The Apostle Paul was possibly the most religious man of his generation until he became a man of faith (you can read about his former religious life as a Jewish Pharisee prior to meeting Jesus on a hot day while traveling to apprehend Christians; e.g. see Phil. 3:4-6). But he never forgot his Jewish roots. Paul never stopped being a Jew although after his dramatic conversion he came to understand that a true descendent of Abraham or a real Jew didn’t try to be righteous but received God’s affirmation freely provided in Jesus Christ. A child who strives to earn acceptance and love from their mother (or father) will be a tense and nervous child (there are a host of psychological studies of what well meaning but misled parents do to their children when they make their love conditional to their child’s performance), And so it is with our relationship with God. He loves us unconditionally. We do not need to become enervated with the impossible task of earning God’s favor. The Christian who is bathed in God’s love will “perform” because he/she returns God’s love which they have gratefully received through Jesus Christ.
Both Jesus (see Luke 19:41-42) and Paul himself were heartbroken because their brethren just didn’t get it. In Romans 9:1-3, Paul says he would do anything to be able to bring his brethren into relationship with Jesus Christ; he even says he would actually accept damnation if it meant the salvation of his fellow countrymen (Jesus did one better and actually tasted damnation for all of us). In Roman’s 10:1, Paul speaks of his great desire that Israel would be saved. He laments that the Jews of his day (apart from those who had made the transition to the Christ of faith) were very zealous about their faith and as Stuart Briscoe says (Communicator’s Commentary-Romans, Word Books, 1982, p.195), they were like a runaway freight train that had been derailed; they were deeply sincere but sincerely wrong. They generated a lot of energy against Jesus that inevitably led to a great disaster as was seen in the destruction of Jerusalem about a decade after Paul wrote Romans. They were “derailed” because they were ignorant in the sense tearfully given by Jesus in Luke 19:42f: “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace-but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side...”
The person who tries to make it on their own will sooner or later be encircled by the enemy of their soul whether it be in this present life or in hell. They will feel hemmed in with no way out and it is much better for them to experience this now rather than when it is too late. Our pagan neighbors today are like the Jews of Paul’s day in that they are often quite stubborn and act condescendingly or even hatefully toward those who share the gospel of Jesus with them. They stubbornly hold on to a “do it yourself” salvation These unbelievers live in a land inundated with Bibles and churches but many of them have never read a page of scripture. They are long on what they call “tolerance” but short on the Truth; they are prone to fabricate their own “faith” but tragically fall short of the righteousness that is of faith in Jesus Christ. Their understanding or knowledge is of this fallen world and so they will fall short of everlasting happiness. In response to this, Stuart Briscoe says, there should be no superiority on our part about our neighbor’s error or woeful ignorance; instead we should remain humble in our witnessing, prayerful in our evangelistic endeavor, and hopeful for our neighbor’s salvation. We are to be as patient as a loving mother if we are to give birth to new born babes in Christ and then nurture them in love. On this mothers day, let us follow the example of Godly mothers who know about love and convey a knowledge that is not of this world.
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