Having the Right Spirit with Your Weak Brother

I. The Spirit of Christ

It is a great thing to treat a weaker brother in the spirit of charity.

It is greater far to treat him in the spirit of Christ.

The spirit of Christ demands that we take (1) the hard road.

First, it is the self-denying road.

Says Paul, "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification" (vv. 1-2 ).

Selfishness has no part in the Christian life.

Paul is not arguing here that we continually give in to a weak brother’s desires.

Rather, we are to act in a way which will be to his lasting benefit.

We help him carry the cross of his weakness.

The goal is to help them develop into more mature Christians

Paul reminds us that "even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me" (v. 3).

The Lord Jesus lived to please God and serve and help men.

He died not just for the strong, the steadfast and the scholarly but for the feeble and the faltering as well.

He always went the second mile.

It was the maimed and halt and blind, the palsied and the deaf who most obviously were the recipients of His grace.

Mark 2:17 KJV 1900

When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

He was patient with Peter when he blundered; with Thomas when he doubted; and even with Judas when the blood money jingled in his purse.

How small is any inconvenience we may suffer because of the weak brother in the church when compared with what Christ suffered.

The spirit of Christ will make any such burden light.

Paul has just finished quoting concerning Christ from Psalm 69.

Now he wants to remind us that the entire volume of Old Testament Scripture is of permanent value and that it should be read and studied.

It will point out the road for us, even if it is the hard road.

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope" (v. 4).

Are we apt to lose patience with the weak brother and his scruples?

The antidote is in the Scriptures.

We must get back into the Book and see how God helped others over the hard places and be comforted, for He has not changed.

He will help us too.

The spirit of Christ demands that we take not only the hard road but, as it turns out to be, (2) the high road too.

Paul points out three things about the high road.

It leads to respect for other believers and consequently to harmony in the local church.

He says, "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus" (v. 5).

What a name for God—the God of patience!

How patient He has been with us.

As Peter puts it, He is "longsuffering to usward" (2 Peter 3:9).

The qualities which make for harmony in the local fellowship of believers are to be found in God Himself.

If each believer were to get to know the God of patience and of comfort there would be no strife over nonessentials.

The spirit of Christ would prevail.

The high road leads to rejoicing with other believers and consequently to happiness in the local church.

Paul says, "That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 6).

If the saints would concentrate on glorifying God, there would be no room for discord or for criticism.

Then too, the high road leads to the reception of other believers and consequently to true spiritual hospitality in the local church.

Paul says, "Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God" (v. 7).

So then, the argument has come around a complete circle.

Paul began by telling us that God has received the weak brother (14:3).

He finishes by reminding us that Christ has received us.

With all our own failures; with all our own weaknesses and wickednesses; with all our own lack of loveliness, defects of character and spiritual infirmities, He has received us.

How can we close the doors of fellowship to someone else who is genuinely saved but who has different problems?

What a dog-in-the-manger attitude!

Having the Right Convictions (15:8-13)

It is one thing to give way to the weaker brother on nonessential matters.

It is something else to give way when vital issues of faith or morals are involved.

But when it came to a basic issue of fundamental truth, Paul was adamant.

He reminded the Galatians, for example, how that on one of his trips to Jerusalem he had come into conflict with the Judaizing party in the church.

"False brethren" he called them, "who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you" (Gal. 2:4-5).

Moreover, when Peter tried to accommodate himself at Antioch, first with one party and then with the other, and that on an issue vital to the faith, Paul "withstood him to the face" (Gal. 2:11-14).

Love must manifest its merciful conduct to the weak, but it must also have its mature convictions.

It is no part of love’s office to compromise vital truth.

So then, Paul next turns his attention in this letter to the question of vital issues, truth which must be held in love but which must at all costs be held.

The issue is that of the Gentiles’ place in the church.

It was a touchy enough issue in the early church and also because he was writing to the capital of the Gentile world.

In the beginning, the church was entirely Jewish.

The conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10) gave the Jewish believers the first practical intimation that Christianity was not merely a Jewish sect but something distinctly different.

