Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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

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 after looking at how we think through these grey areas, what is Paul now going to say is our responsibility to other 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

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 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

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?

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

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.