Nothing But Love
Notes
Transcript
Romans 14:14-23
Romans 14:14-23
Sermon Series: Romans
Sermon Title: Nothing But Love
Main Passage: Romans 14:14-23
Main Idea: Rather than discourage, judge, or even destroy your brother, you should love him because he is God’s child.
INTRO:
[thank interns for the skit]
If the skit gets you thinking… “Wasn’t this last week’s sermon?”
That’s ok! It will sound familiar because Paul is continuing his thought from the first half of chapter 14.
He has introduced us to the idea that IN the church, there are some with weaker faiths than others… some that think certain things like... eating pork are still a sin… and other, stronger believers, who understand that eating pork is ok now because God has declared pork to be clean rather than unclean.
some of you just sat up and thought, “I better listen today because I’m on my way to Sonny’s right after this and I need to know if I can order pork or not!”
it’s ok… have the pork.... that’s not really the point here today....
the point is… there are some things… not doctrinal things… not make or break your christianity things… but things...
that are not black and white… things that are in sort of a gray area… and no matter which side you find yourself on when it comes to these "disputable” matters… Paul teaches us to love the other person…
not to discourage them
not to look down on them
not to judge them
but to love them
and today’s passage is about the “why”
It’s about what our motives should be for loving others
Paul wants to motivate us to look past our differences and love one another for the sake of the Kingdom.
We struggle with this.... we struggle with a lot of chapter 13 & 14… it sounds good in these 4 walls to talk about putting others in front of ourselves.... but putting it into practice is a different story.
culture is all about me… all about self....
I was in houston this past week visiting my family and on Wednesday we went to the mall....
****Selfie Land*****
We live in a selfie culture… everyone wants to be front and center.... the hero of their own story
the Church is to be a unified culture… a SELFLESS rather than a SELFISH culture.... and it’s easy to love others and put them first when we realize that Jesus is the actual hero of our story
READ THE PASSAGE:
14 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. 15 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. 16 So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
20 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. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 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. 23 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.
PRAY
BODY:
Clean vs. Unclean (vs. 14)
- Our passage today begins with Paul explaining that, he agrees with the Lord Jesus… when it comes to food and drink, nothing in itself is unclean.
Paul was probably familiar with Jesus’s discussion with the Pharisees over what is clean and unclean…
If you remember… the Pharisees didn’t like that Jesus’s disciples ate before washing their hands...
14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: 15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” 17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, 19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
In saying that “nothing is unclean in itself,” Paul was agreeing with Jesus’ statement in Mark 7 that nothing that man eats defiles him. Things such as food and drink are morally neutral. They have no moral qualities.
but then we get the second half of verse 14 and here’s the dilemma...
But, “it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.”
well that’s not confusing!
So if a believer feels (however wrongly) that certain meats are unclean and should not be eaten, they are truly unclean to him, and if he eats those meats, he would be sinning.
The question is, how can something clean become unclean?
What does he mean by that? He tell us in verses 22-23.
He says the issue is not merely food and cleanness, but faith and sin.
Verse 22: “The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God.”
Enjoy your freedom… keep it between you and God. You don’t need to show off or try to convince others to eat or drink what you do.
Then he continues in verse 22b: “Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.”
This is the goal: don’t do anything that would go against your conscience!
This is what it means to put a stumbling block in someone’s way: getting them to do what their conscience doesn’t want them to do.
The goal is that we would have the joy of never doing what we believe is wrong.
Then in verse 23 Paul shows us why this is so much more serious than food and drink...
“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.”
Now we see the answer to the dilemma in verse 14. How can clean become unclean?
It’s because “uncleanness” doesn’t reside in the food but in the conscience and motive.
When we act in faith… we are finding our joy and satisfaction in God
When we don’t… we are sinning against God
John Piper does a great job explaining:
“If we were acting out of the overflow of contentment in God, then there wouldn’t be any overpowering desire to do something we feel is probably wrong. We would relax in God’s sufficiency. We would say: “I don’t need to do that. I don’t believe it’s right for me to do that. And I feel no compelling pressure to do it because God is my portion.”
But if we feel pressured to do what we think is wrong, and we yield to the temptation, we are saying in effect: I need someone’s approval, or I need this physical pleasure so much that I will risk defiling my conscience and doing what I believe to be wrong.”
