Scripture Readings: Romans 6:12-23 & Matthew 10:40-42
Throughout Romans 6, Paul is encouraging Christians to live for Christ, since they are now dead to sin. This is not automatically happening; it is a choice people have to make day by day. When the believers are the servants of righteousness, they are free from the control of sin. If they prepare for battle with the protection and weapons of righteousness, nothing can prevent them from receiving their true reward, eternal life in Christ Jesus the Lord.
As in verses 13 and 14, “Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” We are under God’s grace and called to be instruments of righteousness.
The sanctified life is not an obligation placed on us because we have received the gospel. Neglecting holy life is not Christian life, but overidentifying or over association with sanctification can also be problems for our lives. However, holy life is itself part of the gift of the gospel. It is our deepest need and our highest joy. The sanctification is not a task or an imperative to be pursued, rather a gift for abundant life. May we devote ourselves to the Lord, giving thanks for the grace He has given us.
Paul emphasises the gift of the grace of God and the love of God. Grace offers us peace and the hope of sharing the glory of God. The teaching of Jesus from Matthew 10 complements what Paul wrote in Romans 6. Grace calls us into a relationship with God, and our lives should reflect the character of the one to whom we relate. There was no hierarchy in receiving love and hospitality.
In Matthew 10, we are challenged to think more deeply about what is meant by welcoming one another. In today’s text, we discover the reward that comes from the deep hospitality found in God’s welcome of us. Today’s theological focus is on welcome or hospitality as a form of service to Christ. We realize that this welcome can and should be performed by all of us at any time. The basic acts of hospitality we perform in genuine welcome of one another are that God asks of us. God invites us to look around us to see who is in need and then do something about it.
The hospitality rooted in compassionate welcome is both a Christian practice and a spiritual discipline. This invites us to recognize people’s gifts and vulnerabilities and encourages us to open our hearts and perspectives. Welcome is not only hospitality, but also obedience and dedication. Welcome with hospitality and dedication encourages us to trust, to be open, to share, to serve, and to live a way of life that is beyond personal gain. May we extend our hospitality to others and devote ourselves to the Lord.
We need God’s embrace in our lives to live in a compassionate welcome with one another and extend genuine hospitality. Jesus helps us not to distort others and ourselves through false expectations and unjustified hopes. He leads us to creating and nurturing the genuine relationships God calls us to be.
Welcome with hospitality and dedication means approaching each other through the love of Christ. Genuine human relationships come from putting the grace-filled hospitality of God’s love at the centre of our lives and all our relationships. Genuine services emerge from placing the spirit-filled dedication of the love of Christ at all kinds of ministries and missional works.
God’s hospitality teaches us that close and loving relationships are to be valued along with occasional or difficult ones. This lively dynamic is the welcome Jesus speaks of in today’s text. If we live into this welcome with each other, we will find the rich rewards of discipleship found in God.
Jesus taught his disciples to carry out his ministry and gave them specific guidelines, a clarified challenge, and hopeful reassurances. We have been commissioned to carry on his ministry. Our work is to welcome, to offer an embrace, and to give love. Jesus says, our reward will be full indeed. May we be welcoming something or someone new, unfamiliar, and unknown into our lives through genuine hospitality and dedication.
We are servants, instruments, and weapons of righteousness under God’s grace and the love of Christ. Becoming new beings and serving the Lord and others are true joy. When Jesus invites us to love family and communities and encourages to welcome in the stranger and in the one whose life we hardly understand, may we respond by welcoming, sharing, and serving the Lord and others.
Thanks be to God! Amen.
(Ref. Bible, commentaries, theological books, UCA materials)