Ep 110 – Romans 15:1-13

Most of us as Americans don't like the idea of committees. We are inherently individualists who have each inherited a built-in independent streak. Few of us like to be told what to do and would prefer to do things our way, on our own timeline and all by ourselves. We are a pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps kind of people. So, when we read the letters of Paul, we tend to read them with a what's-in-it-for-me kind of attitude. We see all those personal pronouns in his letters and assume he is talking to us – as individuals. But as we look at chapter 15 of Romans, we are going to see that Paul put a high priority on the body of Christ. The whole metaphor of the body, of which Paul was quite fond, conjures up images of codependency and mutual cooperation. The body is a single unit in which all the parts work together for the common good. The same thing is true of the body of Christ. We are not in this alone.