60IN60 Day 45 - Wed Apr 16

It's Day 45 and we're in Romans 14.

If you've got questions about your reading, I love answering those. Feel free to email me. Unless it's something personal, I'll usually anonymously share the question (and answer) in the following day's email so everyone can benefit from it.

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verse 17 - It's not outward things that define our faith, but that inward change that results in abundant life: righteousness and peace and joy.

Help:
- Verses 2, 5 - These were controversial issues back in Paul's day: v. 2 has to do with eating meat that was sacrificed to idols and v. 5 has to do with whether to celebrate holidays.  Those issues aren't really pressing to us today, but other ones are controversial.  In the larger passage, Paul is saying that we each need to be fully convinced in our own minds and not condemn our brothers and sisters in Christ when we disagree on minor issues.

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.

Your Questions:
- "Does Rom. 11:22 speak of the saved losing their salvation, cut off from the root?" - The initial reading of the verse certainly could easily be interpreted in that way.  A Methodist who believed that you can lose your salvation would argue that this verse points toward that.  A Baptist believing in eternal security would argue that what is in mind here is similar to John 15:6, with the idea being that true believers have a faith that perseveres to the end and the act of not continuing in the faith is evidence that the person was not a true believer.
- Romans 12: "God will forgive us our sins if we ask him. It sounds like in these passages that we are to forgive others their sins towards us without their asking us to." - It is a hard request, but we are to forgive even when the person has not apologized.
- Romans 13: "Your comment concerning vv. 1-6 doesn't sound like entirely what it says in the text. I didn't see any "but" there. Further over in v. 13 Paul cautions us to not be in dissension. What's up?" -  Good question.  We always have to read Scripture in the context of all the rest of Scripture.  There are places where the Biblical writer shares a portion of the truth about a particular subject and we need to read that in light of the other relevant passages.  An example: In Luke 16:18, Jesus talks about divorce.  He simply says that the one who divorces and marries another is committing adultery.  Now, that is the general rule: marriage is sacred, God wants vows to be kept, and therefore breaking those vows can lead to sin.  If I only look at that one passage, I would be led to think that all divorce and remarriage leads to that sin.  I know, though, when I read other passages that there are places where Jesus talked about times when divorce is justified (see, for instance, Matthew 5:32).  Therefore I have to read each passage in light of the other relevant passages.  Sometimes a general rule is being given; sometimes a more exhaustive discussion is happening.  So back to Romans 13: this is the general rule about our relationship to government - I should live at peace with the government and respect its God-ordained role in keeping order.  But I also know from the book of Daniel and the story of the fiery furnace that there may be times when the government asks things of me that are morally wrong and in those moments I have to disobey the government to obey God.