Sermon Tone Analysis

ONE ANOTHER

Today’s one another focus on living in harmony with one another or a shorter version is unity.

Chapter 14 and the 1st ½ of 15 are one extended discussion about how to get along with people in the church who disagree with you on something you feel passionate about.

UNITY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN UNIFORMITY

Paul is going to say that for most of these things, unity > uniformity.

Somebody in the early church said it this way:

In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.

Paul said in Romans 12:16

HARMONY

These chapters explain how to live in harmony with those you disagree with in the family of faith.

Accept anyone who is weak in faith, but don’t argue about disputed matters.

Paul is saying that there are things we will disagree about in church that should not lead to division.

Now, he is not saying that there’s never anything in the church shouldn’t divide over.

Throughout Paul’s letters he has identified things that should make us separate.

We should label them a false teacher and not entertain them in the church.

OPINIONS

But not everything rises to that level, and here Paul introduces a category called “OPINIONS.”

A theologian named Michael Bird gives three levels of importance for issues in the church that I find helpful:

Matters essential for salvation

person of Christ, the way of salvation

Matters that are important to the faith and the church, though not essential for salvation

inerrancy of the Bible; gender roles and marriage.

BTW, these 2 are almost always spelled out clearly in Scripture

Matters of indifference

non-essentials, debatable things, preferences, opinions.

The Greek word for opinion is Twitter.

We are not to Twitter over inconsequential, OPINIONS.

This is what Romans 14 is about . . .

NOT EVERYTHING

Not everything in Christianity is a first order issue--but here’s the catch: The longer you’re in church the more you start to like your opinions on everything and think everyone else needs to live by your opinions.

In fact, in your mind, these are not even opinions anymore; they are just the way things are--the way mature Christians see the world.

NOT SPELLED OUT

And here’s the deal: for many things in the Christian life, God has not spelled out what he wants to the letter.

He gives us principles and expects us to use wisdom in applying them to new situations.

And that’s maturity...

MATURITY

Maturity is having the wisdom to know what the right thing to do is even when it is not spelled out in Scripture.

As a parent, that’s my goal for my kids.

I don’t want to have to tell my kids what to do in every situation for the rest of their lives.

I want to teach them the principles so that they can figure out what to do on their own.

It’s the same with God in Scripture.

You are supposed to use principles to develop wisdom to know what to do in new situations.

RESTRAINT

But here’s the thing: we should always show restraint in equating our wisdom--our application of a principle--with the Word of God.

Unless you can give it a chapter and verse, don’t give your perspective in the application equal authority with God’s Word.

Spiritual maturity is not just developing strong convictions, it is learning to show restraint in the weight you give those convictions.

Paul then addresses 2 contentious issues in the Roman Church.

These are not going to be the same things that are contentious in our church, so we’ll just use these as examples and glean from them wisdom for how to deal with contentious issues at our church.

BACKGROUND

The city of Rome was a city filled with temples, and almost everyone is Rome was an idol worshipper.

And most of the meat sold in the market had been presented to an idol for its blessing, and some if it was actually offered to an idol.

You put the meal out in front of the idol, which they wouldn’t eat, and this wold lead to the meat being sold at a discounted rate.

BACKGROUND

And so, some of the Roman Christians, particularly the Jewish ones, felt like the fact that the meat had been offered to an idol permanently tainted it, and to accept the discount was to participate in idol worship.

Plus, a lot of the meat was pork, and Jews looked down on that anyway.

BACKGROUND

So, to avoid all this, many Christians simply refused to buy meat in the market and ate only veggies.

They were like, “Isn’t that what Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Daniel in the OT? We’re like them.”

BACKGROUND

But other Christians in the Roman church said, “No.

No.

We know that idols are not really gods.

There is only one God.

And his power would counteract any of the idol magic.

Plus, Paul taught us in the book of Galatians that Jesus’ death has cleansed all things for us.”

So pass the bacon.”

ISSUE #2

There were Jewish Christians in this church who still thought that the Sabbath (our Saturday) was the day they should worship on.

That had been a big deal in Israel for 1500 years, so why change it?

ISSUE #2

Furthermore, they thought that even though they were Christians they should still observe Jewish holidays, since God had established them for Israel to remind them of various things throughout the year.

They understood these things weren’t necessary for salvation, but still, observing them was good practice since God had established them.

ISSUE #2

Decent argument, right?

Other Christians said, “No, these things are part of the old law and the death of Jesus has completely released us from these things.

Observe them if you want, but there’s nothing inherently special about them.

ISSUE #2

I want you to note: Paul had an opinion on both of these issues about which one was right.

Paul was definitely on team “meat-eater.”

In vs. 14 he tells us:

ISSUE #2

In Colossians 2 he says directly that after Christ there is nothing inherently special in any day of the week.

Paul calls those who didn’t understand this “weak” in their understanding of the gospel.

And he wants them to be strengthened in faith by becoming better informed by the gospel.

ISSUE #2

So Paul is not saying, “Everybody is right here!

To each his own!” Paul thinks the weak are wrong.

And that’s what makes this passage so helpful.

Paul shows you what to do with people in the church who disagree with you on things you think are important.

When you are really convinced they are wrong.

ISSUE #2

Again, we’re not talking about things directly addressed in Scripture or things essential for the faith--WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT somebody who says, “I think there are multiple ways to God, or I feel good about living with my girlfriend.

That’s not what Paul is talking about.

WISDOM IN THE GREY AREAS

We’re talking about wisdom in the grey areas where Scripture is not clear.

He says in those areas, UNITY is more important than UNIFORMITY.

You say, “Oh, pastor, this is easy.

I’d never let anything not directly addressed in Scripture divide me with someone else.” Really?

DRESS

Growing up I heard Christians argued about what you should wear to church: Some said that God deserves our best in worship, and that should include what we wear.