Romans 15:9 (Worshipping Among the Gentiles)
So that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy, as it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to Your name.”- Romans 15:9
September 28, 2021 Floyd Ray Gage
This is a quote of 2 Samuel 22:50 and of Psalm 18:49. It is part of a hymn of praise to God by David which celebrated God’s deliverance of David and watch care over him. Paul uses it to show how Jesus’ ministry, though mostly confined to the Jews and the nation of Israel, was meant to be taken and witnessed about to the nations. The verses in 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18 say, “I will praise your name among the nations.” This is not a misquote by Paul, because all people outside of the Jewish nation are called Gentiles.
Though Jesus was a Jew in His fleshly form and was raised a Jew, He came to bring salvation to all peoples. This is stated in many places in the New Testament, but a verse that is well known to many will suffice to make this point. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. That whosoever should believe on Him shall be saved.” This of course is a quote of John 3:16. The whosoever covers any and all including Jews and Gentiles.
What does this mean for us as Christians today? Most of you that will read this devotional are probably Gentiles. If you are not a Jew, you are a Gentile. Therefore, we can take joy and courage in this verse, because we don’t have to be born a Jew to be a believer or to enjoy fellowship with God. Something we must look at, however, is who is our Gentile.
For Jews, the Gentiles were foreigners and they were unbelievers. It was both a cultural and a spiritual designation to them. For us, this would mean anyone who is different than us either culturally or spiritually. What this leads us to understand is that our praise and service of God should not be limited only to other believers nor should it be limited only to those who are racially, culturally, or ethnically the same as we are.
Many believers today seem to be happy to worship and serve God in their little community of believers without any thought of reaching out beyond that small group to tell others of Christ or to worship God in their presence. There is nothing wrong with fellowshipping and worshiping with our own church family, but our faith cannot stop with just them.
I have said it before and will continue to say that Jesus knew nothing of a “private faith.” Jesus did not compartmentalize His faith or witness. He told everyone and lived the life of faith in front of everyone. Paul did the same thing as did the other apostles. The few times some of the apostles tried to do differently they were called on it. Peter got called to task both by God and by Paul in wanting to limit who he witnessed to and who he worshipped and fellowshipped with.
God showed Peter a vision of all different kinds of food, some of which were considered unclean by a Jew. God told Peter to take and eat in his dream. Peter refused. God then told Peter not to call unclean that which God had called clean. He was telling Peter that since Christ had died and risen for all peoples, he was not to limit who he witnessed to or interacted with for the sake of Christ. This was to ready him to witness to Cornelius the Roman Centurion.
The other time was told by Paul when Peter sat separate from Gentile believers, because he was afraid of offending other Jews. Paul said that he reprimanded Peter for this, because he was limiting who he would fellowship with in Christ. Let us not make the same mistakes that Peter did. Let us go among those different than us and praise the Lord.
