Receiving the Weaker Brother

Introduction

I have preached multiple sermons in the past on this passage. One was when I preached through the one anothers. Another message I preached on the 14 reason’s why we should be able to agree to disagree on somethings. Both messages took a birds eye look at this passage. We are going to work through this a little bit slower than those messages did.

This entire section of the text bookends from Romans 14:1/ Romans 15:7. The first verse and the ending verse both echo “receiving.” But Paul is still continuing this whole topic of authentic love. In Chapter 14-15, he is giving us a practical example of what that looks like. What does it truly look like to loving relate to other brothers and sisters in Christ? What does it look like to loving relate to them when we disagree with them over non-essentials? Paul reminds us of the importance of love in Romans 14:15 “But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.” Love is the foundation for resolving our petty squabbles.

One of the biggest blights on the Church today is how often Christians fight over things that they shouldn’t be fighting over. There are things we should fight for. But Christians far too often do not know how to distinguish. Everything becomes a fighting issue. In the past churches have fought over:

women wearing pants

men wearing shorts

wearing wire rimmed glasses

what color the carpet should be

We fight over unclear doctrines and treat them all as separation issues.

This type of love is a very practical love. How can any two Christians live in community with one another when we all have our own opinions on things? In the early church, the Christians were having some sort of a disagreement over foods and holidays. Think about how practical that debate might be. If you have been around a Baptist church for any amount of time, you know we love food. Well, what if you believed it was a sin to eat Cheese, but one day you came to a fellowship and almost every dish had cheese in it? What would you do?

The early church services that we have records of met early on Sunday mornings, shared a fellowship meal and then returned in the evenings for an evening fellowship. Eating together was part of their services on Sunday. Do you see how this debate is practical? It isn’t like I can just do what I want to do at my own home and you do your thing at your own home. Whatever this debate was which we will get into in a second, it threatened the harmony and unity of the Church.

As we look at this text, I want us to ask some questions. First, who are these two brothers, what are they arguing about and why should they be able to live in community together.

Who are the stronger and weaker brother?

Romans 14:1 “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.”

We have two types of people being addressed in this passage: the weaker brother and the stronger brother. They are clearly Christians in vs 4 he is called Christ’s servant and in vs 6 he gives thanks to God, but those are interesting ways to describe a Christian. What does it mean to be weaker and strong? In what are they weaker and stronger? Is this dealing with physical strength? Some of them might be old while others are filled with vitality. Is this dealing with morality? One Christian just keeps on falling into sin over and over again while another stands strong. Is this in their faithfulness? When persecution comes, some are bold while others hide and are tempted to renounce their faith. I don’t think and I believe the text tells us, it isn’t in any of these areas that we are talking about, but the illustration of weakness and strength is clear. Some one is stronger than the other.

The verse describes the weaker brother as weak in the faith. Now that could mean a couple of things:

it could mean weak in their trust

it could mean weak in their faithfulness

it could mean weak in something they believe

The context of the debate and the use of the word the before faith indicate this weakness is in something they believe. One of the Christians in this passage believes something that is weaker. It leads to living out their faith in a weaker way than the stronger Christian. Ultimately their faith is weak because it has not taken the gospel to its logical conclusion. They lack liberty of conscience because their consciences are bound by some false belief. Paul clearly takes a side in this debate in vs 14, 20; but he doesn’t get sidetracked with debating the issue. Paul’s main concern is the harmony of the Church.

There are things that we can believe that aren’t consistent with what we believe the rest of the bible teaches. Sometimes we have a view of God that is in conflict with who we know him to be. It is unfortunate that we sometimes hold doctrines that are in contradiction to themselves. The honest truth is that we are all walking contradictions at times. Sometimes our consciousness are bound by a false belief about what is right or wrong.

But when we have these disagreements they can often lead to conflicts between us. Paul’s concern here is that we receive the weaker brother. John Stott describes this word.

The Message of Romans 1. The Positive Principle (1)

Proslambanō means more than to ‘

We aren’t holding them at arms length because we disagree with them. We aren’t avoiding them because of our varying beliefs. We warmly, lovingly bring them into our lives.

Paul gives an interesting addition: but not to doubtful disputations. We don’t invite them into our lives so we can have a debate over questionable things. We don’t invite them over so we can correct their false belief and change their mind. Some people thrive on the debate and I understand a good discussion, but in these cases, the debate does more damage than good. As the text goes on we will see why it does such damage.

What are they disagreeing over?

Romans 14:2 “For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.”

The question of who they are is more clearly answered when we know what they are arguing over. We see three things in this chapter that they are fighting over: consider also vs 5,17,21.

