Well, I invite you to turn tonight to Romans chapter 14. We are continuing our study in this great chapter on really looking at Christian liberty, and tonight we come to verses 14 through 23. And I will back up and read at verse 1 to set the context as we're continuing this flow of thought from last week. Pound on page 1127 tonight, Romans chapter 14, beginning at verse 1.
"As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who who eats despise the one who abstains and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one Who eats for god has welcomed him who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day is better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
"Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God."
And now our text: "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's unclean. For if your 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. 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 mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything indeed is clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 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."
And there will end the reading of God's word.
Well, if you were here this morning, you know that we looked at the rigorous approach of the Pharisees and the scribes, who were over scrupulous with the law and condemned anyone who didn't do what they did. What we're considering tonight is the exact opposite of what Jesus went after this morning, and how, what a nice providence that this shows us the difference of the true Christian: the difference in how he behaves, the difference in how he lives, as contrary to that spirit of the Pharisees and the scribes and the hypocritical spirit that he clearly had placed under judgment.
I've used this example before, probably too many times, but why not do it again? One of the um things I read years ago, and I still laugh at it every time I read it, was James Boyce uh giving this account of John McNeill, the Scottish preacher, who asked his congregation to imagine a conversation between two blind people Jesus healed and the blind one in john 9 And the blind one in mark 8 and the one account you'll remember that jesus healed the man by spitting on the ground And he rubbed the spit And making clay and then he healed him with his eyes that way and imagine getting uh the other one he didn't do that and so imagine those two getting together and discussing this mcneill said the man who had been healed with the spit would tell his story and then the other would say yeah but you left out
The part. the one who was healed without the spit would tell his story. the other one would say, yeah, but you left out the part of Jesus spitting in the dust and making clay and placing clay on your eyes."
And the other would say, "I don't know anything about that."
"Well, it's got to be that way. That's the only way Jesus heals."
"No, no, you must have forgotten it. He spit on the ground. He makes clay. He puts it on the eyes and sends to wash in the pool of Siloam."
"Nope, nope, didn't do that with me. He just spoke, and I received my sight."
And the man digs in his heels: "No, it's not right. That's just not right. Jesus heals with clay. If you hadn't have that experience, I'm starting to doubt whether you're really healed."
And thus originated in the early church two denominations: the Muddites and the anti-Muddites, right? Okay, well, that's what we do. That's what we do. That's what Paul's addressing in some ways: don't break fellowship over disputable things, over questionable things. The old King James is really interesting in 14:1, where it says, "Receive one who's weak in the faith, welcome him, but not over doubtful disputations." Fascinating. This is what we're looking at tonight.
And essentially, if you had a summary statement, you could say: let the mind of Christ govern you in the way that you deal with one another. And that's what this passage is about. Romans 14 is immensely helpful. We covered a lot of ground, I think, last time, and tonight it gives us a progression and flow of thought in how to handle the differences that we find in the body of Christ when we don't agree upon something with our brothers and sisters in the life of the church. And he uses the explanation and the concept of Christian liberty to help these Christians through this.
Obviously, there are going to be things that we are unyielding and unbending about when it comes to the gospel and when it comes to the core doctrines of our faith. And there are legitimate splits; there are legitimate separations. This is what Paul also said elsewhere: "There have to be divisions among you to prove who is true." But but often we split over the most ridiculous of things, and it's helpful tonight to see this through that lens and to understand what the Apostle Paul is dealing with, what particularly is on his mind here in the church of Rome, which is different than the church in Galatia dealing with some of these issues, or the church in Colossae.
Is that these were Gentiles and Jews who had come together in the church of Rome? A mixture of Jews and Gentiles. And many of the Jews were really struggling with their past. I don't think we realize how hard it would be to come out of Judaism and many of the Old Testament customs and laws that were built into their tradition. Think about that. Into their family traditions. They were still tied to food observances. They were still observing many of the Jewish holy days and special observances. And it was causing a real problem in this church. The Gentiles really had none of that history. So it's all brand new, and they come to these passages, and they understand we're set at liberty from these things in the gospel. These things were types and shadows of the reality that's in Jesus that we now enjoy. This is what Hebrews obviously was about in many ways. But the clash here was strong with culture. How dare these people from Judaism take us back?
