Have you ever noticed that when you meet someone new, especially a person who claims to be a believer, we have a tendency to place them on a scale of whether they are mature or have integrity? Whether we can trust what they say about themselves. In a sense we judge them for who they present themselves to be. When you meet a new person where do they get placed on your scale for maturity and integrity? Do they get placed at 50%, 75% or 100%? How do you view them as a person on your scale? You know it goes both ways. They also make a judgment about us when they first meet us. How do you think you fit on their scale? Would you like to start out at 100% with them, that you are honest about who you are in the Lord and where you have come from in maturity and growth in Christ? I am not talking about the fact that we pretend to be full of knowledge and understanding in the Lord but being honest about where we truly are, still trying to figure it out, striving to grow in Christ, learning from the lessons we are taught by God. Where do we put others and where do they put us on the scale we so often use to judge the life of others we first meet?
Paul was very zealous about his task to persecute the believers in Christ when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Jesus knocked him off his high horse of legalism and introduced Himself to Paul. From the moment Paul received Christ he was set at 100% on the Lord’s scale, where he went from there was up to Paul in how well he obeyed and served the Lord. Acts 9:15–16 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” How well do you think Paul did on the scale the Lord used? Did he mess up? Where did that put him? What did he do about it? We are moving into the last section of the letter to the believers in Rome. In this section Paul mixes his personal plans in with the practical lessons he still wants to get across. Paul has been careful not to refer to himself very often in his letter. He only used himself as and example or gave his personal opinion a handful of times in the whole letter. Something only a humble person could do. Would we be talking about ourselves the whole time or what the Lord wanted us to say?
But now Paul is closing his letter and wants the folks in Rome to know what his future plans may be if the Lord wills it. James 4:13–15 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” This is one way to stay at 100% with the Lord. Vs 14-16 Paul understood what it takes to build a good relationship with others; give them the opportunity to start out at 100%. He does that here in his letter by calling them brothers, a term of endearment. He goes on to recognize in them the qualities needed to be a mature believer; goodness, complete in knowledge and competent. 2 Peter 1:5-9 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. These are the qualities every believer should strive for so to grow in Christ and stay at 100% with Him or at least in the 90’s. They will make us useful to the Lord and to one another.
Paul did not have a low opinion of the believers in Rome. They all started at 100% with him and he gave them the benefit of the doubt that they were growing in Christ, spiritual and maturing, willing to grow and be used of the Lord. He even begins his letter with an encouragement to the believers telling them he can’t wait to visit them so they can build each other up in the faith. Rom. 1:8-12 8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. 9 God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10 in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. 11 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— 12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. Vs 15 When you first came to faith in Christ what was the first thing you wanted to study? Most likely Revelation or the prophets and the prophecies about the end times, the fantastic stuff, but someone had to remind you that you needed the basics of the faith first. The foundation we will build upon to grow and be steadfast in the Lord. 2 Peter 1:12-15; 3:1-2 12 So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. 13 I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, 14 because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. 15 And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things. Paul like Peter had a responsibility and the qualifications before the Lord to remind the believers about the basics of the faith. This will keep them and us firm in the faith no matter what comes. At times when we are dealing with other believers we need to speak truths they do not want to be reminded of. When we speak hard truths we need to be careful to not cross a line of bitterness but always doing so in love. Eph. 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
Paul had been appointed by Jesus to carry out the priestly duties of proclaiming the will of God to the Gentiles. He was sent to them to bring the good news of Christ and see many come to faith, a fragrant offering to God. This was the mission Paul was sent on, to bring in the lost Gentiles as a sacrifice to God, a fragrant offering. Eph. 5:1–2 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Isn’t this the mission we are sent on to rescue the lost from their sin and the judgment to come? Staying at 100% in obedience to be a witness for Christ. When they come the Holy Spirit moves into their lives to begin the sanctifying process, setting them apart from the world and its ways to God and a life that will be glorifying to Him. They then start at 100% and where they go is up to them. Phil. 3:7-16 7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us, then, wwho are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Striving to stay at 100%.When Jesus knocked Paul off his high horse He gave Paul an opportunity to start over again beginning at 100%. Where Paul went from there was up to him in Jesus eyes. Paul went forward in faith to be all the Lord wanted him to be. This was the attitude Paul had with the believers in Rome as well. They had been given the opportunity to begin again in Christ at 100% and Paul believed they continued to strive for that place before the Lord. In that they can move forward in faith and obedience to Christ to be productive and useful to the Lord.Jesus has done the same for you and I. He gave us the opportunity to begin afresh and anew, to start out at 100% in His judgment. Where have we gone from there? Can we say with Paul that we are striving to be all that we can be in the Lord or do we find ourselves making excuses about our lives and having others come to us speaking some hard truths to us in love?
What do we do when we fall from the 100% in Christ’s point of view? 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
What do we do if another sins against us and comes to us to ask for forgiveness, to get back to 100%? We forgive them.
Matt. 18:21–22 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. In doing this we will stay at 100% with God. Remember what Jesus said right after the Lord’s Prayer; forgive as God has forgiven us.
Next time we meet someone who claims to be a believer, be careful where you put them on your judgment scale, remembering that they are putting us on theirs as well.
Let us always strive to be at 100% in the Lord’s eyes and the eyes of others will take care of themselves.
Benediction: Phil. 3:12–14 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
