7 Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. 8 Remember that Christ came as a servant to the Jews[b] to show that God is true to the promises he made to their ancestors. 9 He also came so that the Gentiles might give glory to God for his mercies to them. That is what the psalmist meant when he wrote:
“For this, I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing praises to your name.”[c]
10 And in another place it is written, “Rejoice with his people, you Gentiles.”[d] 11 And yet again,
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Praise him, all you people of the earth.”[e]
12 And in another place Isaiah said,
“The heir to David’s throne[f] will come, and he will rule over the Gentiles. They will place their hope on him.”[g]
13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So the passage yesterday talked about living in harmony with one another and this passage continues the conversation. The Jews felt that since they were originally God’s people that they were better (this is what I understand from other studies). This sense of entitlement causes chaos in the church because people were believing that they were superior would create resentment, etc. What Paul points out (again) is that Jesus died for both the Jews and the Gentiles, and there isn’t one group that is more deserving than the other.

Sometimes I wonder if this rift can occur between new believers and old believers, between social groups, etc. God loves each of us, regardless of the earthly constraints we use to define others.

My high school English teacher spoke at our graduation. He had just had his first daughter, Abigail. He said when he looked at Abby, he thought about how he would be devestated if anyone ever hurt her. He told us the world would be a better place if we treated everyone else like they were someone’s Abby – and that is a good way of looking at it. Wouldn’t the world be better if we looked at each person as God’s child – that they are precious in God’s sight?