Last Sunday, I was supposed to go in-depth here in Romans 14, but I only seemed to have scratched the surface. Sure, everyone gave good feedback on the Word and the Scripture shared and expounded on, but I personally found myself wanting. I could have done better.
This evening, I intend to really go through the chapter with a fine-toothed comb. I’m thankful to the Lord for time, and I pray He is honored through all of this.
From one perspective we can read and see that Romans 1-3 gave us a perspective on God’s absolute and terrible glory. Romans 4-8, a perspective on God’s all-encompassing and full grace; Romans 9-11 had us sobered up as we considered how God’s grace and glory come together… in fact, I can’t resist sharing it here:
God’s glory is that He could do everything He wants to do.
God’s grace is that He gave everything up because He wanted us.
Moving on, Romans 12 & 13 started us off with what many Bible scholars suggested – our response to God’s glory and grace:
Our conduct with each other should be patterned as follows: We’re to keep offering ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable – and by holy, we mean we’re not conformed to this world, but we are continually transformed by the renewing of our mind. We’re to humbly recognize how we have our own gifts that complement with the gifts of others in the body of Christ, all the while understanding that we should not be overcome by evil, but we overcome evil with good.
Our conduct with the authorities should be based on the Truth of their appointment – No matter how we see them, whether they are good or bad, sincere or corrupt (or sincerely corrupt), the Truth is that it is God who instituted them where they are. Whether they weaseled themselves to their position, or they were voted / born into their authority, it is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Authority of Authorities who allows it to happen.
We should be in subjection to them, paying taxes, revenue, respect and honor as they are owed… and this may be taken from outside, but I believe the easiest way for us to do this is simply to pray. Yes, we honor our parents, our bosses, our teachers, our governments (local and national), our soldiers and policemen, our elders – speaking blessings upon them, and even MORE if we feel bad about them.
And going back to our conduct with each other, sure, we’re to enjoy each other’s company and to complement each other with our gifts – but it all takes root from the love God has for us, which naturally overflows into love we have for each other.
Romans 13 reminds us to ‘owe no one anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law’; Romans 12 also mentions that this love should be genuine, and we ought to ‘outdo one another in showing honor’.
And with all this in mind, let’s go.
1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
Did you catch what may have been implied in verse 2? The translation compared one who believes with a ‘weak person’, and this is repeated – well, at least in the KJV of the eSword app. I’m led to believe that it adds depth to whoever is ‘weak in faith’, as mentioned in verse 1 – it’s not as much about his choice of what food to eat; he or she who is weak in faith, is weak in belief.
But, regardless, we welcome each other in the body of Christ – no matter how ‘weak’ they are in the faith – as God Himself has welcomed him. We are not to ‘despise’ what they don’t eat, but we’re also to be as stern in ensuring that they don’t pass judgment on what we do eat, either.
4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
I’m being led to see this verse in the context of the times when the book of Romans was written, where slaves and servants were more common, and they weren’t necessarily shackled and really made to live out their servitude with complete submissiveness. Maybe I’ve watched one too many documentaries and fictional accounts of ancient Rome – I’ll just say this, they were more lenient with servants and masters in that place and time compared to the slaves a good number of us imagine today, that is, our brothers and sisters who were rounded up and shipped from, say, Africa to the Americas, or to Europe.
I could imagine that from one point of view, Paul was expressing that we have no right to pass judgment on the servants and slaves joining congregations and fellowships, considering they have their own masters. By the way, the Greek word used for ‘judgment’ here is krinō / kree’-no – which has the context as follows: Properly to distinguish, that is, decide (mentally or judicially); by implication to try, condemn, punish: – avenge, conclude, condemn, damn, decree, determine, esteem, judge, go to (sue at the) law, ordain, call in question, sentence to, think.
Moreover, these servants and slaves may believe, or are weak in the faith, but let us be reminded – as it is for them, so it is for us – ‘the Lord is able to make (us) stand.‘
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. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.
Again, in our conduct with one another – and, here, considering that some believe and some are ‘weak in faith’ – we’re to welcome one another in love; we’re reminded in Romans 12 & 13 that this means we’re to love one another in genuine, brotherly love.
Now, we shouldn’t be so quick to judge or despise one another in our choices – whether we revere one day more than another, or we place equal esteem for every day, or whether we choose to eat something, or refuse to eat something else, we do all of it ‘in honor of the Lord’.
