Romans 14

Paul writes to the church as a servant of the Lord who has encountered all kinds of pastoral difficulties in many different settings. He knows that people within any church differ concerning the relative strength of their faith. One of the difficulties in addressing weakness in the body of Christ is that some of those who may consider themselves the most strong, are in fact the most weak. Someone may be very strong in a certain kind of knowledge, and certain types of moral behavior, and yet be very weak in the gospel. A person may also have a very strong personality, and have wonderful strengths in natural giftedness, and yet be very weak in the gospel.

In particular, there were those in the first century church who considered themselves exemplary concerning the Law, or worthy of imitation concerning what they did or did not do, and yet they had an inadequate appreciation of the way of grace, and a lack of understanding concerning those things that are within the bounds of true Christian freedom. From Paul's standpoint such people were the weak ones, and those who were strong in the gospel needed to welcome in those weaker brethren into the fellowship of the church, but not in order to give in to their continual desire to dispute things and to cause unnecessary divisions.

One of the disputes that divided people unnecessarily in the early church had to do with meat. Those strong in the gospel knew that Christians had great freedom concerning what they decided to eat, and that all foods were clean provided that a person could eat them in faith. The weak person might assume that eating meat that had been in some way touched by some pagan practice was always wrong, and so they kept the matter clear in their own minds by eating only vegetables. Getting everyone to the strong position in good conscience might not have always been possible. How was the church to live with the difference of opinion? The strong ones (who know they can eat everything) should not hate the weak, and the weak ones (who think that people should never eat meat) should not judge those who have made a different choice. There is a right Christian tolerance on these disputable matters, and all of us should remember that God has welcomed all those who call upon the name of the Lord and their families into the church. It is the Lord who has called us His sons in Christ, and it is in Him that we stand.

A second example had to do with the religious observance of some special days. We are not told what the disagreement was here, and the Greek is even harder to figure out than the English. One man regards one day; another regards all days. Whatever the issue was, and maybe it is just as well that we don't know, the general principles of dealing with such issues are clear. 1. Each person should do what he is fully convinced is right in His own conscience at any given moment, since it is always wrong to sin against your conscience. 2. Whatever any man does, he should do it for the glory and honor of the Lord, giving thanks to God. If that seems impossible to do in the specific matter at hand, could it be that the thing in question is actually wrong?

This second point should be expanded. Whatever we do, we need to do for the Lord, because we belong to Him. It is God who is the Author of our life here and the Author of our life beyond this mortal world. Christ, through His death, has purchased a people for the Father. Jesus has become the Lord of the living and the dead. How we spend the number of days that He has given us on this earth should be decided with a decisive consideration of the fact that He is our Lord. When we die and go to be with Him where He is, He does not stop being our Lord. The thing that does stop there is our sin, and not our service. Furthermore, we will all stand before His judgment seat. God has prepared works in advance for us that we should walk in them now, and there will be good works for us to walk in there as well in the present heaven. It is God's to pass judgment on our use of time for His glory.

We have talked about our own consciences; we have mentioned our own assessments of what would most glorify the Lord; a third principle to help us in these challenging situations is the rule of love for our brother in Christ. Is my freedom, as one who is strong in the gospel, going to tempt a weaker brother to stumble into what he may think of as sin? Is that love? Why not rather restrict my own freedom willingly in order to avoid unproductive and harmful interactions within the church that will only produce unnecessary trouble?

This is not to say that there is not a right position on what we are allowed to eat and drink, and on our understanding of how we are to regard one day as opposed to another. These things can be considered in the light of the Scriptures, and we can all hope that we will all be able to agree one day that what God calls "good" is truly good. Until that day comes, lets not forget the importance of Christ, the cross, the resurrection, and the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God is not all about whether we eat meat, drink wine, or do certain things on certain days. The kingdom of God yields a new kind of life that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, and is full of righteousness, peace, and joy.

This is the life we need to pursue. Whatever strength we have in the gospel, we need to remember our peace with God that has come to us through the blood of His Son, and not through our being right on all kinds of debatable issues. Let us build up one another as the beloved of the Lord, and not tear each other down. Let us be willing to restrict our freedom of expression for a season if that would be the best thing for the family of God. Let us live in accord with our faith in the worthiness and blood of the Lamb of God, submitting to the Word of the One we call "Lord," knowing that whatever does not proceed from that faith is sin.