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Word of Grace

Words of Faith Final

Word of Grace
Words of Faith 12-7-2021
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2021
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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Romans 15
    [14] I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. [15] I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me [16] to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

     Have you ever known someone to argue so strongly a Christian point that they somehow lost all of what we would call "Christian charity" in the endeavor? The truth is that sometimes we feel so strongly about a doctrine or an issue that we fail for a time to realize that we are talking about people!  
     Paul begins the conclusion of his letter to the Romans with a word of grace. He seems to realize that he had written: "quite boldly on some points." Paul could be blunt in his argument, to be sure. His training as a Pharisee honed his razor-sharp theological mind, but he realized that those sharp edges do not always serve the Lord.
     So Paul writes with some sensitivity a compliment. "I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another." In other words: You really have all the tools of God to be a wonderful church.
    "I have written you quite boldly on some points as if to remind you of them again..."  I am not telling you anything that you did not already know or that you had not already been able to discern. Still, I am reminding you of the truth. I do this "because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit."
    What a grace-filled message! If only we could be so full of grace. The truth is that we Christians are hardest upon one another. We sometimes batter each other with our strongly held interpretations and social positions. We occasionally bludgeon our Christian opposition with our word of truth.
    We know we should not allow such arguments to become personal, yet that is exactly what happens too often. It is the devil's snare that we should demonize a fellow Christian even in the interest of what we believe is right. The truth is that if we could step back from our arguments for a moment we would probably have to admit quite often that the adversaries whom we have called names are, in fact, "full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another." We would do well to offer a word of grace as Paul did.

    Is there a Christian you need to reconnect with? Is there someone of whom you need to ask forgiveness? Is there someone you need to reconcile to? Is there an argument you need to temper? Are there some words you need to retrieve or perhaps a genuine compliment you need to pay? Are there some words of grace?

       Lord Jesus, keep my tongue and heart from trouble. Give me grace to stand against what is wrong, stand up for what is right, and love all people. Give me words of grace. In Your name. Amen.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2021
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)        
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2021 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.