Welcoming as Christ Welcomed Us
May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
Romans 15:5–7 (ESV)
With these words—this genuine prayer, offered to God, that Paul allows the church to overhear—Paul’s hope is that the church would live in harmony, magnifying God together with one voice. The church is not to live as several factions or groupings of people who happen to meet together one day a week for a religious service; the church is to function as one body, a united whole, in our life together as God’s people. And an important practical step toward meeting that goal is to “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”
As new believers are welcomed into the church, and as new families who already are believers enter into the body, the church is to welcome them with the standard being not just “welcome them in a friendly manner,” though it includes that; nor is the standard “welcome them with a well-planned follow-up mechanism,” though it may include that as well. The standard is “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.” Welcome the new believers, new families, those entering our fellowship—as they come in, they are a part of our “one another,” and we’re welcome one another just as Christ has welcomed us.
So, how has Jesus welcomed us?
Jesus welcomed us sacrificially
I start here because everything else comes through the gospel. All the good gifts that we receive from God we receive because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for sinners like us. And the gospel tells us that Christ welcomed us to himself sacrificially, that is, at great cost to himself.
The way that Christ welcomed us into relationship with himself and, therefore, with the Triune God, was through his death on the cross. We were “his enemies” (Romans 5:10), we were “strangers and aliens” (Ephesians 2:19), we were living in “the domain of darkness” (Colossians 1:13), and while we were in that state, Christ welcomed us in through the way opened by his death.
How does this translate to our welcoming in others?
First, we point others to the good news of Jesus. The promise of the gospel is “for all who are far off,” according to Peter in Acts 2:39. We don’t judge others by appearances, assuming that because they seem to be far from God we don’t need to welcome them; instead, we point them to Christ. This opens up the application far beyond even welcoming just fellow believers, reminding us that there is a way in which we’re to welcome everyone. They may not yet be in the family, but we’re still to welcome them by lovingly pointing them to the hope that we have in Christ, who came to us while we ourselves were still far from God and “doing evil deeds” (Colossians 1:21).
Second, it means we lay down our lives for the good of others just like Jesus laid down his life for us. That means we look for needs and we meet those needs. It means we’re willing to make ourselves uncomfortable so that others may be comfortable. It means we’re willing to lay down our preferences and our desires as we humbly consider others more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3). This second implication does not mean that we give up the truth of the gospel or that we water down Scripture to fit the spirit of the age. Compromising on core convictions of the faith is not welcoming one another but is abandoning the One who has welcomed us to himself, namely Jesus Christ. We must not water down truth, but while holding tightly to the word of truth (Titus 1:9), we find ways to serve others that we may welcome any and all to Jesus and the community of his people.
Jesus welcomed us equally
As we welcome others, we need to see that Jesus welcomed others to himself equally. Jesus didn’t treat others coming to him with partiality, favoring those who were the preferred members of society in his day.
A prime example of this is found in Luke 8:40–56 and Jesus’s encounter with Jairus. Jairus was a ruler of the synagogue, an important position in a Jewish community. This man who was both a community leader and a religious leader came to Jesus with an important and urgent request: come to my house and heal my daughter, who was near to death. Jesus begins to go with Jairus, but finds himself interrupted by Jairus’s social opposite, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. Jairus was the leader of the local synagogue, but for twelve long years this woman was ritually unclean and unable to even enter the synagogue. She was therefore a religious outsider, while Jairus was a religious insider. Jairus is named, she is unnamed. Jairus has a home and servants (verse 49), this woman has “spent all her living on physicians” (verse 43) and would have thus been very poor. But despite this woman’s low social standing and despite his current urgent mission to help this important man, Jesus stopped and spent time with this woman, meeting her needs, before continuing on with Jairus, to meet his needs.
We read of this characteristic of Jesus throughout the gospels. Jesus commended the poor widow, and Jesus invited the rich young man to follow him. Jesus dined with Zacchaeus the tax collector, and Jesus dined with Simon the Pharisee. Among the twelve closest followers, Jesus had not only fishermen, but also a revolutionary who came from a group that wanted to overthrow the government (Simon the Zealot), and a tax collector who supported the work of the government (Levi/Matthew). And not to be overlooked, all the while Jesus was followed closely and supported financially by three ladies named Mary, Joanna, and Susanna (Luke 8:2–3).
The point is clear: Jesus welcomed all equally, and so must we.
Jesus welcomed us into family
Finally, Jesus welcomed us into his family. Through the gospel, Jesus brought us into the family of God. Once, when told that his mother and brothers and sisters were outside and waiting on him, he replied “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matthew 12:50). All who trust in and follow Jesus are equally members of Jesus’s family, and so as they join with our local gathering of Jesus’s family called Mountain Creek, we must fully welcome them into our family.
Perhaps there are divisions within some families; unfortunately, such is life in a fallen world. However, the church is meant to be a picture of the age to come, an age where no such divisions exist. We therefore cannot let divisions based on social class or ethnicity seep into our family at Mountain Creek. Moreover, as we welcome the new residents moving into Greenville from all over the nation, or just as we welcome in new members into our fellowship, we’re to welcome everyone as full members of the family. We’re all brothers and sisters, without a tiered status based on how long we’ve been here or where we come from. We’re to welcome everyone into the family as full-fledged equal members, because that’s how Christ has welcomed us.
A Word of Encouragement
Mountain Creek family, I want to borrow my final thought from another letter penned by the apostle Paul, his first letter to the church in Thessalonica. To that local fellowship, Paul wrote this:
Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more.
1 Thessalonians 4:9–10, ESV
I want to say the same thing to you, Mountain Creek. We do well at welcoming others for the glory of Christ. But let’s not be content with where we are. May we seek to excel still more.
Bert Watts has served since December 2016 as the Senior Pastor at Mountain Creek Baptist Church, where he has been on staff since 2012.
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