Thursday,
July 2 –
It is
Thursday in our reading thru the New Testament, and we will read Romans 14:1 –
15:7. It is a continuing lesson on living with one another in harmony and
avoiding things that lead to disunity. After you’ve read the scripture come
back and we’ll look at it a bit more closely.
Unity is
an essential element in any relationship that is going to foster life. Take
marriage as an example. A husband and wife make their vows to one another
before God and others. Among their pledges is that they will strive for
“oneness” – unity. It is not an erasure of each of them in order to create a
hybrid that is neither of them, but a wholeness that recognizes each person has
something valuable to give to the other person in order that their marriage
might make their individual lives even greater than it could be alone. So also,
Christ’s Church is a place where unity is meant to foster so that greater
growth might take place. Notice, I said “unity”, not “uniformity”. We are
called to value one another as gifts from Christ to each other. There are
differences that allow us to add to the beauty of the body of Christ –
differences that can be sources of tension, if we allow them to; but also
differences that can enhance, and we can learn to celebrate the differences
rather than despise them.
Paul’s
writing in Romans 14 into early 15 was a call to recognize that differences
have to be recognized, then understood, and lastly be sources of community
growth and not division. Create a church and you will create differences in
almost every area of church life. The fundamental differences Paul addresses
are two: diet and days. He talks about those whose faith is “weak” and those
who are “strong”. I’ve heard people argue over those two words naturally
believing that “they” are the strong and the other ones are the weak! The point
isn’t to argue who is who, but to recognize that differences create
opportunities to pass “judgment”, or “quarrel over opinions” (15:1). Paul
reminds us is that whether you eat meat or do not eat meat is irrelevant before
God. God has welcomed both into the body of Christ and therefore “who are you
to pass judgment on the servant of another?” (15:4). Did Paul have some
knowledge of tension in the Roman church? Perhaps, but we remember he wrote
this letter from Corinth where he stayed for 18 months and he had dealt with
plenty of tension in that newly formed church of both Jews and Gentiles. He
knew the differences were there in every church because these two groups had
come into the church from very different backgrounds.
“Days”
was also an issue. Jewish believers brought their Old Testament festival days
into the church. Greek believers brought in their Roman holidays, some of which
were pagan in background. Tension! Among these sources of tension was a weekly
day – Sabbath. Beginning at sundown Friday evening, thru Saturday sundown,
Sabbath was a regular part of Jewish life. Yet Christians had begun to meet on
Sundays because it was a weekly celebration of Christ Jesus’ resurrection, and
also because it gave the Jewish believers an opportunity to continue
participating in Sabbath – until they found themselves banished from the
Synagogue because of their belief in Jesus. Passover came into the church as a
celebration of God’s deliverance of his people from slavery – historically from
Egypt, but changed in the early church to be a celebration of Jesus’ death,
burial, and resurrection, i.e. Easter.
Days...various
people had different days they valued and wanted to celebrate (15:5-6). The
days are irrelevant Paul says if the person is doing it to “honor the Lord”.
Eating and observing days are not meant to divide as long as we do what we do
“to give thanks to God” and to “live to the Lord”. That’s the key to dealing
with differences. We should expect them to surface and we should recognize that
the other person belongs to the Lord as much as I do, so “let it go”, it’s not
my job to straighten out the differences, rather it’s my duty to celebrate our
unity in Christ. When differences get magnified all that surfaces is “judgment”
and “contempt” (15:10). We have to remember, Paul says, that the judge who sits
on the judgment seat is God alone (15:10-12).
There
always has been a tendency of people to either stretch the boundaries of what
is acceptable or to adhere strictly to steadfast “rules” of how to live and do
things. I call these the differences between those who enjoy liberty and those
who live self-disciplined. Paul offers three principles in learning what to do
with that:
First,
we recognize that choices can be made around things permissible and things
deemed not permissible on the simple principle that our actions are based on
love and consideration to honor others (15:13-15). Second, our lives in Christ
must not end up being defined by the external things we do or don’t do
(15:17-19). Rather, our life in Christ is fundamentally a choice we make to
pursue peace and the mutual upbuilding of others (15:19). Lastly, if my liberty
hinders what God is doing, then I must yield and defer for the sake of the
Kingdom of God (14:20-23). Paul, writing from Corinth, made it clear to them
–“All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful,
but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his
neighbor.” (10:23-24).
Illustrating
this, I remember talking to a person who spent years dealing with alcohol
issues. One day we were together at a party, and while my natural tendency was
to grab either a beer or wine, I chose to take a non-alcoholic drink in order
to stand with him. While I had the freedom to drink a beer or wine, I wanted to
stand alongside him as he made the decision to stay free of his alcoholic past.
We have the freedom to do lots of things, but we shouldn’t always exercise it
if we know it will cause someone else to stumble. Paul’s words in 15:17, remind
us that the Kingdom of God is not what we eat or drink, but of our celebration
of God’s gift of his righteousness and the subsequent peace and joy, we
mutually obtain from it. If we have the faith to eat or drink, then fine, go
ahead and do it, but when we do what we know will hurt others, we move from
faith to sin – “The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed
is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.
But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from
faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (14:22-23).
Chuck
Swindoll makes a simple connection to all of this in his commentary on Romans:
“be considerate (14:21), be convinced (14:22), and be consistent (14:23)”.[1]
We began with a simple statement: “do not pass judgment on other’s choices,
rather accept those whose faith is “weak”, aka, different from your own
choices” (my paraphrase). Acceptance is a popular word in our culture, but we
should not take it to mean “anything goes”. This application is only in the
realm of debatable or disputable matters – not clear sinful choices (as we will
see clearly in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians). We are to welcome, without
judgment, brothers, and sisters in Christ because of that alone – they belong
to Christ, and he alone is their Lord. The Kingdom of God is big and wide, and
we’re better for that.
The
final admonition is because we turn the page to Chapter 15, and read on - his
thoughts continue. How do we learn this lesson on unity and living with
differences? We begin by remembering that we are to live our lives to please
Christ and not ourselves (15:1-2). The “strong” are those who are not “weak” in
their faith. That doesn’t help us understand what that means, so we have to add
that the strong have a clear conscience (14:23), and at the same time have a
strong sense of who they are before God – not based on the opinions of others,
nor their do’s and don’ts, but on the maturity of their faith in Christ. The
strong know they stand before God alone and the righteousness of their faith is
based on what Christ has done for them and not on their own performance. That’s
the issue. Strong means no comparing, no people-pleasing, no performing to gain
approval. Paul exhorts the strong to “bear with the failings of the weak”
(15:1), not to show off, or to gain some upper-hand, but because they care
about those who do not have that security, or assurance of faith. It is the way
of Christ (15:3). It is also the way of God written in the Scriptures (15:4).
Sermon
ended, Paul’s final words are a doxology of blessing, followed by a final word
of application: “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live
in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together
you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God
(15:5-7). Can I get an Amen?
There’s
a lot of wisdom in this section that has to do with living with others as
brothers and sisters in Christ. We know there are differences – we should
expect the differences – and the “strong” appreciate the differences. Who are
the strong again? Those who have experienced and know that God’s Grace is the
only reason they are even in the body of Christ – his Church. Horizontal
grace...it’s a good word and even better application for how to live with
others. We should practice it often, after all, we’ll be doing it eternally.
Peace
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