Build Up or Tear Down?

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Oops - Differences of opinion on scriptural matters are going to arise in the church - weaker and stronger (explain) (summarize the food issue)

I’ve shared before about my high school teacher who challenged me to walk the talk.

The great gift of his challenge to awaken me to not only believe Jesus in my head, but in my heart and actions.

I loved the fact that when we went on competition trips over a weekend, he would invite the believers to join him on Sunday for communion and a devotional in his room. He was't going to miss sharing in the Lord’s supper with fellow Christians for anything.

It made such and impression, that when Monica and I got married, as we talked with her pastor about the ceremony, we decided that we would do communion not just as a couple, but as a congregation.

Which meant we needed people who would serve. I immediately thought of the man who made such a powerful impression regarding the Lord’s supper on me.

I dropped in at Willamette High a week or two later to ask him if he would be willing to be a part.

He was enthusiastic and thought he would like that if it worked with his schedule.

I told him we were getting married on Saturday June 13th and his face fell.

Communion was only acceptable on Sundays. 19 year old me was dumb struck.

“wasn’t the first one on a Thursday?”

He made his case, I found it unconvincing.

I left downcast, but ever since then…I’ve had this little sense that at least in this one area…I knew better than him.

I’ve shared that story before to talk about legalism and all the dangers of it.

Each time, I haven’t said anything untrue, but I have to confess there has been an edge of judgement in my knowledge and freedom over his tradition.

Paul was dealing with people like me and Mr Compton in his letter to the church at Rome. In other words, he was dealing with people.

Let me give you a picture of the situation in Rome.

In the beginning it was a mostly Jewish church. Jewish Christians didn’t abandon the ceremonial law. That was still a gift to them, it was culture and connection to God and those who came before.

Over time there were more and more gentiles/non-jews following Jesus. The Jewish Christians didn’t require them to follow the law, but they taught them what it was all about. See Acts 15 for that decision making process.

But the experienced leaders of the church in Rome would have been Jewish

Then Roman emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome

The Gentile Christians had to start leading that church. And it continued to grow. They began to lead…but the traditions no longer held sway

About 10 years later, the Jews were allowed to return.

Do you think the culture and tone of the church shifted in that time? You bet.

Romans 14:1-12 which is included in your weekly readings, gives more hints.

The Jews had days they thought were more important, the gentiles didn’t pay them honor

In that time much of the meat (especially the cheap meat) came from the surplus from idol sacrifice.

And this newly reunited church began to fracture again over what Paul calls “disputed matters.”

Thank goodness we have grown out of that and no longer have any disputed matters.

Oh…aside from communion, baptism, politics, worship style, dress, preaching styles, how to relate to culture, church governance, and the list goes on...

Ugh - Our tendency is to let those cause division by judgement/freedom - Hurt, destruction, slander (13

This first one another is jumping right into the deep waters.

I want you to hear this before we go farther. This is not about moral relativism. It is about how we engage the differences of opinion in the body. Some of those will have moral components…

And it gets complicated. So I am NOT pushing anyone to change how they think about anything today except: How do we as the body of Christ walk WITH ONE ANOTHER in love (fulfilling Jesus’ command) while in disagreement.

Let me read Paul’s words starting in verse 13 of Romans 14 -

Romans 14:13-16 “Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean. For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy, by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let your good be slandered,”

Build Up or Tear Down

What tears down?

Romans 14:13 “Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister.”

Two things summarized in what comes after

Judgement and Stumbling Blocks

Both can happen on both sides.

I know in my own heart that I have judged Mr Compton and others who hold to traditions I do not. I have thought less of them because of their conviction. Like Paul, I could say “I know and am persuaded in the Lord” that there is freedom...

But if I pull up 14 again, look at the back half especially

Romans 14:14 “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself. Still, to someone who considers a thing to be unclean, to that one it is unclean.”

Here is my challenge with this…maybe it’s yours as well.

I want to have neat and tidy boxes. I want there to be clear rights and wrongs, yeses and nos.

Paul messes us up here. God gives us room to figure it out…

If I would have pressured Mr Compton into serving communion on a Saturday, I would have been pushing him to violate his conscience. And he would have sinned by doing so. That’s what Paul is saying here.

Now if at my request, he would have prayed about it and God gave him full freedom to participate in this case, and he could do so with no sense of guilt, then he would not have.

Oh this makes my head hurt.

The call here is not to judge one another. Earlier in the chapter, Paul sets this up by asking:

Romans 14:10 “But you, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.”

You have enough of you to worry about.

When we went through the sermon on the mount last summer, we read

Matthew 7:1 (no slide) ““Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged.”

A few weeks ago I got to the office and sat down with Caleb. After a few minutes, he asked if I had been hit in the face.

