Unity in Diversity: Our Accountability to God Romans 14:1-12

Introduction

Romans Romans 14:1–15:13: The Gospel Unifies the Body of Christ

“A Christian is a most free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a most dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”

Martin Luther

Romans I. Introduction: Focus on Who, Not What

Talk about what you believe and you have disunity. Talk about who you believe and you have unity

Think about our world today how unified is the church? How many churches do we have in Terre Haute and how easy is it to get us to work together? Churches are sadly notorious for dividing over things like the color of carpet or the wording of a prayer. The world all the while watches us fight over little things all while we claim we are about something greater. Unity.

Paul's problem with the church in Rome wasn't really a problem of unity per se. But he writes this chapter none the less to remind us of what the church should look like.

What if the church was unified around the person who we believed in?

What if Terre Haute still had dozens of churches and we were able to truly consolidate our resources and divide up the town to reach all of our community with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul wrote

Ephesians 4:5 ESV

5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Do we really believe this? Do we live like we really believe this? Why does it matter if we live like we believe there is one church?

John 13:35 ESV

35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The reality is people will know that we are disciples of Jesus if we love one another. And to be quite honest the only way we demonstrate a love for one another is doing things that look a whole lot like unity.

Paul's goal was to take the gospel to Rome. In order to get it there the church that sent hall needed to unite around this goal.

Our goal is to get four people to Hungary in August. In order to make it happen we had to pull together and unite as a church. We had to pool our resources in order to get us to Hungary.

How many people are in Terre Haute who don't know about the gospel of Jesus Christ? How many people in Terre Haute have written off churches as old fashioned and out of date? We have a greater area of over 100,000 people, what will it take to make sure every man woman and child is given an opportunity to accept or reject Jesus? The problem is far too many people are oblivious rather than antagonistic.

And for those whom have heard something about Christianity they only hear through the filter of other people or media that is not always complementary to our faith and our savior.

So how will we bring the gospel of Jesus Christ personally to every man woman and child in Terre Haute, in the Wabash valley? The only way we can do that is With unity.

The only way cornerstone Bible church can build disciples inside and outside the church is through unity.

The church at large today must learn a lesson on how to become unified in the essentials liberal in the non essentials and loving in all things so that God's Kingdom can grow.

Acceptance of Diverse Faith Practices (Romans 14:1-4)

Romans 14:1–4 ESV

1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one 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. 4 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.

The problem was nitpicking at each other on things that are disputable. Things that don't really matter that much.

It's like when I take the girls on a trip and they start getting in a fight over seat space or something really trivial in the car like touching each other. Pretty typical sibling stuff.

You notice in verse 4 Paul portrays each of us as servants of God. We are accountable to our master for our actions. Not to our fellow servants.

In your workplace when you get a directive directly from the boss to do something how much do you pay attention to what your coworkers ask you to do? Doesn't the direction of the boss make the opinions of coworkers less important?

Do we have this problem in the modern church today? One person needs to meet the other person needs vegetables. One person drinks and the other person doesn't drink. Do we pass judgment on other Christians for how they choose to live?

Especially the church in America has found many reasons to disagree over disputable matters.

Drink alcohol or not?

Dance or not?

How much should you tithe?

Should you do Christian School or public school or home school?

I spend a good chunk of the summer two years ago talking about hot topic issues where it's easy for us to disagree as believers. And we live in a country with so many churches that if you disagree with other believers it is so easy for you to pack up and take yourself to another church rather than truly try to solve the problem.

Now going back to the scripture we can't really give them too much grief about quarreling over food or what they eat. That was a massive part the old covenant and the law. There were a lot of regulations about food.

In fact there was a huge disagreement in the early church over whether new Christians should be forced to become in every way like Jews including how they ate. It required a United Church council to finally get to the conclusion that gentiles who came to Jesus did not have to eat the same as Jews

Romans 14:2 ESV

2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.

When you look again at verse 2 here the reference to avoiding meat was a reasonable one because sometimes meat that was offered in the marketplace was sacrificed to an idol first period so many times Christians knowing the Pagan practices behind the meat sold at the marketplace would choose not to eat that meat. And then there would be some Christians who would because it didn't convict them as deeply.

Paul's point in this passage just not to push his readers to be meat eaters or not. His point in this entire section is to say the Kingdom of God is not about what you eat but who you believe in. The only people he rebukes in this passage are people who look down in judgment on other believers. When they should be focused on something greater.

