Romans 15:7 Therefore accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us, to the glory of God.
The Greek word Paul used was προσλαμβάνω (proslambano) which means "to receive, take along, take aside, and to accept." And here's the thing: it’s an action that always carries personal involvement, responsibility, and a level of intimacy.
Believers in Christ should know this is a privilege so, so well, because we get to live by being accepted in Christ, and therefore the call unto us who are in Christ is to be Jesus' very hands, feet, and voice in a world where most people feel quite the opposite, rejected.
Look, most people can vow that they've made bad choices in life or walk in hurt because they desperately wanted to be accepted and not be rejected.
Living from rejection not only breaks people, but it also neutralizes them from the truth of living accepted in Christ and out of all He has done for and in us.
But praise the Lord, the Gospel reveals why no one should ever fear being rejected nor live from rejection, because by faith in Jesus, WE ARE ACCEPTED by God, taken along in Christ as the Beloved, and taken aside out of the world.
Remember, none of us did anything to deserve God’s acceptance and adoption, not one of us, yet God by His grace granted us all in Christ to draw us unto Him, just as no one around us ought to earn their acceptance either, so we should embrace others like Christ embraced us.
Peter reminded us why we who are in Christ, like newborn babies, should long for the pure milk of the Word, in which malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander no longer have a role to play in who we are and how we handle others, for we know that we are forever accepted!
Think about it, are we rejected when people push us aside, treat us badly, or treat us unfairly? Nope, although it hurts, we know who we are in Christ... ACCEPTED!
Every bit of rejection we have ever felt loses its grip when we realize we have been accepted by God in Christ!
So for all my brothers and sisters in Christ, do you know you are accepted? Because out of this glory of acceptance in Christ, we get to live, and our lives get to glorify God by operating from our acceptanceacceptance, like Jesus did unto us, towards others.
AMEN