I was confused, and asked why…and he said my eye looked like it had a ruptured blood vessel.

Sure enough, I looked in the mirror and there was a a big ugly speck in my eye.

In Matthew Jesus takes that command further using the eye as an illustration. Don’t try to take the speck from your brother’s eye when you have a plank in your own. Deal with your plank first.

Judgement ignores what is going on in our own lives and tries to fix someone else.

Caleb did not point it out to me out of judgement, but concern.

He didn’t have a plank, and he didn’t try to fix my eye. He just cared enough to ask questions.

Silly example, but the principle holds.

You can’t love someone and judge them at the same time.

Judgement requires you to move yourself to a higher level. You can’t be present with people you are judging.

Jesus with the woman at the well in John 4, in John 8 when a whole lot of judgement was being heaped on another woman and Jesus refuses to join in. He doesn’t judge the condemners either. He just asks them about their logs and then starts writing on the ground.

Romans 14:13 “Therefore, let us no longer judge one another. Instead decide never to put a stumbling block or pitfall in the way of your brother or sister.”

Second half, you can and are called because of the love of Jesus to lay down your rights to do anything if it causes harm to someone else.

For the Romans, Paul says skip the meat if you know it’s going to ruin someone else’s conscience.

For us? It can be so many things. I remember when the Harry Potter books came out.

For some, like me who grew up on fantasy and fiction, and have had some of my more profound growth moments come when God has used a secular story to point me toward a biblical truth, I didn’t see the issue with them. In fact, I loved the themes of self-sacrifice, love, grace, and courage I find there.

For others, who grew up in and around the occult, or have a sensitivity to that kind of content. No redeeming value in the world would get you close to them.

I was mostly unaware of the depth of that issue until a day with a small group at our house years ago.

My dear friend Kathy, noticed a couple of the books on our shelf. To her credit, she did not judge, but she and her husband Bruce waited until the group was gone and started asking questions. Her openness with the concern apart from judgement helped me to hear her and think about it.

I still own those books. But I realized that with as many people as we have in our home, it was better if I set them aside. Not to hide my guilty secret, but to avoid harming someone else’s conscience.

Before going on, Paul emphasizes the consequences of either judgement or stumbling blocks.

Romans 14:15-18 “For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy, by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died. Therefore, do not let your good be slandered, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and receives human approval.”

Do you hear the magnitude of the words? If your brother or sister is HURT by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love.

Do not DESTROY by what you eat…someone for who CHRIST DIED

Oh my…Do not let your good…be SLANDERED

You can be absolutely right and yet be wrong at the same time.

The love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13 stars off

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

So what instead?

Aha! - The followers of Jesus are called to a better way, God gives us

Romans 14:19 “So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.”

What Promotes Peace and Builds Up

Paul is saying something so hard for my brain to capture.

I want to prioritize clarity of truth

Without diminishing that, Paul places as a higher value, that which builds another up.

When I read build up on it’s own, I think of encouragement. But That’s not what is being discussed here.

Think about times you have felt judged, how that felt. It tears you down.

Think about times you have watched someone you thought of as a role model do something you thought wrong. it tears your down.

Paul is calling for us to put those in reverse.

Not judging, but choosing relationship

Not putting stumbling blocks out, but choosing self-denial AND relationship for the sake of another.

Do you see how building that can be?

This is so challenging in our ever more polarized political world.

It is becoming harder for people on one side of the aisle to care for and know those from the other.

Why? Look at our current political conversations through Paul’s lens.

We judge the intentions, we judge the character, we judge…everything...

How can you pray for and love a person you ridicule and despise in judgement?

And yet, that is what Christ is calling you to do

We place stumbling blocks in front of them not by just living out what we believe to be true, but almost trying to pick a fight with it by putting it out in a place where they have to deal with it.

One, I’ve never seen someone change their mind.

Two, the church loses it’s voice when we compromise love for judgement and stumbling blocks.

I told you we were jumping right into the deep end. If you are uncomfortable, be assured I am right there with you. But Paul who was absolutely a truth at all costs guy, when he met Jesus became persuaded that there is room to disagree, room to allow freedom, room to give grace.

The stakes are high for the church,

Romans 14:20-21 “Do not tear down God’s work because of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make someone fall by what he eats. It is a good thing not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother or sister stumble.”

Whee! - We are to pursue what builds peace and one another. The Kingdom isn’t in the minutia, but in righteousness, peace and joy. (Val and I)

It’s God’s Work That is Torn Down

That is a weighty thought.

What if in that person you disagree with on what you think is critical, God is working on a different area?

What if you are wrong?

What if by either judgement, or violating their conscience you are doing harm to your brother or sister in Christ whom God is trying to reshape in his image…in his timing?