Food

Holidays

Drinking wine

There are various views on who these people are, but most are agreed that this is a debate between a Jewish Christian (or those influenced by them) and Gentile Christians. The argument against this is that the Jews were allowed to eat meat and drink wine, but think with me about the situation in Rome during this time. Rome was very antagonistic to the Jews having expelled many of them and then later allowed them to return. In AD 49, Jewish slaughter houses were outlawed in Rome. Christians would have been ostracized from the orthodox Jewish community limiting their options. So if you could not guarantee the food was Kosher as a Jew what would you eat? You would probably avoid all meats as well. The same thing has to do with wine which might have been offered to idols in the market. We actually have an example of this very thing. In a pagan land, Daniel finds himself in a conundrum. He can’t eat the food he is being served with violating the law; so what does Daniel do? Daniel 1:8 “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”

If you still have any doubts about what the debate was over, take a look at vs 14. Paul clearly speaks about unclean vs clean. This statement only makes sense if these are Jewish concerns being addressed. (This also reminds us of what I said all the way back at the beginning about the theme of the book of Romans: Paul is addressing the harmony between Jews and Gentiles in the Church because of their shared relationship in the gospel.)

So lets go back to the illustration at the beginning of the fellowship meal. What would you a Jewish Christian who believes they still need to keep the law not for salvation but to please God, what would you do if the Gentiles brought pork to the fellowship meal? Do you see how this could lead to conflict?

Some have tried to limit this passage merely to these Jewish concerns. So if your debate has nothing to do with kosher foods, drink and sabbaths; then it has nothing to do with you. I think this misses that this is a general command. Any stronger believer is to receive any weaker brother. The details are an example not a limit. The point is that there are some things that do not violate the gospel or the clearly revealed word of God that we can agree to disagree with. While no doctrine is unimportant, we would have to call these beliefs non essential beliefs. If your faith has no room for nonessentials then you do not understand this passage and it can be argued from this text that you do not know what it is to authentically love other believers.

So putting these things together, we have a Jewish Christian who thinks he needs to continue to honor the sabbath, avoid unclean meats and drink wine when it is unclear of its source. This Christian has not fully grasped the liberty he has in Christ, that we are not under the law, but Christ. Their conscience is bound by a false belief while the stronger believer knows he has liberty.

Why should we receive each other?

(Lectio Continua)

God has received them

Romans 14:3 “Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.”

Paul addressed both the strong and the weak. This isn’t an issue that only one side needs to give a little on. Both sides have to make some compromises. The strong is told not to despise- When you think of people who think they have liberty to do something they tend to mock or look down upon the stricter brother. While the stricter, weaker brother tends to judge. They think the believer with liberty is sinning in what they feel freedom to do.

So why shouldn’t we despise or judge each other? for God has received him. God sets the example for us. Has God accepted them inspite of this weakness of faith? Yes, they are still Christians. God may be grieved by their lack in faith. But God accepts them.

They are God’s servants

Romans 14:4 “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.”

This first question is interesting because here he addressed the weak. Did you notice in vs 3 who was doing the judging? the weak. He asks them essentially, “Who do you think you are?” When we judge others in non essential matters, we are putting ourselves in the place of God. They are accountable to God and in the end, God can make them stand. I think the point here is there is coming a day when all these petty disagreements will be resolved, until then leave it to God.

They have liberty of Conscience

Romans 14:5 “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”

As Baptist’s we hold the doctrine of soul liberty and yet how often do we refuse to actually live it out. As we will see later on, the individuals conscience is extremely important. It might be misinformed and misguided but it should never be ignored. So what matters is that we are fully persuaded in our own minds. Study it out, come to your own conclusions and then live faithful to that.

Both live for the glory of God

Romans 14:6–9 “He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.”

Giving God thanks

Living for the Lord

Illustration about my wife wearing pants- no one can claim that she wears pants because we don’t love the Lord, we don’t want to submit to the word of God, we just want to be like the world. The decision we have made about this issue is based on the principles of the word of God, we have very set standards on what those pants should look like and we desire to be obedient to God’s word.

The point Paul makes here is that we cannot assume someone is unspiritual merely because their practice does not look like ours. With both the strong and the week, they give thanks to God for what they eat and for the days they celebrate. Both men are seeking to live for the Lord. If I know someone’s heart that they truly love the Lord, want to glorify him; how could I then turn around and say, well they just aren’t spiritual Christians.

We will all give an account at the judgment seat

Romans 14:10–12 “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

In the end, we will al give an account to God. We have already seen that we are not the judge. Can we allow God to take care of it? Honestly, God may change their mind over time, but what matters is that they lived consistent with what they believe.

Quotes Isaiah 45:23 “I have sworn by myself, The word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall swear.”

Conclusion

Harmony in the local church falls on the shoulders of both the weak and the strong. Learning to live in harmony involves authentically loving each other enough that the strong do not look down on, mock the weak and the weak do not look at the strong as sinners because they do not live as strict as you do. Each and every godly christian desires to please the Lord and wrestles with different issues at different times.

It is possible, even necessary for both the strong and the weak to exist within the same church. But is in these disagreements that we learn to express the love of Christ. Thinking like this is very rare in our society today. Those we disagree with are viewed as the enemy. Separation is all to easy over the wrong things. We fail to separate over what truly matters and pick fights over things God has given us liberty to disagree.

One of the central doctrines of being a Baptist is individual soul liberty but many have forgotten what that looks like. Its liberty for me but not for thee in most of our churches. This morning, let’s evaluate the way we view brothers and sisters who we disagree with over things that are unclear, not specified in scripture or commonly debated by good men.