Romans 14:17 – For the Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
What could possibly be better than walking around being full of the Holy Spirit and having His righteousness, peace, and joy filling our every living moment. Unfortunately, so many people get caught up in secondary issues and religious ideas, just as those who were at Rome, and become given over to quarreling at the expense of all the wonderful expressions of the Spirit filled life. The greatest tragedy of all is that we forfeit joy in the Holy Spirit while we pursue these kinds of irritable distractions.
The most important issue for us to take hold of is that, as God’s people who are seated in the Heavenly realm in Christ, we are presently living in a dimension of the Kingdom of God and should be enjoying the quality of life that has been imparted to us by the Holy Spirit. We must realize that the quality of abundant life will only be present as we yield to the Holy Spirit and walk in His love. It is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom and to give us the Holy Spirit; in fact, you can’t have one without the other (Luke 11:13, 12:32; Philippians 2:13).
Righteousness, peace, and joy define the kind of fellowship we have with God, and also are supposed to have with one another. If we are not caring for those around us and allowing the things of the Kingdom of God to govern our interactions with each other, then we are missing out on the joys of abundant life (John 10:10, 13:35). We should realize that in seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, we are to do so in all of our activities – and especially in our relationships with each other. How we treat one another has a significant impact on how the glory of the abundant life flows to us. The way we treat one another is actually how we are treating the Lord; therefore, let us focus on loving all of the household of faith just as we love the Lord (Matthew 25:40; Ephesians 5:2; 1 John 3:14). Those who recognize that everything else besides righteousness, peace, and joy are secondary issues will be “approved by men” and “pleasing to God” (Romans 14:18). Blessings,
Pastor
Mark Spitsbergen
