Romans 14:13ff

"In Essentials Unity, in Non-essentials Charity, in all things Christ.": Part II

by Pastor Jim Lincoln on April 29, 2007

 

How did the church go from a few thousand members in the first century to claiming half the Roman Empire by 350 AD?¹ Rodney Stark claims that it was the church's response to the misery, chaos, fear, and brutality of life in the urban Greco-Roman pagan world that turned the tide. To cities filled with homelessness, it offered charity and love. To cities filled with new comers and strangers, it offered a welcome. To cities filled with orphans and widows, it offered a genuine community of faith. To cities filled with the sick (due to epidemics), Christians provided tangible nursing care at great risk to themselves. To cities filled with immorality, it offered new standards of behavior that honored people rather than killed them. To cities polarized by racism, it offered a new basis of getting along. To cities filled with thousands of pagan gods, it held out hope in the one true living God who forgives our sins and changes our hearts to follow Christ. This new basis for getting along is embedded in Romans 14 and 15.

Last week I asked you to think about a phrase that has served the church since before the 4thc. It goes like this, "In essentials unity, in non-essentials charity, in all things Christ." It gives us a basis for unity and at the same time makes room for the great diversity of the Body of Christ. The phrase honors both. It calls us to be united around the essentials of our faith and at the same time to be charitable and forbearing with those with whom we disagree on a myriad of issues that aren't essential to the faith.² God is not after uniformity in His church, where we all come out of the same cookie cutter mold. That would be boring and uninteresting. At the same time independent autonomy where each man does that which is right in his own eyes is hell on earth. In fact, one of Jesus' pictures of hell is being cast out into outer darkness without the warmth of community love (Mtt.8:12). C.S. Lewis called hell, "ultimate autobiography." As Dante reminded us, hell is a very cold place. So the phrase gives us a way to enjoy the warmth of Christian unity and at the same time enjoy our vast differences.

Now, it doesn't solve everything. It doesn't tell us what is essential and what is not. Also, it doesn't tell us who gets to decide these things. Some things we have to figure out.

An Early Dispute:

Chrysostom's phrase has its roots in 14 & 15. A dispute threatened the unity of the church at Rome. On the one hand there were Jewish Christians who were returning to Rome and to the church after being exiled by Claudius five years earlier (cf. Acts 18). Jewish Christians saw the Christian faith through the lens of the Scriptures where God gave Israel kosher food laws that distinguished them from their pagan neighbors. Things like circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, and the kosher food laws were ways that Jews maintained their national identity in a pagan world far away from Jerusalem. It's hard for us to understand how important these practices were to them. The American flag as symbol of our patriotism holds a similar place of honor in our hearts. Yes, it's just fabric, ink, and dye; however it represents cherished history, beliefs, and values. It's not essential to our patriotism, but it is extremely important. Eating meat offered to idols violated a Jew's sense of identity and patriotism. Because almost all the meat in Rome would have been dedicated to some pagan god or another many Jewish Christians just chose to eliminate meat from their diet altogether. And, when they saw their Gentile brothers ignoring kosher laws and eating the same meat that had been offered to pagan idols, they were appalled.

Now, the Gentile Christians had no historic or religious attachment to the kosher laws. Their identity wasn't tied up in those things. So, in their minds it was perfectly fine to eat meat offered to idols. But the Jewish believer was bewildered.

"Why is it that you Gentiles want to live, eat, and act like pagans? Jesus was a Jewish Messiah. This has been our practice since the days of the Exodus. Don't you know that you have been folded into the commonwealth of Israel and into a great heritage rich in history?"

These Jewish Christians weren't legalist like those in Galatia who were saying that Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians. They just thought it was wrong and insensitive to the historic faith and identity they cherished. So their love for each other cooled. They stopped welcoming each other and went their separate ways. It was a failure of love, and Paul sees that failure of love as a threat to the advance of the gospel in a loveless pagan culture.

