Different Races, Cultures and Religions Live in Peace?
Summary of a Lesson from Tim Keller
How can people of different races, cultures and religions live together in peace?
In the Old Testament, Jews followed a straight set of dietary laws, treating certain foods as unclean. This practice signified cleanliness before God and helped them maintain their identity apart from surrounding cultures. But after Christ, our cleansing is through Him. Food is neutral, neither clean nor unclean (Romans 14:14). Even so, many early Christians struggled with this change in centuries worth of custom and habits.
Early Christians also argued over whether they could eat food blessed by pagan priests. To Paul, such worry showed a weakness in their faith (1 Corinthians 8).
Some consider certain paths to be right. They might despise those outside, and consider them as immoral and too liberal, with no courage of conviction. They may even resort to violence to force others to follow.
Some think that there is no absolute truth. To them, all roads lead to Rome. They despise those who claim otherwise and consider them narrow-minded, intolerant, and uncivilized.
Racial, cultural, and religious differences have created lots of conflicts. Different views from diverse groups could help us see the different aspects of God, but conflicting views can’t all be true. How do we deal with the inherent conflicts?
Romans 14 teaches us that we must evaluate to separate right from wrong. But those on the right path should welcome the weak and shouldn’t use arguments to change them (14:1). Instead, we should patiently listen to the other camp and build deep relationships with them, gradually encouraging them to listen to our side.
Learn from Christ. He condemns our sin, but He still stepped down from heaven to build deep relationships with us, the sinners.
Because of Christ, our status before God is not based on our behavior, but rather on what Christ has done for us. Because of Christ, we know God loves us, and our future in the new heaven and earth is assured.
God’s assurance has given us hope and the fortitude to change. We can build deep relationships with those against Him and gradually show them His love.
Adapted from a Tim Keller sermon
http://www.gospelinlife.com/free-sermon-resource
https://gospelinlife.com/downloads/hope-race-and-power-5357/
In the Old Testament, Jews followed a straight set of dietary laws, treating certain foods as unclean. This practice signified cleanliness before God and helped them maintain their identity apart from surrounding cultures. But after Christ, our cleansing is through Him. Food is neutral, neither clean nor unclean (Romans 14:14). Even so, many early Christians struggled with this change in centuries worth of custom and habits.
Early Christians also argued over whether they could eat food blessed by pagan priests. To Paul, such worry showed a weakness in their faith (1 Corinthians 8).
Some consider certain paths to be right. They might despise those outside, and consider them as immoral and too liberal, with no courage of conviction. They may even resort to violence to force others to follow.
Some think that there is no absolute truth. To them, all roads lead to Rome. They despise those who claim otherwise and consider them narrow-minded, intolerant, and uncivilized.
Racial, cultural, and religious differences have created lots of conflicts. Different views from diverse groups could help us see the different aspects of God, but conflicting views can’t all be true. How do we deal with the inherent conflicts?
Romans 14 teaches us that we must evaluate to separate right from wrong. But those on the right path should welcome the weak and shouldn’t use arguments to change them (14:1). Instead, we should patiently listen to the other camp and build deep relationships with them, gradually encouraging them to listen to our side.
Learn from Christ. He condemns our sin, but He still stepped down from heaven to build deep relationships with us, the sinners.
Because of Christ, our status before God is not based on our behavior, but rather on what Christ has done for us. Because of Christ, we know God loves us, and our future in the new heaven and earth is assured.
God’s assurance has given us hope and the fortitude to change. We can build deep relationships with those against Him and gradually show them His love.
Adapted from a Tim Keller sermon
http://www.gospelinlife.com/free-sermon-resource
https://gospelinlife.com/downloads/hope-race-and-power-5357/