July 19. Romans 1. Christopher Lucy
Not Ashamed
Romans 1 is one of my favorite chapters in the bible simply because it is such a great reminder of my life before Christ, and the dangers that I encounter in my walk today. Verses 16 -17 states “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
It is my belief that we do not simply get baptized and become a Christian for life. I believe every day we must decide to follow God. We must strive for holiness daily. This means I must have an enriching relationship with God and live the way the scriptures call me to live. Whether we are at work, school, riding a bus, going to the mall we all encounter opportunities to do things contrary to what the scriptures teach. So many days I have been at work and my coworkers are gossiping about someone and want me to join. The temptation to talk about vicious rumors can be great, especially if I am mad at that person for some reason. I must remind myself that God calls me to holiness. This may mean simply walking away from that conversation, but we are also called to walk in the light as well. I think telling others of our convictions is one of the best ways to walk in the light. This can be scary because of the risk of retaliation, but this is where faith really comes in handy! When I walk in the light, and I am transparent with my life and intentions my coworker’s respect for me grows. It becomes a lot easier to talk about God when you live like him!
Maybe for you gossip at work is not much of an issue, but Paul gives us a list of ungodly traits that we all must decide to not follow every day in verses 28-32: “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
We know what sin is. It is so easy to get caught up in sin. The scariest though in my opinion is that we can be so caught up in our sin that we do not recognize it as sin. Maybe for you its coveting someone’s relationship, maybe you struggle with prideful arrogant thoughts. Maybe you are not respectful of your parents, you lack faith, or lack empathy for others. We all fall short, but we also make the conscience decision daily to not “suppress the truth” with our unrighteousness, and to acknowledge God’s faithfulness as the reason why. What better way to share your faith than to live it with those who know you!