He summarizes the dispute in v.2: "One person believes that he can eat anything while the weak person eats only vegetables." The weak brother's conscience was tender and sensitive to this issue. To challenge it was like touching a bruise; that's what he means by weak. The strong brother's conscience was tough or unmoved by the practice. The strong called the weak too sensitive. The weak accused the strong of having calloused hearts and stony hearts about such things. That was the dispute.

Opinions or Matters of Indifference

In verse 1, Paul calls this a dispute about opinions. The phrase means "disputing over things in doubt, over scruples, or judgment decisions." In the context, we know that he's referring to opinions or judgments about the kosher food laws, wine, and feast days. So, Paul sets up a category of belief where agreement is not necessary for acceptance, fellowship, and mutual worship. He gives us a category where we can be charitable, loving, and forbearing in our differences. He doesn't want anyone's opinion about these things to get in the way of their love for each other. Another way to think about this is the difference between opinions and convictions. There are convictions: issues that are certain anchor points of the faith that you would hope to have the courage to die for. Paul mentions some here. In v. 3, he says that God welcomes believers in Christ. That's an essential. In v. 4, he says that Jesus is the Lord and Master of believers. Surely, that's an essential. In v. 9, he writes that Christ has died and risen that he might be the Lord of the living and the dead. In v. 10 and 11, he says that there is a judgment to come where every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus is Lord either willingly or unwillingly. That's a fundamental. So, there are essentials that are anchor points for faith that we all should believe.

At the same time, we have opinions that we value as right but we're willing to say that we could be wrong or that they just don't rise to the place as a universal anchor point of faith. Even Jesus spoke of "weightier matters of the law." (Mtt.23:23)

A couple who has done this well is Billy and Ruth Graham. Billy Graham is Baptist; Ruth a Presbyterian. After they were married, Ruth retained her membership in the Presbyterian Church; Billy kept his membership in the Baptist church. How do two people with such sharp differences of opinion get along? Well, they lay aside their differences on a number of issues and major in the majors and minor in the minors. Do they agree on everything? Of course they don't. Do they love each other? Without question they do. Paul calls the Roman Christians to do the same. Paul is giving them a new basis for getting along in a city that was terribly polarized.

Romans 14:1-12

Last Sunday we looked at Paul's directives about how to treat each other. - Welcome each other (1) Include each other into our friendship network. Open up your homes and hearts to each other. Why? God has welcomed them.

- (3) Don't judge each other in this respect and don't look down on each other in this respect. Honor each other's faith.

- Although Paul takes his stand on the issue as one who is strong about such things, he honors the weak by saying that they are indeed honoring God in what they are doing; they are giving thanks to God (6). They are living before God (7). They are glorifying God and exalting God. So, honor them and their faith even though you may disagree with them. This is what we have such a difficult time doing. Honor, love, cherish, prize, and treasure the brother who may disagree with you on a number of disputable issues. He didn't say, start a Carnivorous church and start a Vegetarian church. Love each other.

- Study, pray hard, and settle these issues in your own mind (5) so that you can understand why you do what you do.

- Recognize that we will all give an account to God for our lives. Resist judging your brother about these things and focus on your own life.

Now in verses 13-23, Paul gives them three more admonitions about this conflict.

First, "Don't cause your brother to stumble"

"Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if you brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So, do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil." (Rom. 14:13-16)

The King James retains the sense. I'll paraphrase, "If you want to be judging things, then judge this: Judge how not to trip each other up!" It's not that we simply stop judging or looking down upon another Christian, it's a matter of taking the initiative to avoid making life difficult for one another. The greater burden rests with the strong.

He wants them to figure out how not to be an obstacle or a stumbling block to their brother on his journey to heaven. What does this mean? Well, a stumbling block is something you would intentionally put in front of someone to make them trip. I've been told the idiom came from mean spirited children putting a block of wood in the path of a blind person to see them fall. It has with it the idea of mocking and making life difficult for malicious reasons.

