Sharing is caring.

[Romans 15:22-29]

There is a Naver blog website that I personally operate.  The motive for starting the website was a challenge from a nephew of an elder of our church a few years ago while staying overnight at the elder's house.  According to that brother in Christ, in Korea, the Koreans do not use the search engine google.com like in the US but use naver.com more.  So, I opened the Naver blog website and started this blog ministry with the hope that by posting all the articles I have posted on our church website, such as sermons, meditation, family stories, etc., it will be beneficial to many people in Korea, their spiritual life, and their family life.  And actually, it seems that the average number of people who come to my website every day now is about 450-500 people a day.  And it seems that these people come not only from Korea, but also from international students here in the US or people who use the Naver search engine.  And when I look at the people who comment or scrap my writings, they mostly take the Psalms that I meditated on every Wednesday prayer meeting every week, or they say ‘Thank you for helping me meditate on the words’.  As those of you who have visited it once know, the title of my Naver blog website is “Sharing is Caring,” which is the title of today’s word meditation, that is, “Sharing is caring.”  The reason I chose this title is to reach out to people through my personal Naver blog website by sharing the word of God and family stories.  And the person who taught me this title is Karis, my youngest daughter.  One day, Karis came home and chatted with her sister Yeri for a while.  And then Karis said “Sharing is caring” to her sister, probably because Yeri did not give her something.  I think Karis said that Yeri had something she wanted to keep, but she didn't give it to her.  So, she might have learned from her teacher at school that 'Sharing is caring'.  Lol.  When I first heard that word, I thought, 'This is such a cool word'.  So, this word I heard at that time became imprinted on my mind, so I set them as the title of my Naver blog website.  And I am still managing the blogging ministry.  What do you think?  Do you really think that sharing is caring?  If you think so, what are you sharing with your loved ones in your life?  What do your spiritual members share with the brothers and sisters of the church community while living a life of faith?

In today's text, Romans 15:27, Paul writes a letter to the saints in Rome and comes to this conclusion to talk about how Jewish and Gentile saints can be a model to share with each other.  What kind of sharing can serve as a model?  Look at verse 27: “Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them.  For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.”  Here, Paul explains that the model of sharing that the Roman saints should imitate is that the Jewish brothers share “the Jews’ spiritual blessings” with their Gentile brothers, and the Gentile brothers share “the Gentiles’ material blessings” with their Jewish brothers.  Then, the question we cannot help asking here is what the spiritual blessings the Jewish brothers shared with their Gentile brothers, and what the material blessings the Gentile brothers shared with their Jewish brothers.

First of all, what are the spiritual blessings that the Jewish brothers shared with their Gentile brothers?

That spiritual blessings are, in a word, the spiritual grace through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Think about it.  How did the gospel of Jesus Christ spread to the Gentiles?  Isn't it because of the Jews?  Looking at Romans 1:16, the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation to all believers, was first preached to the Jews.  Although Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles, he preached the gospel to the Jews first.  In a word, the Gentile brothers were indebted to their Jewish brothers (15:27).  What did the Gentile brothers owe to their Jewish brothers?  It was the gospel and a spiritual blessing.  What do you think of when you hear “spiritual blessing”?  On the first day of the 30th anniversary sermon meeting of Victory Presbyterian Church, I remembered the sermon title of the guest speaker, “A Spiritual Blessing from Heaven.”  Where is that title based?  It is based on Ephesians 1:3 – “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”  What is the spiritual blessing that the Jewish brothers shared with the Gentile brothers, that is, the spiritual blessing of heaven?  That is, in a word, "salvation" (eternal life) that the Gentile brothers enjoyed by hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ and accepting Jesus as their Savior.  God loved from before the foundation of the world (v. 4) and chose (v. 4) and predestined (v. 5) those whom He loved not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles (v. 5), gave them redemption through the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins (v. 7), and made them God’s children (adoption) (v. 5).  Therefore, Paul is now writing a letter to the Roman church saints, thinking especially of the Gentile saints in the Roman community, saying, ‘You owe spiritual blessings to your brothers, the Jewish saints.