Soon Gentiles began to be converted in great numbers and before long the center of gravity moved away from Jerusalem; first to Antioch, and then to Ephesus, Corinth and Rome.

there no doubt were heated indeed were the debates about the reception of Gentiles.

Some thought that Gentiles must become Jewish proselytes before they could be admitted properly to the church’s fellowship.

They wanted to impose on them the burden of the law of Moses with its intolerable weight of rules and regulations.

They demanded that Gentiles be circumcised, that they keep the Sabbath, that they embrace all the commandments and customs associated with Judaism.

Others were a little more lenient but still thought that Christianity was merely an extension of Judaism and believed that Gentile converts should acknowledge their debt to Judaism in some way.

Paul was by far the clearest thinker on this issue in the early church.

He would have nothing to do with the notion that Christianity and Judaism were different forms of the same faith.

He could clearly see that the two systems were mutually exclusive.

He saw it even before his conversion. That was why he had persecuted the church.

True, Christians worshiped the same God as the Jews and turned to the same Scriptures.

But there the likeness ended.

The cross of Christ was the watershed, the parting of the ways between the two systems.

Judaism was a religion of a rent veil, and to try to patch up that veil and then stitch Christianity onto it was not only wrong but useless and fatal.

Christianity was a new piece of cloth altogether.

Jews and Gentiles who were converted to Christ became members of the church, a new entity entirely in God’s dealings with men.

Paul was so completely emancipated from Judaism that, far from wanting Gentiles to adopt the customs and traditions of his Jewish brethren, he wished his Jewish brethren could break away from "the beggarly elements" which so sadly hampered and hindered them.

He fought tooth and nail for the principle that Gentiles be accepted into the fellowship of the church simply on the basis of their faith in Christ and with no Jewish strings attached.

With Paul, these were love’s mature convictions.

To unite Jew and Gentile in a new fellowship was part of the ministry of the Lord Jesus and one He had anticipated with evident satisfaction, even before He went to Calvary (John 12:20-24).

The bringing in of the Gentile world was the topic of His conversation just prior to His ascension (Luke 24:46-47); and the last recorded words which fell from His lips before the cloud hid Him were, "the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

Moreover, the first recorded words of Jesus after His ascension had to do with bringing the Gentiles into the fellowship of the church (Acts 9:6-15), and so were the second (Acts 10:13-14).

It is almost as if the Lord Jesus Himself wanted to add His own voice to the urging of the Holy Spirit to speed the infant church on its mission to the Gentile world.

So Paul introduces the subject of Gentiles in the church to support his argument that love’s mature convictions cannot be compromised for the sake of peace.

How Christ’s ministry is Presented to Us

The ministry of the Lord Jesus to the world was twofold.

It was "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" and it was also to those "other sheep" who were "not of this fold."

Paul keeps both these ministries very much in mind.

The Distinctly Jewish Aspect of Christ’s Ministry (15:8)

First and foremost the Lord Jesus "came unto his own," and although "his own received him not" the fact remains unaltered (John 1:11).

Paul says, "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers" (v. 8).

Elsewhere in this gospel Paul has underlined the fact that God’s dealings are with "the Jew first" (Rom. 2:9-10).

Alford points out that Christ is called "the minister of the circumcision" nowhere else in the Bible and suggests that Paul used the expression here "to humble the pride of the strong, the Gentile Christians, by exalting God’s covenant people to their true dignity."

Be that as it may, the Lord’s first concern was for "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matt. 15:24).

He came to fulfill the covenant promises made to the founding fathers of Israel.

He came to Israel because God had pledged Himself by many great and exceeding precious promises to send the Redeemer to them.

The Definitely Gentile Aspect of Christ’s Ministry (15:9a)

While the Jews were honored by Christ’s coming first to them, they by no means had a monopoly on His ministry.

Paul says that the Lord Jesus also came "that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy."

While many Old Testament passages foretell the blessings which would come upon the Gentiles through Christ, it is also true that God entered into no formal contracts/covenants with the Gentiles as He did with the Jews.

His dealings with the Gentiles therefore are an especial expression of His mercy.