To be a stumbling block doesn't mean to disagree with a person. Paul disagrees with the requirement to eat kosher foods. It doesn't mean that you never rebuke, correct, or have healthy discussion with another Christian. It doesn't mean that you never offend anybody. Paul and Jesus were always offending people. It means that you think about what might trip them up or what might cause them to violate their own conscience. You think about what violating their own conscience might do to them.

Here's why they could become stumbling blocks to their brothers. Their brothers think that if they eat meat offered to idols they are sinning against God. So, things that really aren't unclean in themselves may become unclean if someone believes them to be unclean and eats them anyway. And this could begin a life of ruin for the one who starts going against his conscience.

Now, Paul is not making a case for relative ethics. He's showing how deep ethics really go. How can something that is not in and of it self sinful, become sinful for somebody? Here's why. This is important so listen up. If I believe an action is wrong and that God would be displeased if I did it and yet, I do it anyway, I'm showing that I'm willing to displease God. That's where the act becomes sin. He says that there is nothing wrong with eating meat. But if I am convinced that there is and I do it anyway then I am revealing my willingness to disobey God. So, we must take the sensibilities of our brothers and sisters seriously even if we know the act in itself is not wrong so that we don't cause them to sin.

Again, in verse 14, Paul makes himself clear on the theological issue. He insists that all foods are clean: "I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself." In 1Cor.10:26, he argues that meat offered to idols is acceptable because, "the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." He could have also quoted Jesus, "There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him." (Mark 7:15) He could have quoted Mark, "Thus he (Jesus) declared all foods clean." (Mark 7:19) Paul knows that he is right on the issue. However, he doesn't want to press this too hard. He's got bigger fish to fry than insisting on being right on the issue. He wants them to care for each other and love each other. Their brothers believe it is wrong and sinful to do it. They have thousands of years of history and identity tied up in these practices; they are a thousand miles away from Jerusalem where all the symbols of their heritage are. He recognizes that this is hard for them to accept. So, It's the height of insensitivity to their consciences and loveless to flaunt your freedom in this matter in their faces. (15) "If your brother is grieved, then you are no longer walking in love." Think about what is going to hurt your brother. Think about what might cause him to violate his conscience to be like you. Christ died to save him and love him, not to mock him and try to get him to violate his conscience.

It doesn't mean that you can't try to persuade them to the truth about these things. Paul does some of this. It means that you must love them even if they disagree with you and not force them to change their customs. It means that you forbear, treasure, and prize the brother with whom you disagree. And if you are able to have the discussion without fighting, then do so. If not, keep it to yourself in the sense that you don't force your opinion on him.

Now, I read v. 16 in two possible ways. "Therefore, do not let what for you is a good thing, be spoken of as evil." First, it could be an exhortation to not let the abstainer judge your eating meat as an evil act. Second, he could be saying, "Don't let your freedom in this respect be spoken of as evil because you have used your freedom to mock or hurt your brother." Don't let your freedom become an occasion where it causes people to speak evil of it because you have been such a jerk about it.

So, use your head. If your brother thinks it's wrong to dance, don't invite him over to your house for a swing dance party. If he thinks it's wrong to drink wine, don't invite him over and put a glass of wine in front of him. If he thinks speaking in tongues is wrong don't invite him over for a speaking in tongues prayer gathering. If he's a Calvinist, Armenian, Cal-minian or Texan don't mock him, judge him, or look down on him.

A young couple discussed having wine at their wedding with both parents. They were thinking about putting a bottle of wine at each table. The groom's grandparents are Chinese fundamentalist, and they have strong sensibilities about drinking alcohol. They believe in total abstinence. Their parents told them that drinking wine was not a sin per se. However, if they put a bottle of wine at every table, they would run the risk of mocking their loved ones who felt so strongly about it. They told them it was not the loving thing to do. There was no sin in drinking wine. David praised the Lord for the wine that gladdens men's hearts. However, it would be like putting a red flag in front of a bull. Why get people angry at your wedding? So, they didn't. They made a compromise, where punch with wine was available but, not flaunted, and displayed on every table.

