces in almost every applicatory section of the New Testament letters. It is central to the teaching of the Apostle Paul—no less in Romans, perhaps his greatest epistle, than in Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. The Apostle charged the church in Rome with this truth when he wrote, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Rom. 15:7).

It should come as no surprise to us that we find this application in a letter so full of the truth about how God has justified and accepted, freely by His grace alone, those who believe in Christ. Since God has received us to Himself in Christ, we ought to receive one another. Nevertheless, the context shows that there can be a sinful deficiency of such receiving and welcoming of others within the context of a local church fellowship.

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Nick Batzig | “Welcome One Another” | February 26, 2025

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