The fact that Gentiles now outnumber Jews in the church by countless millions shows how glorious is the Gentile aspect of Christ’s ministry, how great is God’s mercy toward us and how much He deserves to be glorified by the Gentiles for His grace.

The bearing that all this has on the question of reception is clear. God has received both Jews and Gentiles without distinction.

The ministry of Christ is the guarantee of that.

How Christ’s Ministry Was Predicted For Us (15:9b-12)

The bringing of the Gentiles into the place of blessing was the subject of much Old Testament prophecy.

Paul selects several passages to support his argument.

The Gentiles Would Be Gladdened by Christ

Three Scriptures prove his point. He quotes from Psalm 18:49; Deuteronomy 32:43; Psalm 117:1.

Later he quotes from Isaiah also, thus appealing to the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, or from the three great divisions of the Hebrew Bible.

"For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him all ye people" (vv. 9b-11).

The Gentiles Will Be Governed by Christ (15:12)

Having embraced this age of grace, Paul next looks forward to the distant future, to the millennium.

"And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; and in him shall the Gentiles trust" (v. 12).

quoting Isaiah 11:10

It is not only now, during the period when Israel as a nation is set aside, that Christ receives the Gentiles.

Even during the coming golden age when Israel will come into its own, the Gentiles will be blessed in Christ.

Thus, in his selection of quotations, Paul shows from all parts of the Jewish Bible that the Gentiles are accepted through Christ. This adds weight to love’s mature convictions.

They are not founded on bias or personal opinion but on the eternal Word of God.

Such a truth as the reception of the Gentiles is not to be abandoned at the whim of any brother, weak or strong.

How Christ’s Ministry is Preserved in Us (15:13)

Paul has proved his point.

He has upheld the rights of the strong and of the weak brother. He has shown that the stronger should give way to the weaker when it comes to nonessentials.

The laws of Christian love demand that love express itself in merciful conduct to the weak.

But at the same time, those selfsame laws demand that vital truth be held unwaveringly.

Mature convictions must be held in love but they must be held.

Paul concludes this whole section by praying that Jew and Gentile in Christ will get along despite differences.

It is the Holy Spirit who makes operative in the heart of the individual the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope" (13a).

In other words, (1) there is nothing hopeless about the Christian life.

We have blessed assurance. Joy! Peace! Hope!

What mighty cords these are to bind believer to believer in love, mutual understanding and consideration.

"Through the power of the Holy Ghost" (13b).

In other words, (2) there is nothing helpless about the Christian life.

We have boundless assistance.

The way to happiness and harmony in the assembly of God’s people is not easy.

People are different.

They are saved from a multitude of backgrounds—racial and religious, social and educational.

It is inevitable that people of different ages and temperaments, abilities and drives, concepts and natures should have trouble adjusting one to another within the fellowship of a local church.

But it can be done.

It cannot be done by nature, but it can be done through grace.

The things that unite us are far stronger than the things that divide us. We are united in Christ by a common birth, by precious blood, and by one belief.

"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ" (Eph. 4:47).

It is this that makes it possible for us to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3).

When there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s cattle and the herdsmen of Lot’s cattle, Abram’s plea to Lot was, "We be brethren" (Gen. 13:8). That was what bound them. The petty things which divided them were scarcely worth a thought. At least, that was Abraham’s conviction, and one which he was prepared to carry through with remarkable selflessness and thoroughness.

The story is told of two men aboard an ocean liner. The one was black and the other white. Both were Christians, both felt themselves to be "strangers and pilgrims" amid the gaiety and social frivolity of the voyage. The two men had not met; but one day each was pacing the deck of the ship wrapped in his own thoughts, each with a Bible under his arm. Then they came face to face. They smiled, shook hands, pointed to their Bibles, and tried to exchange a few words. But the barrier of Babel stood between them; they could not speak each other’s tongue. Then the white man had an idea. "Hallelujah!" he exclaimed. The black man smiled, and at once replied, "Amen!" Well might we sing:

Blest be the tie that binds

Our hearts in Christian love,

The fellowship of kindred minds

Is like to that above.