Accept One Another

Romans 15:7 says, “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God”. In the immediate context, Paul is talking about the unification of Jews and Gentiles under one family of God. Paul, therefore, tells his readers to accept one another. A better word would be to receive one another as one receives a friendship or allows someone into their home. The idea is that we should accept fellow believers because Christ accepted us into his family, the church. When we do this, we bring praise to God for this is what His plan has been all along as Paul further explains. Right before this, Paul urges them to be in harmony with one another as to how they think and understand Jesus. This will lead to acceptance. This verse has been used to prove a doctrine of acceptance of people’s sin which is not what is being taught here. What is being taught, is that we should never shun fellow believers for believing something different. Rather we should strive for peace and harmony and should accept them as believers and then strive to be of one mind.