Mike’s Musings ….
Accommodate
What an interesting word! According to Webster, it means, “to render suitable; adapt; adjust; reconcile; provide room for.” We often use the word in reference to all but one of these (and we’ll muse about that in a minute.) Recently, because we love him and wish to see his return to us, we “accommodated” a brother this week with a seat he can use comfortably while attending services. We have “accommodated” our audiences with an audio system to permit better hearing of our speakers, a power-point system to “accommodate” the illustrations used in our teaching of God’s word, heating, and air conditioning to “accommodate” the comfort of all, etc. Further, we have furnished bibles for those who either don’t have one or forgot to bring theirs, and songbooks so we can all sing together, and thereby teach and admonish one another (Colossians 3:16). These are all “accommodations” in that they “grant suitability, permit an “adaptation” and “adjustment” to the situation, and “provides room” for the participant. But does it “reconcile”? That part of the definition is interesting to me!
The word “reconcile” is found twice in the New Testament: Ephesians 2:16 and Colossians 1:20. Used in the past tense, we find the word six more times. Therefore, we need to understand! Each time the word is found (in either tense) it means, “to bring together again, unite.” It therefore is NOT a mere “accommodation of comfort to make suitable,” but rather “a compliance with that which is the whole: to be united; to be at one with.”
Notice how Paul shows us the “accommodation” God provides for us as we obey Him: “For it pleased the Father that in Him [Christ, mjd] should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He [Christ, mjd] reconciled In the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.” (Colossians 1: 19-23)
In other words, via Christ’s death and our obedience to His gospel (Colossians 3: 1 – 17), He made “accommodation” for us to be a part of His body, the church (1 Corinthians 12:13). He did “render suitable; adapt; adjust; reconcile; provide room for” us because He loves us! Of course, it requires our obedience! Why shouldn’t it? How can anyone show appreciation for “accommodations” if they do not comply with the rules of acceptance of said “accommodations?” We must admit HE, CHRIST, made the accommodations, NOT US. It’s HIS church, and to “accommodate” us, we must comply with His rules of entrance. Muse on that fact of these spiritual and eternal “accommodations.”