Romans 14-15

Romans 14 carries on through this shift on how we live out our lives. The first 2/3 of the book is who Jesus is in our lives, or better, who we are in Jesus life. The last third is how we live that reality out.

It allows us to deliberate and define what life looks like for us in light of Jesus bringing salvation. What changes? How do we look at life differently? Why would we even want to see life differently?

For the Christian, they have come to a point and a place where they have tried to find a way to make life fit, sometimes over and over again, and have come up wanting every time.

The Christian looks at life and sees that things don’t line up and attempts to make the pieces of life fit together. Because of that the Christian takes life very seriously because he or she knows what’s at stake. They know just how much life matters.

Because the Christian has tried to make life fit together but has not been able to on their own. And because they have come to the point where they have had to call for help, there is a sobering reality that the things Christians have depended on don’t always work the way we have wanted them to. But that realization brings revelation. Christ has been able to hold up the weight of the human soul. Everything else buckles under the weight of our souls. But Christ, because in love He gave His life, can hold us up. In fact came to hold us up.

The revelation of Jesus shows us that we have not always gotten life right. The things we have valued do not always point to renewal. Do not always point to life. But what Christ promotes does point to life.

A couple weeks ago I mowed the lawn because I live a highly exciting and high risk lifestyle. I got about 15 minutes into mowing and the mower shut down. I had just had it serviced last year and it is in good working condition. I had enough gas in it. So I restarted it and mowed a couple more minutes. Stalled. I went and looked at the gas in my shed and it was cloudy. bad gas. So I went and got some fresh gas and mower worked great.

The mower told me everything I needed to know about the gas in the tank

The things we fill our lives with may look good and may work for awhile but it’s like bad gas. Eventually it just won’t be enough. The gospel is always good gas. It points to the right way for things to work. It allows us to live righside up even if it goes against the cultural reality we live in.

Romans 14 points us to the right way to live in light of the Gospel. It pushes against bad gas. Where we think we are using the right things to get to life but they won’t end up working out.

Christ adapted to us in the cross. He dealt with our differences in His Death and Resurrection. As Christians we are obligated toward each other as a model of Christ to us.

Weak and Strong: Stop Quarreling Over Opinions

Romans 14:1 ESV

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

this chapter concerns itself seemingly between two groups of people. The weak and the strong. Welcome Paul said, those whose faith is weak and not to quarrel over opinions. Not to make the issue of certain doctrines of believe the focus of who the church is

Some people consider the entirety of the book of Romans centers around this issue. That Paul is writing to this application in understanding our place in Christ as our understanding on what it means to treat one another in the church.

So because the weak and strong is a big part of this section, let’s define these two

Paul says that the weak are those who are concerned about what is being eaten or what days are being celebrated.

Romans 14:5–6 ESV

One person esteems one day as 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.

This may seem like a strange thing to bring up but this was a big deal in the city of Rome. Keep in mind this was during the Roman empire and this was also during the worship of many different gods.

So what was happening was that meat sold in the market was dedicated to idols. And there were days that were set aside for worship of many of these deities. And people were trusting Christ and realizing that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to eat this meat dedicated to idols or celebrate or not certain days

There is trust in these places of idolatry or civil religion that doesn’t have to be there. There is a superstition that to eat of meat sacrificed to idols or a superstition to celebrate days that belong to the culture are wrong that Paul is pointing to.

He is saying that there are things in our Christian faith that are not demanded of us but we remain convicted about and have a conscious need to abstain from certain cultural practices. They may not be necessary to obey but that does not mean that they are not without personal value.

It means that there are differences in how we practice faith in the world. There are differences to how we view our cultural reality around us.

And Paul tells the church how to handle it.

Welcome the differences and dont’ quarrel over opinions.

There are things in our lives, beliefs in our lives that don’t pertain to salvation, don’t pertain to what we believe in Jesus. There are personal differences doctrinal differences, denominational differences, church differences. And those differences do not mean division or separation. In fact we are to work as a church to remain united. Paul doesn’t tell us to all believe exactly the same thing. He tells us to all be open to welcoming our differences in opinions.

There are certain things that should not create obstacles for us. There are things we allow to get in the way that just don’t belong there, even if we are the ones who keep putting them there.

If Jesus is our Lord then we trust that He is working in the people we are next to and around. Our belief is that the God of the universe is moving in the person in our left and right. And we have a role in their lives but it is not to quarrel over opinions.

CMA General Council.