Does this mean that the "legalists always win the day?" No, love should win the day. The weak conscience brother is instructed to not judge the brother who eats meat or drinks wine. So, both have to move to the center. Love is patient. Look, can you see what Paul is doing? He's saying, "Think!" He's not saying that the legalist or the weak conscience brother gets to rule the church. He's saying to the strong, "Give some thought about what is the loving thing to do." Don't be a stumbling block for your brother.

Charles Spurgeon loved to smoke cigars. Some of his deacons were worried about him and told him that he was smoking in excess. He said, "You can tell when I am smoking in excess, when I start smoking two cigars at the same time." Later, Spurgeon became very famous in London with over 5,000 people coming each Sunday. His sermons were printed in the newspapers. One day he was walking down the street and he saw a sign over a cigar store that read, "We sell the cigars that Charles Spurgeon smokes." When he saw that sign he felt that he was becoming a stumbling block to others. He gave it up.³

Second: Live as Citizens of the Kingdom of God. (17-19)

"For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding."

Paul is now picking up what he would call weightier matters of the law: Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Again, he's making his theological point. To eat meat, drink wine, or meet on Sunday is not a matter of righteousness. The kingdom of God is primarily about the status of righteousness from God through Christ as a gift to be received by faith. It calls back to Rom.5:1, "since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God." It calls back to Rom.6:13, "You have been brought from death to life and [present] your members to God as instruments for righteousness." Instead of worrying so much about what your brother eats or drinks or what day of the week he goes to worship, rejoice in the righteous and acceptable status he enjoys in Christ through the forgiveness of sins. Pursue a life of righteous living before God and others. Instead of attempting to rob your brother of his peace...by judging him for what he eats or drinks live in peace. For this is the kingdom of God to be at peace with God and each other. Instead of judging each other over such things and stealing each others joy...let the joy of the Lord and His rule and reign in Christ rule your mind and heart.

This is the kind of person he says that Jesus is after and the behavior that finds acceptance before God (18). If you honor Jesus as your king and make His kingdom (righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit) your priority, you will be well pleasing to God. So, work for peace and that which builds up and not what tears down.

Don't destroy the beauty of Christ's righteousness, peace, and joy. You, the strong, are right, every thing is indeed clean. However, if you use your freedom to make another stumble, that's not right. You don't have to flaunt it or mock your weak brother with it; keep it to yourself (22). He doesn't mean you can't teach, instruct, or that your view must remain private. Paul himself has let us know exactly where he stands on the issue. He means not to bring it up in such a way as to cause harm, a fight, to mock, flaunt, embarrass, or to cause your brother to stumble.

Finally: Don't act against your conscience. (23)

"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."

Conscience is not an infallible guide, but it is wrong to go against your conscience. Why? Because it says that you are willing to disobey God even if the thing in itself is not a sin. When Luther was brought before the Diet of Worms in 1521, John Van Eck, the spokesperson for Charles asked Luther if he still believed the content of the books he had written. They had been placed on a table in front of him. Luther gave a wise response. "Can I sleep on it?" He was granted a night's reprieve. He prayed, consulted friends, and the next day he was forced to answer the same question. Luther apologized for the harsh tone of many of his writings. Luther knew that he could be a bull in a china shop. But he said that he could not reject his teachings. He said this, "Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen." To do things that violate your conscience is sin even if the thing itself is not. That is so because it reveals a willingness to betray God. That's not in faith. We need to listen to our conscience and do our best to make sure our conscience is informed by the truth of God's word. Adjustments may need to be made along the way. Beloved, Jesus calls us to unity. He doesn't call us to uniformity. That means that he has called us to love, prize, and cherish each other in the face of many differences. We can do that by not putting a stumbling block in each others way, by seeking the things that mark His kingdom and by keeping our consciences clear. This is the way Jesus loved us. So, let us go and love one another.