To accept or welcome one another comes at a cost, it responds warmly to the penitent, and is constantly looking to move up and make room to welcome others in the family.  It is always inviting and including.

You’ll have spotted that the word welcome doesn’t necessarily appear in the verses as we read Romans 15v1-13. Instead, we have the word “accept” in some versions of the Bible and that’s a good translation. Like lots of the original words it’s hard to translate because it carries various meanings. The word means to take along, to take aside, to take as a companion, to welcome, and accept.

But what does it mean in practice? What does it look like to welcome or accept one another? It’s a word that speaks of warmth care and commitment. Let’s look at welcome in practice. Have a read of Acts 28. Paul is going to Rome to stand trial before Caesar, when a storm hits the boat he’s on. God rescues everyone from the shipwreck that follows just as he promised to Paul and they all make it eventually to shore, where we read: (2)“The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold.”

Can you picture it in your mind’s eye? These bruised, battered, bedraggled soldiers, prisoners and sailors after days in a tempestuous storm, and shipwreck making their way up the beach. And there the locals have made a fire to warm them and they make space around it to include these strangers. Welcome involves effort, it means making space for strangers, and it acts in ways that are unusually kind. It’s a warm welcome to the stranger that moves up and makes room.

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