Romans 14:17 ESV

17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Paul is portraying the Kingdom of God like a house with a master and servants. As long as every one of the servants in God's house honors the master and does what the master asks there will be peace in the house and among the servants of the house. If one of the servants tries to replace the master and set standards for everyone else then peace is interrupted

Where are lives do we struggle with divisive issues? What things do you disagree on with other believers?

We are called to be people who follow Jesus Christ with our heart soul and mind. To love God first and love our neighbor as ourselves. We are not called to sit in judgment on each other.

Now, saying all this doesn't mean that we can't challenge each other. If we see someone else in sin God calls us to speak to them. To go directly to them and talk to them about a sin that we see. Confronting someone or talking to them about a problem in their life is 100% biblical.

On the other hand gossiping about problems we see in other people's lives is wrong. Framing our gossip as a worried question is wrong. Asking questions to others to see what's wrong with Joe or Sally is wrong. We need to be brave and loving enough to speak openly with each other.

Honoring God in Our Own Ways (Romans 14:5-8)

Romans 14:5–8 ESV

5 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. 6 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. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 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.

**Object Lesson Illustration**: Showcase various musical instruments. Emphasize that though each instrument produces different sounds, they can all produce beautiful music to honor God, representing the different ways believers may honor God according to their convictions.

Do you remember the story of Daniel in the Old Testament.? Daniel and his friends were taken to Babylon as captives to work in the King's court. They were offered royal babylonian food that certainly wasn't kosher or up to Jewish standards. Some of the friends decided that not eating the meats offered to them would honor God. Others didn't share that conviction even though they were very much invited to do that. What's more Daniel and his friends chose food as the one part of Jewish law that they would continue to honor when there were a lot of other things they simply could not do in Babylon to honor God's commands and the law. They had to pick and choose what was right for them in their circumstance to honor God.

Paul's challenge in this passage is to be convinced and focused in whatever we do. As he says in verse five each of you should be fully convinced in your own mind. Live with conviction. Live for God.

1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

When Paul was talking to the church in Rome they had a variety of days that they celebrated things they did to honor God and different convictions about what exactly they should do. Paul's point here is that everything we're doing we are doing for the Lord. Remember the quote at the beginning of the sermon when we talk about what we believe it's easy to disagree when we talk about who we believe we find unity.

Accountability to God (Romans 14:9-12)

Romans 14:9–12 ESV

9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 10 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; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

**Object Lesson Illustration**: Display a set of scales. Use it to symbolize divine judgement, underlining the fact that it's not our role to judge others' actions or practices - that's God's role.

If we truly believe that Jesus is Lord then we can rest in God's power. We don't need to judge other believers because we know God can and will do that.

Romans A. Unity Encompasses Liberty (14:1–12)

“It is wonderful that the apostle lifts the very mundane question of our mutual relationships in the Christian community to the high theological level of the death, resurrection and consequent universal lordship of Jesus”

If God will judge every person, why do we waste our time judging others?

Jesus is the true judge of all. When we judge others we take the place that rightly belongs to Jesus.

Conclusion

The more we lean into our relationship with whom we serve the easier it will be to not be distracted by differences in what we believe. The more we point our friends and family to who we serve the easier it will be for them to become convicted on the things they need to change. The Bible is not confusing or unclear. On many things it is quite clear. On the important things it's crystal clear. But also there are many things that the Bible doesn't clarify as right and wrong.

The Bible doesn't define with crystal clarity whether you should drink alcohol or not.

The Bible doesn't nail down exactly how much a Christian should give to the church.

The Bible won't tell you exactly who you should marry.

The Bible won't tell you which political party you should vote for.

The Bible won't define what missionary we should support in our church and what decisions we should make.

God entrusted his word to us but also his spirit to allow us to make choices. God calls us to live for him and not look down in judgment on anyone else. To live united and following him.

And sometimes that means we accept people that live out their faith differently than us. Because we believe we serve one Lord and one God.

So go out today worship gods spend time with him think about how God has called you to live and live out the life God is calling you to live this week.

But mind you God is not some ambiguous nothingness. He isn't just you following your heart.

God calls us to read his word and to spend time praying to him. God calls us to define our lives by the words he has given us. And God does call us when we see a fellow believer in sin to not gossip about them but to go directly to them and talk to them about their sin. We are not called to look down in judgment on brothers or sisters in Christ. We are called to serve our master and help others do the same