Read: Romans 14:7-12; Mark 2:28
Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. (Rom. 14:8)
As a pastor, when I visited church members who were nearing death, we would sometimes recite together the opening words of the Heidelberg Catechism: “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.” The basis of this beautiful summary of the Christian faith is today’s Bible reading.
This reminder of our ultimate identity in life and in death is embedded in settling the disputes of the Jewish and Gentile house churches in Rome. Not only was there a dispute about food practices, but there was an argument about observing certain days as holy. For the Jewish believers in Jesus, the Jewish festivals and the Saturday Sabbath observance were significant markers of faith. Gentiles followed the practice of the earliest Christians and shifted the day of worship from the Jewish Sabbath to Sunday, the first day of the week and the day of Christ’s resurrection (see Acts 20:7), because Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28). Paul settles it by pointing to the center, “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself” (Rom. 14:7), affirming that while the Jews and Gentiles had different practices, their master is the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the entire life of every man and woman.
Today there are different worship practices and variety in Sunday observances, but each Christian belongs to their master, Jesus Christ.
As you pray, pray that believers in Jesus with whom you disagree on matters of custom may know that you both belong to the Lord.
Kent Fry is a retired pastor and visiting research fellow at the Van Raalte Institute in Holland, Michigan. He and his wife, Joyce, are active members of Second Reformed Church in Zeeland, Michigan. Kent is an active cyclist, and he and Joyce enjoy time with their children and grandchildren.