Then, how should the Gentile saints, who owe these spiritual blessings, repay their debts to their brothers, the Jewish saints?  What should the Gentile brothers who owe spiritual blessings share with their Jewish brothers?

They are “material things” (Rom. 15:27).  Paul says, “they (the Gentiles brothers) are indebted to minister to them (the Jewish brothers) also in material things” (v. 27).  What are the material things that Paul is talking about here?  Paul is telling Gentile saints to share with their Jewish brothers, the material blessings they have received by grace from God.  Isn't that interesting?  The Jewish saints already shared spiritual blessings with Gentile brothers, and the Gentile saints shared material blessings with Jewish brothers.  As Paul writes a letter to the Roman church saints, he gives an example of this, saying that it is proper for Gentile brothers to share material blessings with Jewish brothers.  One example is the almsgiving donation that the Gentiles, the Macedonians and Achaia people, joyfully collected for the poor among the Jewish believers in the Jerusalem church (v. 26).  At the time of Paul, there was a severe famine in Judea due to a famine (Acts 11:28-30).  As a result, the Jewish believers of the Jerusalem church suffered great hardship (Ref.: Gal.2:8-10).  At that time, the Gentile brothers in Macedonia and Achaia collected alms money to help the Jewish believers of the Jerusalem church financially.  And Paul intended to take the alms money and deliver it to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem (Rom.15:25).  And he says that when he goes to Rome, he will go in the fullness of the blessing of Christ (v. 29).  What does it mean?  It means that Paul will go to Rome full of spiritual grace and share it with the Jewish believers there (Park).

How beautiful is this?  How beautiful is it to see Paul, the spiritual leader, exhorting the saints in Rome to live a life of sharing with each other, while wanting to take and share the full spiritual grace with the Jewish and Gentile saints in Rome?  Just imagine.  First, as a leader, Paul fully shares spiritual grace with the Roman church saints, both Jewish and Gentile, who have become one in the Lord.  When you think that the Jewish saints share spiritual things with their Gentile brothers, and the Gentiles share material things with their Jewish brothers, what a beautiful community this is.  Personally, I think the beauty of the church community is right here.  The church is beautiful when we obey Jesus' command to love each other as ourselves.  Now, as Paul writes letters to the saints of the church of Rome, he already exhorts them in Romans 13 with “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another” (v. 8) and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 9).  And when he comes to Romans 15, he says ‘please one another’ (vv. 1-2), and “Accept one another” “just as Jesus Christ accepted you” (v. 7), and then in verses 22-29, he exhorts them to 'share with each other'.  In the end, I think that the message that Paul is giving to the Roman church saints and our church members is telling us to 'pay each other a debt of love' or 'love one another'.  Briefly put again, Paul is now reminding the Roman church and our church of Jesus' second commandment, 'Love your neighbor as yourself'.  And I believe that when the church loves each other according to the commandment of Jesus, the church will not only be beautiful in the eyes of God, but also attractive to the world.  Wouldn't you like to dream of a church like this?  Do you not want to participate in the ministry of the Lord who is building such a church?

I came up with these thoughts while meditating on the words of Isaiah 5:2 during the morning prayer meeting last Thursday.  God put all His heart and effort into me and planted the choicest vines in this American land and wants me to bear good grapes.  At that time, the voice of God heard was the first half of Isaiah 5:4 – “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? …”  What does it mean?  God loves you and me and devotes all His sincerity and effort like the finest products.  He even gave up His only begotten Son, Jesus, on the cross for our salvation. What else does God have to do more?  If God shared the life of His only begotten Son, Jesus, for the sake of those who are weak, sinners, and enemies like us, what more could He share?  Today, this God wants you and me to share Jesus.  God wants us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  God wants to share eternal life.  I hope and pray that we are able to share this amazing love of God with our neighbors.