Passage: Romans 15:1-7
Speaker: Steve Hands
Series: Heaven Touching Earth – Diversity
Honoring with Endurance
Misunderstandings make relationships difficult. When an English-speaker met her Mexican boyfriend’s parents, she sought to express her embarrassment at her limited Spanish by saying, “estoy embarazada.” Her embarrassment grew exponentially when she realized that she had inadvertently said, “I am pregnant”! Similarly a foreigner intended to tell proudly her Chinese friend that she ate 蛇 (she, second tone, meaning “snake”) but mispronounced it and said 屎 (shi, third tone, meaning “feces, excrement”). Her animated gestures of something long and thin did not help her explanations at all.
Such misunderstandings highlight the challenges of learning a new language, and different cultures present similar challenges to navigate. These differences make relationships, which are already messy, even more frustrating! How do we navigate the frustrating challenges of relationship with people different than us? Romans 15:1–7 shows how Christ empowers us to welcome each other across differences and demonstrate the glory of God. How? We must welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us for the glory of God.