So what are we to do with this issue where sometimes things are ok… and other times they’re not? Remember, this passage falls in this big segment about how we are to treat each other.... namely, we are to love each other.
So quickly, here’s 2 things for us today:
Do not put a stumbling block in the way of your brother. Rather, love him because:
Christ died for him
The Kingdom of God is more important than food
15 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.
I love that Paul takes us to the cross on this issue. The cross is the appropriate place to talk about unity and about love.
John Stott says:
“Did Christ love him enough to die for him, and shall we not love him enough to refrain from wounding his conscience? Did Christ sacrifice himself for his well-being, and shall we assert ourselves to his harm? Did Christ die to save him, and shall we not care if we destroy him? (Message, 365)
So, what should the strong do? They should walk in love (v. 15).
Love has regard for the weaker conscience. Love will limit its own freedom. It asks, “Am I loving my brother with this action?”
The strong are not wrong in their view of food and drink, but they
are wrong when they enjoy this freedom in a way that harms other
Christians,
Sid says this all the time, “sometimes you can be right and still be wrong.”
We may need to reorder our priorities.
We may need to ask whether we should lay down some of our freedoms;
If we find that we can’t lay down a freedom, it might be that we are enslaved to that thing rather than enjoying it rightly.
One author said that.... Exercising Christian liberty is very much like walking a tightrope. As you walk the rope with balancing pole in hand, at one end of the pole is love for others and at the other is Christian liberty. When these are in balance, your walk is as it should be.
I’ve said this before, you are a person of God because there is a people of God.
You are not the bride of Christ… the Church is the bride of Christ… and in the Church, we belong to one another.
Martin Luther has a famous quote in his work “On the Freedom of a Christian Man” where he says,
“A Christian man is a most free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian man is a most dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”
We are all free in Christ. Our only bondage however, is the bond of love to other Christians.
It is our Christian job, not only to think about how our actions affect us but others.
Remember! It’s not our freedom that shows our faith to the world.... but our love for others
Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
The strong, mature Christian will sometimes need to limit his freedom out of love for his weaker brothers and sisters.
Do not put a stumbling block in the way of your brother. Rather, love him because:
Christ died for him
The Kingdom of God is more important than food
Romans 14:17–20 (ESV)
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God...
The kingdom of God is about righteousness, peace, and the Holy Spirit.
We are righteous in Christ Jesus and so we have peace with God,
and the Holy Spirit indwells us… and empowers us… and teaches us how to live.
These things are what really matter! Because we are righteous in Christ, we now live righteous lives, peaceful lives, and joyful lives. This is the kingdom of
God at work.
Paul’s argument is that, whenever the strong insist on using their liberty to eat or drink whatever they like, even at the expense of the weaker Christian, they are guilty of destroying the work of God… When we do that....
We are overestimating the importance of diet (which is trivial)
and underestimating the importance of the kingdom (which is central).
It was Jesus, in Matthew 6:33, who called us to
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness...”
vs. 18 says that the person who does this… the person who sees the Kingdom of God as the greater importance...
- is serving Christ in this way
- they are acknowledging that food and drink are secondary matters,
- and this person is pleasing to God and approved by men
isn’t that awesome? That would be a great thing to have on your tombstone..
“Here lies Brian Williams… He was pleasing to God and approved by men.”
vs. 19-21 encourage us then how to move forward:
19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
20 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. 21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
Kingdom minded person will prioritize:
building up, not tearing down
peace and harmony, not insisting on your way
The point is, do not do something that will harm a brother or sister. At times, you should relinquish freedom to avoid division.
Paul had this same conversation in his first letter to the Corinthians, and I love his encouragement at the end of chapter 10:
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, 33 just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
CLOSING:
Do not put a stumbling block in the way of your brother. Rather, love him because:
Christ died for him
The Kingdom of God is more important than food
The Christian life is about living for others. The founder of our religion was all about it!
Jesus going to the cross for us is the ultimate example of someone laying down his freedom in order to show love to others.... in order to save and rescue others.
i pray that would be the story of Heritage.
that we would be a people known for loving our brothers and sisters…
rejecting the “me” culture that exists all around us
and embracing the “selfless, love for one another” culture set before us by Christ Himself!
Let us pray.