GETTING RID OF STUMBLING BLOCKS
Romans 14.13-23
Romans: The People Grace Creates – Part 9 of 11
v. 1 “… don’t argue about disputed matters.” (csb)
v. 13a “Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer …” (esv)
v. 13b “… decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.” (esv)
WE REMOVE STUMBLING BLOCKS BECAUSE …
WE VALUE MORE THAN Just Actions
v. 14 “… nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.” (esv)
v. 15 “For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love.” (esv)
v. 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.” (esv)
Eph. 2.8–9 “… you have been saved through faith … not a result of works …”
Romans 1.17 “The righteous shall live by faith.” (esv)
WE CARE ABOUT MORE THAN Our Appetites
v. 17 “… the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking …” (esv)
v. 20 “Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God.” (esv)
v. 21 “It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.” (esv)
v. 15b “Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died.” (niv)
v. 19 “… pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.” (csb)
WE LOVE HELPING PEOPLE Get To Heaven
v. 22 “Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves.”
Romans 8.1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (esv)
1 Timothy 1.19 “… a good conscience … some have rejected and have shipwrecked their faith.” (csb)
v. 16 “So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.” (esv)
1 John 4.20 “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar …”
vv. 17–18 “… the kingdom of God is … righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.” (niv)