Tag: Biblical Doctrine

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Welcome One Another

Summary of my sermon, based on Romans 15:7-13. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Toronto on August 3, 2025.

When I arrived at Capernwray, I felt like a fish out of water. Most of the students were from small towns in rural Alberta—white, small-town kids who’d never lived in a city. I was one of only three Asians and definitely the only one from a big city. They nicknamed me “Big City Brown Bear.” Everything about me—from my clothes to my taste in music—set me apart. And yet, despite the differences, I felt completely welcome. Why? Because we all had one thing in common: our faith in Jesus Christ. And when Christ is the center, most differences fade into the background.

That’s how it should be in the church. But the truth is, we often argue about small things—things that shouldn’t divide us. That’s why Paul says in Romans 15:7, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” If it were easy to get along, Paul wouldn’t have had to say this. So what was going on?

To understand, we have to look back to Romans 14. There Paul writes, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions” (v.1). That phrase “welcome him” is the same verb Paul uses in 15:7. The issue in Rome wasn’t false teaching—it was disagreement over things like food. Some believers felt free to eat anything. Others, whom Paul refers to as “weak in faith,” ate only vegetables.

Why the restriction? Some think they were avoiding meat sacrificed to idols, like the situation Paul addressed in 1 Corinthians 8. But in Rome, the issue likely had more to do with Jewish Christians trying to keep kosher. Because they had been cut off from the Jewish community for following Christ, they couldn’t get kosher meat—and so they stuck with vegetables. These believers were already being marginalized by their own people. And now, some Gentile Christians were judging or even despising them for their dietary convictions.

Paul is clear: this should not be. “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?” (Romans 14:4). He reminds both groups that “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (v.17). In other words, don’t let food or tradition cause division. Focus on what truly matters—life in the Spirit.

What’s remarkable is how gracious Paul is here. In his letter to the Galatians, he’s angry because some were insisting that Gentiles follow the Jewish law to be saved. That, Paul says, is a false gospel. But in Romans, the Jewish Christians weren’t trying to impose their views—they were simply trying to live according to their convictions. And the Gentiles were misjudging them. So Paul urges both groups to stop judging and start welcoming.

Romans 15:7 drives the point home: “Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.” Christ didn’t wait until we had perfect theology or the right lifestyle. He welcomed us in grace. And that’s how we’re to welcome others—especially when they see things differently. Paul continues, explaining that Jesus came as the Jewish Messiah to confirm God’s promises, “in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy” (v.9). Then he quotes four Old Testament passages—one each from the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings—showing that Gentiles were always meant to join the Jews in worshiping God.

So what does this mean for us? It’s easy to divide over minor issues—especially convictions that aren’t essential to the Gospel. Protestants have split into countless denominations, often over secondary matters. Even within churches, we can be tempted to look down on each other for our choices—what we listen to, watch, or how we raise our kids. But we’re called to something better.

We need discernment. Paul isn’t saying ignore sin—there’s still a place for lovingly confronting what’s wrong. But he is saying don’t turn personal convictions into dividing lines. Instead, pursue what leads to peace and mutual upbuilding.

That’s why Paul ends with this prayer: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13). Joy, peace, and hope—those are the marks of a church that truly welcomes like Christ.

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Sweeter Than Honey: Delighting in God’s Word

Summary of my sermon, based on Psalm 19-7-11. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Peel on March 30, 2025.

Wes Huff’s appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast earlier this year was nothing short of remarkable. A Ph.D. student at Wycliffe College and part of Apologetics Canada, Wes went toe-to-toe with Joe Rogan for three hours, defending the Christian faith and clearly articulating the Gospel to an audience of millions. It’s hard to grasp the sheer size of that platform—over six million views on YouTube alone, and similar numbers on Spotify. To put it in perspective, that’s more than a hundred Skydomes full of people, all hearing a clear, thoughtful, and respectful explanation of the Christian faith. In a time when Christians have been increasingly mocked in the public square—like when Richard Dawkins told a crowd to “mock them, ridicule them, in public”—this was a powerful moment.

What made the interview even more compelling was the focus on one of the most commonly criticized aspects of Christianity: the reliability of the Bible. Critics like Dawkins often argue that the Bible can’t be trusted because we don’t have the original manuscripts and because the copies we do have contain hundreds of thousands of “errors.” That’s not something we need to deny—it’s true. We don’t have the originals. What we have are thousands of copies, and among those are an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 textual variants. That might sound alarming until you understand what those variants actually are and why they exist.

The truth is, most of those differences are tiny—spelling errors, word order changes, skipped or duplicated words. Back then, everything was copied by hand. Imagine trying to copy the entire Gospel of Mark by hand without making a single mistake. You’d probably miss a word or two. And yet, despite all that, none of these variants impact the core doctrines of our faith. The teachings about Jesus, the nature of God, salvation, and the Church remain absolutely intact. Even the few major variants—like the debated ending of Mark’s Gospel—are well documented and clearly noted in most Bibles today. They’re not hidden, and they don’t undermine the central truths of Christianity.

And here’s where things get even more fascinating. The reason we have so many variants is because we have so many manuscripts. Thousands of them. The New Testament is, by far, the best-attested work of ancient literature in human history. We have around 5,800 Greek manuscripts, and if you include Latin and other translations, that number climbs to about 24,000. By comparison, we have only 210 copies of Plato’s works, with the oldest one dating 1,300 years after the original was written. Homer’s Iliad has about 1,700 copies, and the oldest is from 400 years after the original. But with the New Testament, the earliest manuscript fragment—called P52—is from just 30 years after the Gospel of John was written. That’s extraordinary.

Wes Huff actually gave Joe Rogan a replica of P52 during the interview. It’s just a small scrap of papyrus with a few lines from John’s Gospel, but it’s hugely important because it helps scholars confirm the accuracy of other, later manuscripts. Think of it like polling a few thousand people to predict an election—the sample is small, but if it matches the broader data, you can trust the results. P52 isn’t alone, either. We have other early fragments like P104, a piece of Matthew’s Gospel dated to around 150 AD. Then there’s the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest complete New Testament we have, from around 330 AD. Even that is only about 240 years removed from the originals, which is still incredibly close by ancient standards.

But all this evidence—the variants, the sheer volume of manuscripts, the early dating—it doesn’t just prove reliability. It also shows just how valued the Bible was. Psalm 19:7–8 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul… the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart… the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” That’s why there were so many copies. People wanted to read the Scriptures. They used them, shared them, traveled with them. Just like my old, worn-out Bible I carried with me during a summer at Capernwray Harbour—eventually it just fell apart from use. That’s likely what happened to the original writings of Paul, Peter, and the rest. They were passed around so much, used so heavily, they simply didn’t survive. But before they wore out, they were copied again and again.

Even Paul encouraged this. In Colossians 4:16, he tells the church, “Have this letter read also in the church of the Laodiceans.” The Word was meant to be shared. And God, in His wisdom, chose to preserve His Word not through a single pristine original locked away in a vault, but through an abundance of handwritten manuscripts, lovingly copied and spread across the ancient world. That’s not a weakness—it’s a miracle.