The one another commands

Accept One Another

A command of Christ for his church · Romans 15:7

Accept one another is the call to welcome and receive each other fully, just as Christ has received us. Paul says, receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God. We are to open our arms to those Christ has embraced, across every difference of background, maturity, and taste, for the glory of God.

Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.Romans 15:7 (KJV)

What this command means

To receive or accept means to welcome someone into full fellowship, to take them in as one of your own. In Romans, Paul is addressing tension between believers of different backgrounds and convictions, strong and weak, Jew and Gentile. His answer is not to sort them but to welcome each other, since Christ has welcomed them all.

Acceptance does not mean approving of everything or abandoning truth. It means we do not make our own preferences the price of belonging. We receive people as Christ received us, while we were still unfinished, still learning, still being changed. The welcome comes first, not last.

Why it matters for the church

A church that accepts one another becomes a place where sinners and strugglers can actually come and grow. If people must first meet our standards to be welcomed, the door is shut to the very people Christ came to save. Acceptance keeps the door open, so that the weak can be strengthened rather than excluded.

This mutual welcome is for the glory of God. When people of every kind are received into one family, it displays the reconciling power of the gospel. The world sorts by class, race, and taste; the church that welcomes across all of it shows a watching world what Christ has done.

Welcome is meant to reach across the deepest divides the world knows. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, for we are all one in him. The church that receives one another across race, class, and culture displays a reconciliation no human effort could produce. Such welcome is not the erasing of differences but the gathering of them into one family for the glory of God.

How we fail at it

We fail by making people earn acceptance. We welcome those who are like us and keep the different at arm's length. We accept people conditionally, holding back full fellowship until they conform to our culture or opinions. We forget how graciously Christ received us in our unfinished state.

We also fail by judging and despising, the two sins Paul names, the strong despising the weak and the weak judging the strong. Both refuse the welcome. When we look down on or write off a brother over disputable things, we reject one whom Christ has received.

How Christ enables it

Christ received us when we had nothing to commend us, while we were yet sinners and enemies. He did not wait for us to clean ourselves up; he welcomed us in order to change us. This is the pattern and the power of our acceptance of each other: as Christ also received us.

The measure is dizzying. He received the tax collector, the outcast, the immoral, the doubter, and made them his own. If he received us like that, at such cost, we have no ground to refuse anyone he has received. His open arms on the cross are the reason our arms stay open to each other.

Christ's welcome was costly, and so it is secure. He received us not into a probation but into a family, sealing it with his blood and his Spirit, so that having been justified freely, we now have peace with God. Because his acceptance of us does not depend on our performance, we can receive others without demanding they first prove themselves, offering the same grace we were shown.

How to live it

Welcome people before they meet your standards, as Christ welcomed you. Open your circle and your table to those who are different. Refuse to make secondary matters, preferences, politics, or maturity, the price of belonging.

Watch for the two failures Paul names. If you are strong, do not despise the weak; if you are weak, do not judge the strong. Receive the newcomer, the awkward, the one from another background, as family. Ask not whether someone fits you but whether Christ has received them, and if he has, welcome them for the glory of God.

Welcome people before they meet your standards, exactly as Christ welcomed you while you were still unfinished. Open your circle and your table to those who are different in background, culture, or maturity, and refuse to make secondary matters the price of belonging. Watch for the two failures the Scripture names: if you are strong, do not despise the weak; if you are weak, do not judge the strong. Receive the newcomer, the awkward, and the outsider as family rather than as projects. Ask not whether someone fits your preferences but whether Christ has received them, and if he has, open your arms. A church that welcomes the way Christ welcomes becomes a place where the very people he came to save can come, belong, and grow.

Related commands: Live in harmony with one another · Bear with one another · Be devoted to one another · All the one another commands