If you read through all Paul’s letters, you will see he has no problem dealing with issues and speaking truth. You’ll also notice if you read carefully that he gives opposite advice on occasion to different churches. Why?

Because he hasn’t judged them, instead he knows them and their context, and is working with God for their growth.

Last Sunday, you got to see a couple baptisms on the screen. Christina’s uncle Val came and baptized Mitch.

Val is a pastor of a Romanian church across the river. He is more what might be called pentacostal, I am closer to a strain of baptist. He is an emotional powerhouse, I am more measured.

He was a joy to partner with. He was so sensitive to me and our church, while remaining true to how he experiences the Lord. We gave and took, accepted one another and were able to share in a beautiful moment.

Because we both knew in that moment, I don’t always and I can’t speak for him, but in that moment, it was what GOD was doing that was the priority.

Paul wants the Roman church to understand that they do have freedom, but we have to allow for others to be in a different place. and still love them.

As a non-denominational church, we have a fairly simple statement of faith. If you get on church connect and scroll to About Hockinson or the same link on our website you can read the whole thing.

These are the things we have decided are worth fighting for. Which means everything else can be wrestled with, engaged with, but never should they divide. Here’s a few:

We believe the Bible to be the only inspired, infallible, authoritative Word of God.

We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His personal and imminent return in power and glory.

We believe in the eternal resurrection of both the saved and lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life, and they that are lost unto the resurrection of eternal condemnation and separation of God

We believe HCC is not a building, but rather a group of people whom God has brought together for discipleship, fellowship, worship, and service to one another and the world for His glory.

Within each of those there are debates that have created denominations. We worked hard to get down to where we were not in the “disputed matters” but at the core heart of the gospel and calling of the church.

God’s work is what we saw in baptisms the last couple Sundays,

It is lives transformed and hearts reconciled to his.

It is the church as a community where we can do what the world isn’t and show that disagreement can be handled in the context of relationship and radical grace.

Paul offers one great strategy for doing this.

Romans 14:22-23 “Whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin.”

You Don’t Have To Share

There is a favorite expression I learned in high school.

Opinions are like arm pits. Yours might be nice, but others would prefer you keep them to yourself.

Your opinions and beliefs on disputed matters are not your identity. They aren’t your heart. You are so much more. Recall what Paul just said about destroying someone for whom Christ died.

James reminds us we are to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

When it comes to your walk, does that look like you?

What can you share instead?

Your story of grace

The things you love

Or you can always ask questions and listen instead. You want people to like being around you? That works really well.

Now Reread Romans 14:23 “But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin.”

If It Causes Guilt, Don’t

Don’t judge those who feel free to do something you don’t feel good about. Trust God to deal with the matter.

But, don’t follow along just because they do it. If your conscience tells you not to eat, read, watch, listen, or participate in anything, choose to abstain. Anything that doesn’t come from faith is sin.

Again, how incredible that God allows us this space.

And for you who is comfortable living in liberty in these areas, pay attention to those around you so you don’t put down a stumbling block.

It might mean choosing not to have a beer when with certain friends

It might mean choosing a different movie to watch

It might mean allowing Mr Compton to not serve communion at your wedding without judgmement.

It might mean...

Let me close with a story and a challenge. Worship and prayer teams.

What changes? - closing illustration of laos and vietnam - what distinguishes you? righteousness, peace, joy? Whatever side you are of an issue - choose peace, love, and joy over judgement. Trust God to handle the judgement part.

A missionary who had served in Laos told of an interesting situation that illustrates what Paul is saying here. Years ago, before national boundaries were set, the kings of Laos and Vietnam reached an agreement on taxation in the border areas where it was hard to tell “who was who.” But values saved the day.

For example, the Laotians ate short-grained rice, built their houses on stilts, and decorated them with Indian-style serpents.

The Vietnamese, on the other hand, ate long-grain rice, built their houses on the ground, and decorated them with Chinese-style dragons.

As for taxation, the location of a person’s house was not what determined the nationality. Instead, each person was taxed by the country (kingdom) whose values they exhibited in their way of life. It should be the same with believers in Christ.

It should be obvious where the Christians are by the values they exhibit. Unlike kingdoms of this world, or other religions of this world, Christians should not be known for what they eat or drink, what we do or don’t do, how we vote, or how they decorate their houses or churches, but for their love, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

So that is my challenge to you this week. Practice this. Put yourself in a situation where you engage in meaningful conversations with a couple people you may not agree with. Identify the areas you are most likely to be judgemental and seek out someone you can practice getting to know without judgement or violating your conscience.

Also look for opportunities to abstain from something you have faith is acceptable, for the benefit of someone else.

Love is hard. Love one another the command of Jesus. So love is essential. Let’s build one another up as a kingdom that is not about the disputed things, but about righteousness, peace, and joy.