Um, now I want to say clearly that, um, as we've looked at, when it came to the issue of the gospel, you always have to look at the church and the context in which these these things come to us. Uh, when it came to the church in Galatia, these people were trusting in these things for righteousness, and Paul was no holds bar in condemning that approach. But that's not what we have in Rome. They were sincere. The clash of the traditions and the clash of the peoples the Jew and Gentile was a real problem.
And I think we can understand some of this in the Dutch Reform tradition. There's a lot of things that Christians from other traditions don't get about us, isn't that just true? We know that. I think we have to think about that: our piety, things that we do, practices that are long embedded in our tradition and in our families. It's part of our cultural tradition that's part of us. And I think we should be aware of that as people come in; they don't understand it.
I grew up in the Christian reform Church, and there were always ongoing jokes: "If you're not Dutch, you're not much!" You were wondering when I was going to address this, right? The Jews did that sort of thing, right? "If you're not Jewish, you're not coolish," I don't know, something like that. And it's really interesting how Paul addressed this.
When Paul was dealing with actual Judaizers perverting the gospel, he went all after it. He went all after it. It was no holds bar But Paul's not seeing this as that in Rome. They're your brothers, and the clashes and convictions were real clashes and convictions. Now, no one kind of realizes that they have these things because it's so built into their own traditions, so built into their own customs, but others can see it more clearly. We know this.
Paul had important instruction here on how they were to treat one another. So this is very practical. This is very relevant in many different ways. He explained that in any given church, he said last time, there are the strong and there are the weak. The strong are those who understand what the life, death, resurrection of Jesus had done in setting them free from many of these practices. But it's challenging and it's complicated when they're embedded in culture. The weak haven't fully grasped the significance of this; they struggled yet to understand the full freedom that they had.
And remember, it was fascinating how Paul dealt with this real problem. What does somebody do? What does somebody what do we do with someone who doesn't understand their freedom? And Paul chooses a word here that's fascinating in Romans 14. He says what somebody does who doesn't understand their freedom: they do they pass judgment on other people. That's the word he chose they condemn those who are not like them. There was never a sense that, probably among especially among a very strong Jewish community, that you could get into the club highly family oriented They don't do the things the way that we do it. This has been our long-standing tradition. They should conform to us, shouldn't they?
But what did the strong do? He chose a word for disdain or despise. He's very carefully crafted. he's you see the brilliance of the Holy Spirit's inspiration here. He knows exactly human nature. They look down on their weaker brothers. They scoff at them and they condemn them, and they walk out and say, "Oh, they're just stuck in their old traditions." That's an easy way out, isn't it?
You can put this together. What did Paul do in the first part? Well, he showed us the problem. The first main point here that he made is: stop judging one another. Stop it! We are not all going to look alike. We are not all going to be in the same place spiritually. We all have different backgrounds; we have different convictions on things like this. You got to recognize that, in some sense, you can't expect somebody to be what they're not.
But I love and appreciate tonight's advancement in this because now he provides a solution to the problem. What do you do when you have these kinds of things? And it's relevant for us as a church; it's very important for us to think through. My tendency would be to go after the week they need help they need instruction. But Paul instructs the strong. Now, there are certainly strong, and there are certainly weak. Whoever thinks they're the weak? Not really any of us, because we have convictions. Um, if there are disputes happening and there are differences happening, I think anyone says, "Yeah, you know, I really am the weak one." Nobody ever says that. If you did, you wouldn't have a dispute. Paul addresses the strong, so it really can apply to all of us in our convictions.
So if you think you're right on an issue, the actual strong ones who assume that they're strong what does he say here? That's the question, and that's the beauty of this passage tonight. He says in your freedom it should not be exercised in a way that would hurt your weaker brother. Notice that in verse 15: first thing he says in your liberty walk in love. Well, that's right out of chapter 12. He had already set the commandment of loving our neighbor it's the fulfillment of the law. And here we see kind of what it looks like; here we see it in action; here we see how love manifests itself and how it is practiced in the body of Christ.
If one of your brothers is grieved because of what you're doing, you're not walking in love. You've completely disregarded the conscience of your brother. The law of love is what he's been saying really since chapter 12. And this is wisdom: if you're strong, you know that you're right on an issue, and you've dug your foot in the in the in the heel in to the dirt then guess what? You have a greater responsibility.
Verse 14: "I know and am persuaded in the Lord uh this is um important verse 14 i know and am persuaded in the lord jesus that nothing is unclean in itself but it is unclean. For anyone who thinks it's unclean for if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking and love. by what you eat do not destroy the one for whom Christ died."
