Division among God’s people is rarely couched in joy. My home church in England, Underwood, had a split when the younger members of the church split off and went to Chaddlewood. The reasons for the split are not what I am talking about. The hurt and the pain of division is what I have seen each time I have returned since the split. In the early church there were divisions along racial lines. Jewish people thought that early Christians should be circumcised. Other Christians thought that if you ate meat offered to idols you were in danger of hellfire. Paul urges both groups to remember that they are one in Christ and to find joy. Are you part of a division that has stripped your joy? Is there any way that you can work for joyful unity?
Romans 14: 17-19, 15: 1-13
- What is the kingdom of God not?
- What is the kingdom of God?
- Who is each of us to please?
- How can rigorous rule-keepers be a source of losing joy?
- How can you overlook the rules to bring joy like Paul did?
Going Deeper
Observation
- In whom is the Kingdom of God according to 14:17?
- What is the first word of the verses today?
- Who is the one who acceptably serves Christ?
- What concept is emphasized in 15: 5,6?
- How does a Christian abound in hope?
Interpretation
- What does it tell you when the reading starts with ‘for’ or ‘therefore’?
- What role does the Holy Spirit play in the Kingdom of God?
- How is attitude emphasized over conduct?
- What is the context of disagreement with these passages?
- What kind of person is stronger or weaker depending on these passages?
Application
- Do you regularly read the context in which verses are to be found?
- What divides churches and families about tattoos, alcohol consumption, or worship music?
- Why do you think people join The Chapel? Why have people left The Chapel?
- How could you be a catalyst for joy and unity?
- Toward whom do you need to show more acceptance?
Plymothian 
My fiancée has oft pointed out to me that I love to divide. I think that that is a universal human thing, but that makes it no less disgusting in me. I actually hate the way I love to polarize people. I bash anti-ecumenists rather than act ecumenically toward them. I rag on YECists without realizing that they are more than YECists, they are people. In expounding New Creation theology, I tend to violently bury unCreation, evacuationist theologians (the new Christian gnostics), not realizing that that violence subverts New Creation. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen. -known as “the prayer of St. Francis” / first appeared inLa Clochette, n° 12, déc. 1912, p. 285. (en français)