When we love one another, we remind each other that we don’t come together according to the days we esteem together, or the food which we eat or don’t eat in common – but as iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17), we’re to keep tabs on each other, so we’re all ‘fully convinced in our own minds’ that we do what we do in honor of the Lord (as Paul writes to the Romans), to the glory of God (as Paul writes to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 10:23-33), in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17), and as unto the Lord, not unto men (Colossians 3:23-24).
7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
Christ has guaranteed, by His finished work – His death and resurrection – that whether we live or whether our bodies expire, we belong to Him. In the best result or the absolute worst thing that could happen to us in this reality, God be praised – We live or we die to the Lord. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
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; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. 13 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.
There’s no longer any question here – we should think twice before we despise our brother for such petty things as choice of days and food preferences. Lest we forget, no matter what happens to us, we are Christ’s. This should be the bottom line that settles any differences in opinion we have regarding methodologies and rituals, routines and procedures.
The love we have for one another says that we do not come together because of what we do.
We come together because of what Christ has done.
I keep telling those who bother to hear me talk on Sundays that we come together, we engage in fellowship and we congregate – not because we’re all available at the same time, not because we have common likes (and dislikes), but primarily, and ONLY in celebration of who Christ is, and what Christ has done – The Stone which the builders rejected has become the chief Cornerstone, and is also our firm Foundation, and, in the name of unity, is also our common Ground.
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.
With that being said, we welcome the brethren, and all who approach, in celebration of the truth that through Christ, we ourselves have been welcomed by God Himself.
We love one another. We are not quick to judge amongst ourselves, and by this others shall know we are Christ’s.
We are not quick to despise or mock others; We understand, as Paul is persuaded, that “nothing is unclean in itself“; Instead, we respond to each other and to others in humility, fully aware of the fact that once we were under the propensity of making things unclean because we once thought they were 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.
And, see here: Because of the great love God has poured out upon us, we are naturally able to love others – not merely by being humble towards them, not merely by avoiding being too quick to judge or despise them, but also by behaving around them so as they themselves would not ‘stumble’ – or, so they would not be so quick to judge or despise us either.
When you start working in a call center, you’ll find out that empathy is something that you never stop learning or teaching about. In representing the company you work for, you’re taught, as soon as the first days you sign your contract, that you aren’t merely there to fix problems, but also to intentionally project to the person on the other side of the call that as you care, the company cares as well.
A sad observation I’ve made through the years is that empathy isn’t as common anymore. I’ve been sold on its importance on my first corporate job, seen a lack of it in my work at home job, and it’s really sad that though we do care for one another in the church I serve in, we lack empathy in even the most basic of transactions – taking care not to take all the credit, giving credit to where it is due, genuinely following up on people, avoiding talking to people and striving to talk WITH people, and so on.
Walking in love entails a lot of empathy… and, as always, you can count on me to say at this point that there is no greater example or demonstration of empathy, than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
It’s not rocket science. He felt what we felt, and went to extreme lengths to not only know, but experience the totality of all the grief, anxiety, fear and pain, even beyond anything humanity could bear on its own. Isaiah 53:3 says He became a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief… and 2 Corinthians 5:17 says He not only bore sorrow and sin, but He BECAME sin… the pinnacle of empathy.
Christ had love in form of empathy for us, so we’re able to have love and empathy for others… gracious as Christ was gracious to us, not compromising a thing, but at the same time increasing our chances that those who observe us are not grieved by us.
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.
All in all, our conduct with ourselves and with others is further clarified with this chapter. In observance of God’s glory and grace, we fulfill the Law by loving one another… and not only does this entail that we have a brotherly, genuine love, but also a love that seeks the well being of others, having empathy.
Loving one another means that we continue to remind each other that we don’t come together for anything else before Christ and His finished work. We remind each other that righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit takes the forefront in our fellowships, before any other agenda.
In the process, we avoid making petty judgments and strengthen each other in the faith.
And that’s what we have so far – further elaboration on what Christ commanded us to do; To love one another, as He has loved us.
I thought I’d finish this and jump straight to Romans 15, but I think I can stop here for now. Just glad I had some extra time today to write.
If you’ve been praying for me by any chance, thank you, and please keep praying. I feel these days leading up to November are very critical for me personally… and I don’t know if I’m esteeming these days more than I should, but so far, writing it all down to just put everything together and to draw out even more value and meaning – well, that’s helping for now.
But it just keeps hitting me, there’s still so much to write about! The prospect is both exciting and intimidating at the same time, and I’m just thankful to the Lord for being with me every step of the way, in every word and every post made public.
Anyway, yeah, thanks for making it this far. I think I have enough left in the tank for one more post.
Until then, God bless you. Amen.
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