Paul is giving some specific applications here to food and days. We can apply this in many different ways to these sort of things. "I'm strongly convinced," he says, "by Christ himself." This is really interesting how he phrased this: "I'm persuaded by the Lord Jesus Christ." I have strong grounding in what I am saying here. There is nothing unclean of itself. Now, where did that come from? That came out of Jesus's mouth.
When you call the multitudes to himself, he said to them, "Here, and understand: it's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth this defiles a man." It's not the externals that defile. Jesus would then go on to say, "It's what comes out of the human heart that is defiling." And the apostle would take this and run in other passages: "Everything God created is good; nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving."
Now, here's what you have: you have these cultural practices and you have convictions, and you have people abstaining from foods and alcohol and other things. And Paul said, "I agree with those who say those things aren't the problem. I agree."
I remember how radical this would be for a Jewish Christian in the first century, some of these things, who extended the clean unclean distinction and still were thinking about ceremonial laws essentially what Paul just said. The stronger, right?
What if somebody says, "I really don't believe in celebrating Christmas"? What's your response? "That's weird. Why do you not want to celebrate Christmas?" Well, have you really thought why they may not want to celebrate Christmas? If they're attaching if people are attaching special significance to a day beyond the Lord's Day, wouldn't that be a weaker position? Of course. But if they want to worship, says Paul, is that wrong? Of course not.
See, he doesn't necessarily mean they're weaker if they want to celebrate and worship, but of course if they're attributing more significance to that day than the Lord's Day, there's something much weaker about that position. There really isn't anything, he's saying here, of itself that's evil here, unless of course it's morally forbidden by the law of God. You understand that qualification? This is not saying that things expressly forbidden are neutral zones. That's not what this passage is saying.
On matters that Paul raised here that you know the things that we separate over often and things that we think of others and and disassociate them from our fellowship foods and days you need to understand there are freedoms. and people are correct in their freedoms.
But then notice what he says: if there is someone who thinks one of those things is unclean, notice this, then for him it's unclean. See the complete liberty of conscience here that he's giving?
So in other words, there may come along someone who absolutely thinks, in one of these areas of freedom, that um is unclean, and that it's wrong to partake of or do as a Christian. There are clear gray areas in life not clear. How in the world will two people reconcile on these kind of things?
First, you should say, "Well, if there's never been a consensus in the 2 000 years of the history of the Christian church on this gray area thing, we might want to recognize it is an area of liberty." But if it is, then we might want to think through carefully if our practices should be changed. But at the end of the day, Paul is saying, "Resolve this how?" Liberty of conscience. For him, it is.
Notice how contrary this is to the spirit of the Pharisees we considered this morning, who would have controlled people with the minutia. Paul doesn't say, "Well, they're wrong. Let them have it, right?" That's what we would do. That's what we tend to do. "They're actually wrong."
Notice what he says: they have such a freedom in their conscience, and if they believe that, then for them it's wrong. Wow!
Brother A understands his liberty and believes he has freedom to do this thing. Here we have brother B, who does not, and he really believes that for him it's wrong. Paul says, "Well, then for him it is." That's okay.
He gives the example he's been using: if your brother's grieved because of your food, you're no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. You know how to resolve this. Paul says, "I'm talking to you stronger ones." This is the spirit that he wants to develop in the life of the church. Who understand liberty.
You're correct about your convictions. You have liberty with regard to days and foods and drink. But if somebody's grieved by that, you're not walking in love. He's appealing to the maturity, if you will, of the strong.
So he says, "You don't have to do that. You don't have to do that. You have that ability, but the weak obviously don't. So if you think you're absolutely right about your position, you have the tendency of looking down on your weaker brother because he doesn't get it like you, guess what? Concede. Concede. Let your conviction go, and instead walk in love, you strong."
It's really important to see the responsibility here of both, though, even to the weaker brother. I used the quote last time, but I just thought it was so helpful that C.S. Lewis once said, "One of the marks of a certain kind of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting everyone else to give it up." That is not the Christian way.
An individual may see fit to give up all sort of things for special reasons, but the moment he starts saying these things are bad in and of themselves and condemning those who don't agree he's not walking in love either.
So that's the warning to the weaker brother. But at the end of the day, notice verse 13: resolve this, resolve this. Stop. This is essentially what he's saying: not putting a stumbling block or cause to fall in your brother's way.
