AP

Romans 15:1-2  We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.  Each of us should please our neighbours for their good, to build them up.

Many years ago, when our children were just starting school, I learnt a valuable lesson from my wife.  I had been trained as an engineer, before the days of computers, Computer-Aided Designs, and other gadgets, and, as part of our training, we had to develop the skill of printing very neatly by hand.  I became very frustrated that my children just couldn’t print more neatly, so my wife suggested that I try printing left-handed.  As I launched into this seemingly easy task, she wanted to know why it was such an untidy mess, and why I couldn’t manage to be neater!

The point was made all too well!  But at least it has taught me to be more patient, not only with people who are still in the very early stages of the life-long process of sanctification, but also with myself as an often slow-learning sinner.  The Apostle Paul is telling us that if someone who has come to put his or her trust in Jesus takes a little longer than I might hope to be moulded into ‘Christ-likeness’, then I must be gentle, making allowances for gradual but effective growth, just as God is being extremely gentle with me in this way!

‘Justification’ is a single, one-off act of the Holy Spirit whereby we are declared to be right with God in an instant, because it is based on what Jesus has done for us through his sacrificial atoning death on the cross, and his glorious resurrrection, leaving the tomb empty.  ‘Justification’ is not related to my performance as a Christian, but on God’s grace and mercy alone.

The process of ‘sanctification’ on the other hand, while also being the work of the Holy Spirit in me, takes a lifetime to work itself out in me, and I need to be patient and ‘forgiving/accommodating’ in my many weaknesses and failures along the way, just as my loving God has been patient with me on this journey for the last nearly seven decades!

As I reflect on all this, I hope and pray that God will help me to “to bear [graciously] with the failings of the weak [who might still be strugging with difficult spiritual issues and concepts] and not to please [myself] … [so that I] should please [my] neighbours for their good, to build them up” rather than discourage them by trying to set the bar too high for them, and then getting frustrated by their apparent lack of progress.

– Bruce Christian