Navigating the Grey (part 3)
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
The Elephant in the Room
The Elephant in the Room
The Problem in Rome
Weak - Abstained from eating meat, only ate vegetables
Jews keeping a kosher diet (Levitical law)
Gentiles abstaining from meat sold in markets that was left over from pagan sacrifice.
Strong - Were comfortable eating meat
Those that believed that dietary laws had been lifted.
Those that would eat meat used in pagan sacrifice because they knew there was only one true God.
Recapping what Paul has said
Don’t be divided by opinions. Romans 14:1
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.
There are closed handed issued - Clearly Identified in Scripture
Lying, Stealing, Cheating, Adultery
Draw a line in the sand and stand your ground
There are open handed issues - Not Clearly / Consistently Defined in Scripture
Holidays, Clothing, Alcohol, Bible Version, Sabbath
Don’t condemn other Christians over matters of opinion (this is one of the principles we will think through today in our study)
Be sure of your convictions Romans 14:5
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.
Through our time spent with God in study and prayer, we are to think things through before we act...
Will this violate my conscience?
Does this line up with the convictions God has given me for a life intent of seeing Him glorified?
Will this lead me into bondage?
Is this something that will continually call and pull me away from my pursuit of God, in my serving of God?
Will this benefit others?
Do my actions show that my hope is in Jesus alone as my Lord and Savior and that He is a treasure to be desired above all others?
Does this glorify God?
Am I seeing His weight and glory and responding in worship?
Am I seeing His provision and responding in praise?
Am I submitting to His will with a life of intent?
We do not rush in nonchalantly in areas of conscience, we try to seek God and think through biblical lenses because Romans 14:12
So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.
So after looking at how we think through these grey areas, what is Paul now going to say is our responsibility to other believers?
Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
Our Responsibility as Believers
Our Responsibility as Believers
As both the “weak” and “strong” Christians in Rome would read Paul’s letter, they would find that Paul’s primary purpose was not to end the disagreement, but rather how believers should treat each other when we continue to disagree.
As we read this text, we must remember that Paul since chapter 12 has been framing everything on Christian love.
Romans 13:8
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
So with what Paul has said, what does it mean for us when he says...
Do not pass judgement on one another
Do not put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother
Our focus this morning will be these two principles in order to guard against their misinterpretation and misuse.
What does Paul mean when He says do not pass judgement on one another?
What does Paul mean when He says do not pass judgement on one another?
What Paul doesn’t mean
In a society that esteems an attitude of “tolerance”, verses like Romans 14:13 and Matthew 7:1 (Judge not least you be judged) have been increasingly used as a type of “gag order”.
Often used as a catch all...
Yeah, Bob cheated on his wife, but who am I to judge
Who are you to tell me what is right/wrong, haven’t you read your own Bible...
Often a verse like this is meant to say that our relationship with God is just personal, that others have no business giving us insight, advice or discipline.
The problem with that is two-fold
First, there is a problem of context
In Matthew 7 Jesus is talking about refraining from hypocritical or hyper-critical judgement.
This type of judgement is when we are obsessed with constantly looking out and never look in.
This type of judgement is focused on comparison; I can “feel” more accepted, or closer to God when I dismiss the sin in my own life to focus on how horrible you are.
Jesus isn’t saying abstain from judgement. Immediately following “judge not”, He says that we should use good judgement to determine wolves from sheep. Those who are perverting the gospel vs. those who are teaching truth.
Jesus is not saying we shouldn’t judge right from wrong or bring sin to the attention of others; He just reminding us that we are all at the same table, we are all sinners who need to see the depth of our own sin.
Second, Salvation is not just personal, that personal aspect is joined to a communal body of believers.
Great Commission - Go teach all nations…make disciples…this is engaging, doing life together.
Romans 12, we are part of a body of believers and we should seek to love, serve, and benefit our brothers and sisters in Christ.
If we don’t bring habitual sin to the attention of someone, have we really loved them?
If you see your child put his mouth on the water fountain, or playing in the toilet…don’t you warn them of germs?
Love is bringing to someone’s attention, that which could cause them harm.
Mathew 18 and 1 Corinthians 6 - Both Jesus and Paul talk about the responsibility of the church to bring habitual/ongoing sinful lifestyles to someones attention.
So what does Paul mean here when he says “Do not judge”
Paul is saying that in these matters of conscience, that we shouldn’t condemn each other in areas where we disagree.
Romans 14:10
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;
What happened in Rome is so similar to many of our attitudes in various churches today.
There will be one group that judges another…they condemn them, even going as far as saying they are not Christians…maybe even saying that their worship, their teaching, their outreach is evil/useless
There is another group that “despises” looks down on another…saying the other group is ignorant or disconnected from society or self-righteous.