It it really does come down to disputes like this falling on the actions of the strong. I think you see how just helpful this is for general church life to understand how we are to be in denying denying ourselves servants to one another. That's what James said: if your actions are causing your grief to your brother, let it go. James says this:
"But if the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and we never get this one: open to reason. Some translations: willing to yield. That's wisdom from above. Willing to yield, full of mercy."
Dr. Godfrey mentioned that in the Sunday school class again. See how contrary this is to everything we considered this morning? "Full of mercy, good fruits, impartial, and sincere." That's genuine love. That's walking in love.
He supports us in verse 16 tonight: "So do not let what you do what you regard as good be spoken of as evil." You hear the plea? "Don't, don't give opportunity for any of your freedoms to be spoken of as evil. Don't be a stubborn jerk." Is what he's saying. It's not compatible with the gospel.
The principle of love should guide liberty, and that's where the Apostle moves. In your liberty, notice this: pursue peace. For the kingdom of God (verse 17) is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Whoever that serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then, let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. It's not in our life together is not in we're not finding life and eating and drinking it's not what this is all about. There's no reason to fight for those things. Do you know that the really important thing in the kingdom is one of the great blessings of the kingdom what he says here life together? Isn't this wonderful? Isn't this just amazing that he says kingdom life consists of righteousness, peace, and joy together?
Well, if the church would have listened to this so many years, think of over the centuries how many problems we would have set aside over these kind of things. He says pursue these things that make for peace, then that edify.
Let me just close with this one example that I think sets it in stone throughout the whole New Testament and where they got this: it's Acts 15. You know what the Pharisees were saying? "It is necessary that to circumcise these Gentiles and command them to keep the Law of Moses." There they are. You hear it? You hear it? Hear it? So they have a huge church council in Acts 15 over this. Much disputing happens. You ever been to a church meeting and you get pastors together? This is what happens. But they come to a good conclusion.
Now listen to Peter. "Now therefore, why are you putting God to the test Where did Peter get this? by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" There they're doing it again, the Pharisees. "But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will, Jew, Gentile."
Now listen to the judgment, verse 28 of Acts 15: "For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to not lay on you a greater burden than these requirements. We don't want to burden you freedom that you abstain from that which has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what has been strangled and from sexual immorality if you keep yourself from these you will do well. Farewell."
The council honored the truth that the Gentiles didn't need to be circumcised to be saved, but notice what happened: the council was concerned about the Jewish Christians, the Jewish brothers and sisters. So they outlined a few practices that, if the Gentiles did it, that it would cause a stumbling block for the Jews. And so they asked them; they said, "Listen, abstain from what's sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what's been strangled and from sexual immorality. Keep yourselves from these; you'll do well."
The point is, the council asked the strong to let it go and not do those things for the sake of their brothers.
All things indeed are pure, Romans 14 20, but it is evil for the man who eats with offense. It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine or do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. That's how he concludes.
He says, "Keep your convictions between yourself and God." That's good enough. And whatever you do, do in faith. For if you're not doing it from faith, sin. And recognize that when you exercise your liberty to your brother's discouragement, you may be causing his conscience grief.
And that's the kind of love I want in concern for one another in the body of Christ. Consider your brother. Consider your sister. What God has told us tonight is that he's after something far different from exactly what Jesus condemned this morning, right? The hardline legalistic Pharisees who judged everyone except themselves.
That's the kind of life that demonstrates the mind of Christ. Sacrificial. It takes away the bitterness and replaces with joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. It kills the Pharisee that resides, by, I say, in all of our hearts. Don't want to miss that today. And it casts us upon ourselves the mercies of Christ, who's ready to give us mercy, that our lives would be given to him to show forth what genuine gospel fellowship looks like as those redeemed by the blood of Christ, as his body.
This is what he gave us. This is what he calls us to as his people. And so may we consider these things, and remember: this is what pleases the Lord. This kind of love, this pursuit of unity, this pursuit in the things that make for gospel peace in the body of christ may we pursue it by his grace.
Let's pray.
Gracious, Heavenly Father, thank you for your word to us and guiding us in truth and helping us to see your will for us. Lord, we we confess that often we exert ourselves in a sinful way over one another and judge them. We are reminded: you are the judge, and you are the Lord of conscience. And so grant us more and more, oh Lord, to be considerate to our brothers and sisters and to remember the calling here to have the mind of Christ. And Lord, that in this place, in your church, around the world, it might be built up in unity and in truth and never separated on these kind of things. Thank you for guiding us and giving us instruction and righteousness, that we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.