Week 3: Love That Welcomes

Paul spends twelve verses on a congregational quarrel and never once settles the question they were fighting about. The dispute is food and days, and his answer is a command with a reason underneath it: welcome the brother whose conscience differs from yours, because God has already welcomed him. This lesson works through the two warnings Paul hands out, one to the man with liberty and one to the man with scruples, and then follows the promise in verse 4 that the Lord is able to make him stand — which means the brother we have been quietly watching for a collapse is being held up by someone stronger than our concern. It closes at a table in Levi's house, where the guest list was the whole objection and the Host sat down anyway.