So often times what happens is these areas of conscience become the platform for our lives, or our churches. Instead of working together, we work against each other. Instead of boasting in Jesus, we boast in the church.
When our culture sees so much hatred, so much division in the church we misrepresent the God that we claim to serve.
What does Paul mean when he says we shouldn’t put a stumbling block before a brother?
What does Paul mean when he says we shouldn’t put a stumbling block before a brother?
Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 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. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
First, I want to begin with what Paul doesn’t mean when He is saying, “don’t be a stumbling block”
Paul is not saying that strong Christians should hide their exercise of liberty from the weak.
Paul is not telling these Christians to hide their steak under their salad, or go out of town so they can have a beer with their meal.
Romans 14:22
The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.
Paul isn’t saying here exercise your liberty in secret.
It was obvious that the weak already knew about those eating meat or there would have been no reason for Paul to say, don’t judge your brother in this open handed matter.
Secrecy would have only compounded the problem, as the stronger Christian would have been see trying to deceive the weak or practicing in secret because deep down they were ashamed of their action.
Rather than creating unity, this would have caused further distinction and tension between those who partake and those who abstain.
The unity Paul is after here is not achieved by believers ceasing to practice their freedoms or by hiding them, the unity Paul desires is achieved when believers continue to accept each other despite their differences in these matters of conscience.
What Paul was saying in 22 is that the strong Christian in Rome was not to publicly emphasize their freedom in a way that belittled those who were weak.
Paul is not saying that the convictions of the weaker brother should determine the acceptable use of liberty in a local church.
What if your church were in the habit of eating meals together that consisted partly of meat? What if a new member held the sincere conviction, based on a misunderstanding of a biblical text, that eating meat is sinful? Should you radically alter the practice of the whole church for the sake of this weaker brother? If so, at what point would the restricting of your liberty stop? If your church took this approach, the constraining of your liberty would never stop until you were reduced to practicing Christian freedom only according to the most restrictive conviction of the weakest member. In practice, the church would be living under an ever changing and always binding set of man-made regulations rather than living under grace. In this context the term “freedom” would retain no appreciable meaning. Remember that Paul rebuked the Colossians for submitting to decrees that restricted their freedom in Christ—decrees such as “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (Col. 2:21).
What if we took this further...
There was a family that believed men and women should not be separated in church
There was someone who thought only voices should be used in worship…no instruments.
There was someone who felt women should remain totally silent, not teaching any classes or even saying prayers in public.
For a church to continue having youth meetings and ladies Bible studies, for a church to go on singing with the accompaniment of musical instruments, or for the women in a church to continue singing and praying in the public meetings, would be no sin at all as long as the member(s) who held the more restrictive convictions were loved, accepted, and allowed to live out their personal convictions (as much as possible without disrupting the life of the church), while being treated with respect.
In short, Paul is not saying we should live our lives by the convictions of those around us.
The interesting thing, is this is going to go both ways. This is sound information for both the weak and the strong.
I think that is why Paul says Happy/Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgement on himself for what he approves, but whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats because the eating is not from faith.
Paul’s primary concern here, is that in exercising our own Christian freedom, we don’t cause a weaker brother to sin by betraying their own convictions.
1 Corinthians 8:4-11
Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
A similar situation we can learn from was taking place in the church at Corinth. The Corinthians in their knowledge where ok with eating food offered to idols because they were “fake gods”, but Paul says be careful that this doesn’t cause someone who is weaker to stumble.
The problem wasn’t that a weaker Christian would see their action and say it was sin. Paul assures them that it is not, similarly in Romans He says…I know that this food is not unclean.
But there was still a seriousness to the issue, if a weaker brother was encouraged to participate in an action that would betray his conscience then he would be guilty of sin..
Paul in both passages gives this illustration of being destroyed....by guilt, by a feeling of failing to live with that intent to see God glorified in our actions.
When we talk about being a stumbling block, it isn’t that we must always abstain from exercising our freedom, but there are times when some restraint is necessary.
Again the easiest example of this is alcohol
Paul says the kingdom isn’t about eating and drinking, don’t make that your focus or any matter of conscience…but rather focus on righteousness and peace and joy in the Spirit
It is fitting that Paul closes his discussion on Christian love with this discussion about matters of conscience and how to respond to each other in love despite our differences for the unity of the body…listen to how he closes the discussion
We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 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.
For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,
“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and sing to your name.”
And again it is said,
“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”
And again,
“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,
and let all the peoples extol him.”
And again Isaiah says,
“The root of Jesse will come,
even he who arises to rule the Gentiles;
in him will the Gentiles hope.”
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Did you hear it?
Even in our differences:
There is a call to serve
There is a call to encourage
There is a call to harmony
God has not redeemed us so we can quarrel over opinions, but so that we may have hope, joy and peace and proclaim the greatness of His good name.