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#DailyDevotion We Live And Die Unto The LORD

#DailyDevotion We Live And Die Unto The LORD

Romans 14 5One man thinks one day is better than the other; another thinks they’re all alike. Everyone should be thoroughly convinced in his own mind.6He who has a special day means to honor the Lord. He who eats does it for the Lord since he thanks God. And he who keeps from eating does it for the Lord, and he thanks God. 7None of us lives for himself, and none dies for himself. 8If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Paul continues with the line of thought he expressed yesterday. Why would one man think one day is better than another? He is probably thinking in terms of the Sabbath day and the other religious festivals the Torah taught the Israelites to keep. If you want to keep those, well and good, though their context may now change because Jesus is the fulfillment of the sacrifices made for those festivals.

Another man may think all days are alike. Oftentimes we may want to think this man treats everyday as common or profane. However, I think the opposite is true. He treats everyday as it is holy unto the LORD. As the author of Hebrews notes in chapters three and four, Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath. He is our Sabbath. We find our rest from our works through faith in him.

So you may treat Sunday as holy, Christmas and Easter as holy, and other festivals of the Church as holy. You may also treat every day as holy unto the LORD.  Each of us should be convinced in our own minds. Convinced of what? That what we are doing is for the LORD.

Paul circles around back to eating and reminds us that when we eat or for what we eat we give thanks to the LORD. In everything, we live and die not for ourselves. If we live, we live for the LORD and if we die, we die to the LORD, because we belong to the LORD. We are not our own. We have been bought with a price: the blood of our LORD Jesus Christ. We need to remember the other person who we want to criticize also belongs to the LORD Jesus. We have not been called to criticize or judge how our brothers and sisters in Christ live out their faith in the LORD (unless they are living a life unworthy of the LORD as written and warned about in the scriptures). Should we be called to judge the actions of a brother or sister in Christ it is to be privately done to show them the error of their ways from the scriptures.

Christ died and rose again to be the LORD of living and the dead. By living, Paul means those who have faith in him, eternal life in their hearts. By dead, Paul means those who do not have Christ’s life in them yet. Both have been purchased and won by Jesus Christ by his death and resurrection. There is no one who is not his, who does not belong to him. Both Christian and unbeliever belong to Jesus. We are called to love both as Jesus Christ has loved us.

Heavenly Father, your son Jesus Christ has purchased us with his blood shed for us on the cross. Give us faith to live for Christ with the measure of faith he has given us that we may proclaim through our actions in our daily life the love you’ve shown for us in Jesus. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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Rev. Guillaume J. S. Williams, Sr.

The Reverend Guillaume Williams is the Pastor of Hope Lutheran Chapel of Osage Beach, Missouri. His pastoral ministry with Hope began in 2005 where he preaches the Christ crucified.

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