Critique the ideology or the theology but don’t judge people for believing it. We have to do better as a church in how we disagree with one another.

How do we handle each other? What does it mean to welcome each other?

Judgment and Direction: Not what is but what could be

Romans 14:4 ESV

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.

Paul tells us not to judge. So far, if we have disagreements about belief the role is non-action. It is to welcome. We will hear in a bit that we are called to mutual upbuilding.

But there is confusion in this concept of judgment.

Judgment (or lack thereof) in Romans 14:4 does not mean mutual acquiescence. It does not mean, allow people to do whatever they want. There are assumptions made here.

First is that People are in Christ working out salvation They are in community together and We are working things out in sanctification differently than our brother or sister.

But this does not mean we don’t educate and work toward change and transformation. We do this together. We speak into each others lives.

The problem with judgement and why Paul warns against it is because it is to proclaim a finality of words.

It is “This is how it is.” There is a reason we don’t do well in this arena.

When we judge, we often judge with a sense a attempted righteousness and judgment. We say this is just how it is. However, our perspective is never fully correct. And while we can often hold judgement we can’t usually juggle judgment and mercy together.

This is why we leave judgement to God. God perfectly holds justice, and righteousness. And holds mercy and love and grace, all fully in the same armload. So when God judges, He is still holding mercy. When we judge we tend to set mercy down.

Until we can see everything, judgement is a hit or miss game. So Paul says, careful about judging someone else’s servant. Because it is by his own Lord that he stands of falls.

Now we may not be able to speak, “this is how it is.” in finality.

But we can and should speak “this is how it could be.”

This is not a statement of judgment but is a statement of direction

We don’t judge, we commend and direct. We trust God to judge finally. We correct and direct along the way.

Judgment is final and judgment doesn’t need relationship or proximity to make a claim.

Direction does. In order to direct (this is how it could be) you have to be up close. Paul calls us to support. You can’t support from a distance. You support by being close.

What does direction look like without judging?

Theologian Oliver O Donavan’s definition of love gets us there. He says love is

We do that through O Donavan’s language of love. Both delight (embrace) and wisdom (direction.)

TO love is to delight in someone. To love them simply because of who they are and that they are. (welcome).

And to love is to show wisdom. To love them toward the source of all love. Wisdom moves in a specific direction. The Christian loves toward the source of love who is Christ.

Peace and Mutual upbuilding: Don’t destroy the work of God

Romans 14:19–20 ESV

So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.

Paul does not let this idea go. That there are things that we just don’t have to destroy peace and mutual upbuilding.

And it sounds silly to say, “don’t destroy the work of God over food.” If there is something that makes someone stumble in faith, don’t do it.

Now, stumbling in faith is different than your preferences. Sometimes we prefer things a certain way and communicate as if they are matters of faith. They are not. It is up to you to be able to discern what is a real matter of faith and what is a preference. We want to take seriously how we handle one another in issues of faith. How we defer to one another in issues of faith. But let’s make sure we are differentiating between faith and preference.

our normal mantra is, “get over it” We say that you need to change in order to meet me. Romans 14 is saying, “ill get over it.” I’ll change in order to meet you.

This is the upside down nature of the kingdom. This is what it means to live in Christ. It is to give room for the other, to welcome them as Christ welcomed us.

You do not need to get your way as a Christian. You already have everything you need for life and godliness. Part of living richly with one another is to be able to defer to one another. And that happens through paying attention to Christ and paying attention to each other.

In the church we often either yell at differences or ignore them. Christ tells us to embrace them. They are a part of who we are as a church. That we bear one another’s burdens and that looks like deferring to differences that leads to peace.

For any of you who think this is easy work or that this is just being a doormat I would challenge you in that being able to pay attention and respond to Jesus as Lord and to defer to one another out of love through delight and wisdom is some of the hardest counter cultural work you will do. It is easy to separate, divide or conquer. It is easy to be “right.” Christ died for this very idea of Christian community. And to live in that takes work.

As we live in the sacrificial way Jesus taught us to we find that

This is the life that is only found in Christ

Romans 15:5–7 ESV

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.

That is the goal of the church to show Christ to each other, His encouragement and hope.

We never graduate from the reality that we are weak in faith and Christ our brother has welcomed us. He has called us home. He has embraced us. And so when there are times when our beliefs don’t match up around certain cultural doctrine. We can embrace others, offering direction through delight and wisdom, in the same way Christ offers it to us.