Romans 14:1-4
Accept the one whose faith
is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One
person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak,
eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with
contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not
judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who
are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or
fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
Romans 14:10-14
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or
sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before
God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’
says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before
me;
every tongue will
acknowledge God.’”
12 So then, each of us will give an account of
ourselves to God.
13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one
another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle
in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the
Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something
as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.
Romans 15:5-7
5 May the God who gives endurance and
encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ
Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may
glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ
accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
Paul’s letter to the
Church at Rome reveals growing tension within the church—a tension between Christians who were born and raised Jews before
coming to Christ, and Gentiles who have come to Jesus without the benefit of
Jewish law and ritual. There are
at least two issues that threaten to create serious division in the
church. And we find out in Chapters
14 and 15 Paul’s pastoral response to those issues.
The Jewish Christians
are labeled as “weak” but in a way “weak” is an
awkward translation. They are not so
much weak as they simply feel compelled to honor specific religious laws and
principles, and have developed sensitive consciences around several beliefs of
their Jewish faith.
The Gentile or New
Christians are labeled as “strong” but again it isn’t
that they are stronger in their faith as much as they are able to see the
bigger picture behind religious practices. They are the spirit not the letter of the law kind of
folks—who have untroubled consciences about what they see as Jewish beliefs and
practices that have been superseded by the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Many scholars
concur that what threatens the unity of the church at Rome are: eating meat offered to idols, and
honoring the Sabbath.
The
Jewish Christians are certain that eating meat that is offered up to a Roman
God or goddess is to get caught up—even indirectly—in idolatry. Unfortunately, in that culture all
cows, sheep, and goats were offered up to one god or another. It was their version of the USDA—their
way of insuring the healthiness of the meat. They also believed that honoring
the Jewish Sabbath is part of God’s universal moral law, tied to creation
itself. For them, this was not
something that allegiance to Christ put on the back burner.
The Gentile
Christians say, there is only One God—the God of Jesus Christ—and the butcher
who sells sacrificial meat has nothing to do with idolatry—he’s just a
businessman. It’s nothing more
than misinformed superstition and therefore a good steak is just a good
steak. And when it comes to the
Sabbath it seemed to them that Jesus did what he needed to do on the Sabbath. He made the point of saying that the
Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. They saw it of secondary importance, if important at all. If
there is any day that should be holy to Christians it is the Lord’s Day, Sunday,
not the Sabbath.
The former
Jews thought the Gentile Christians were playing fast and loose with scripture,
and the Gentile Christians thought the former Jews were narrow-minded and
missing the point of the gospel entirely.
(This should begin to sound vaguely familiar.)
So Paul does something
that would have been controversial in his day: he creates a category for these issues
which he calls “disputed matters”—areas of disagreement which do not undermine the gospel and do not
threaten our salvation either way.
It’s not that they aren’t important—Paul, a former Jew and Christ’s
ambassador to the Gentiles knows full well how important these issues are—but
Paul is also certain that there are bigger, more important, issues at stake.
Look at the word he
brings to both groups: “Accept one another, then, just
as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” He doesn’t call for tolerance, he doesn’t demand that this be
‘settled once and for all;’ he
doesn’t minimize their differences or pretend they aren't a big deal. Instead he harkens back to the gospel
of Jesus and says: accept each other as Christ has accepted you. And then he says, “If others are doing
their best to follow their conscience as they love God and love others then, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own
master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to
make them stand.” In other words, if your fellow Christians are living unto the Lord,
then let the Lord sort it out with them.
The gospel isn’t an excuse to be your sister or brother’s judge and
jury—it is instead the freedom to love them and accept them for who they are.
Give up the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
already! Head back to the Tree of Life: love and depend upon
your God, and God will lead you where you need to go. Give your sister or brother the freedom to do the same!
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