“Let’s Honor One Another”
(Romans 14:1-12)
Series: Not Guilty!
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
First Baptist Church Henderson, KY
(11-22-09) (AM)
Take God’s Word and open to Romans, chapter 14.
If you’re visiting with us, we preach through books of the Bible, expository preaching, verse-by-verse wherever possible. The Bible speaks of our learning, “the whole counsel of God,” and the best way to learn it, is to study whole books. And so we are nearing the end of our expository study of the Book of Romans.
Let me set up our study this morning. The passage is verses 1-12 of Romans 14, and we’ll read the text in a moment. Before we do, here’s what’s going on in the churches in Rome. Remember that there are two main groups of people in these churches, Jewish Christians, those who came to faith in Christ out of Judaism—and Roman Christians (Gentiles) those who came to Christ out of a pagan, non-Jewish background.
The Jewish Christians were still heavily influenced by their Jewish background. They were brought up in strict adherence to the Torah, the Book of the Law, the first five books of the Old Testament, with all of its prohibitions about eating certain foods and observing certain days. The Romans, the Gentiles, on the other hand, had none of this background. So you have these two groups of believers and the church is very young. They didn’t have the final Bible then as you and I hold it in our hands today. So they’re trying to figure out what’s right and wrong and those who are Jewish have decided that they need to continue to observe the Torah while the Gentiles are like, “Torah? What Torah? We can do anything we like. We’re free in Christ!” So you have these two positions and the one is judging the other and the other is looking down his nose upon the other. Paul hears about this and he writes Romans 14 in response.
- Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.
2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.
4 Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.
- Pray.
Introduction:
If there’s one main overarching principle that we need to take home today from our study of this text it is that we are to honor one another. What does it mean to honor one another? It means to show deference to one another, to esteem another by placing their interests ahead of our own interests. It means that we will look to one another in love and think to ourselves, “Look, it’s not about me.” In fact a good quick prayer is, “Lord, help me to see it’s not about me.” Lord, help me see, it’s not about me. Let’s say that together right now: “Lord, help me see it’s not about me.”
Christianity is not about me. Well what is Christianity about? Three things. First:
I. Christianity is about Love (1-4)
Paul is writing to a church whose two groups of persons are at odds with one another. They have different views on some of the issues. And what Paul says we’re to do is not try to argue the other to see our position, but to love the other person. Remember this from last week? Paul wrote back in chapter 13 in verse 8 that the one area in which we are never to be debt-free is in the area of love: “Owe no one anything except to love one another.”
In Chapters 14 and 15 Paul identifies these two groups of people as the “weak” and the “strong.” He calls them weak and strong in relation to their use of faith. This doesn’t mean that one has more faith than the other. He does not mean it that way. What is more, Paul does not even mean to stress whether one is right and one is wrong. That’s very important. Some people read and teach this passage as though Paul were arguing for one position over the other. That is the very opposite of what he is trying to accomplish.
What Paul does is say that there are two groups of Christians in the church at Rome. One group is the “weak.” This is the one whose faith does not allow him to eat certain foods and one who believes he must observe certain days or his conscience bothers him. This is the Jewish Christian still under the influence of Torah. The other group of Christians in the church at Rome is described later in chapter 15 as the “strong.” This is the Christian whose faith allows him to eat anything. This is the Christian who says, “You know, the Old Testament Torah is no longer binding upon us. We are free to eat whatever we wish and we are free to observe certain days or not observe certain days.” And in essence Paul says, “It’s not about whether one is more right than the other. It’s not about you. It’s about loving one another, receiving one another, as brothers and sisters in Christ, in spite of our difference.”
1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things.
The word “receive” there is a word that means, “to draw to oneself,” or, “to embrace.” Paul is writing first to the strong, the Gentile, the Christian with the Roman, pagan background and he says, “Hey, receive your Jewish brother, the one he calls “weak in the faith.” Receive him. Love him!
2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables.
You see the distinction there? One person believes he can eat anything. That would be the Roman Christian with the pagan background. He’s never studied the Torah. He knows he is free to eat any kind of food he wishes. We have the benefit of reading the completed New Testament. We know that Jesus and Paul both declare all foods clean. We are free to eat any food we wish, and some of us do!
When we were in Thailand, man, some of those folks ate foods I wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole! We stopped at a market in Laos and our driver got out and purchased a bag of ant eggs. She had this bag and these red ants were crawling around inside of it and trying to crawl their way out of it and I thought, “Yuck!” Someone invariably says, “Hey, don’t knock it till you try it!” Forget about it. I’m not going to try it, okay?! I just know I’m not going to like ant eggs!
But all foods are clean. Now Paul doesn’t say, “Tell that to the Jews! Tell them, “What’s the matter with you guys? Don’t you know all foods are clean? Come on, be spiritual like us!” See, it’s not a matter of being right or wrong. It’s a matter of love. Paul says, “Receive that person,” embrace, pull them to yourselves, love them. So he calls for our getting along in spite of our differing preferences and beliefs.
In Chapter 15 in the first verse, and we’re a couple weeks away from this, but if you look at it now, he says to “bear with the scruples of the weak.” The word “bear” there means to try to get inside that person’s shoes and lovingly understand things from their perspective. It’s not about who’s right and who’s wrong, it’s about honoring your brother and sister and lovingly embracing them in spite of their differences.
So it’s not, “Well, you don’t see things my way so I’m going to go and find a church that does or I’ll start my own!” No, it’s “Hey, we may not agree on the non-essentials and that’s okay. We don’t have to. We don’t want to be uniform, anyway. We want diversity. We can learn from one another. We can lovingly understand each other’s position and sharpen one another in our faith.
3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.
4 Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
See that in verse 3? Paul is saying, “It’s not about who is right and who is wrong. You’re both wrong if you despise or judge the other” and both were guilty of doing that. The Roman Christian, verse 3, “despised” the one who did not eat all foods and the Jewish Christian “judged” the one who did. Paul says, “God has received both of them!” Don’t try to “Be God” to one another. God will “make both stand,” that is, He will “vindicate” both of them. Christianity is about love and we need one another.
In a section of C.S. Lewis’ book, The Four Loves, Lewis is writing about friendship and he writes about three guys who are the best of friends: Jack, Charles, and Ronald. They get together twice a week and talk about everything. These guys are just really good friends and enjoy one another’s company. When Charles dies, Jack and Ronald continue to get together, but one day Jack realizes as he’s talking to Ronald that there’s a part of Ronald that only Charles was able to evoke. Jack couldn’t bring out this part of Ronald as Charles did. There was a part of Ronald that will never be brought out again. And Jack suddenly realizes that he could only know Ronald as a group. In fact we can only know anyone as a group. It takes a variety of people to know an individual. One person can’t know another person like a group can know that person.
If that is true of our relationship to one another, how truer is it of our relationship to God? One person can’t know God like a group can know God. I learn from you. You learn from me. So we do not worship individually, nor carve out some time when we come only for ourselves, coming to just one class or one worship service and then slipping out into our individual lives again. We come for the purpose of worshiping together, getting to know one another, learning more and more about this community of faith, living and loving together.
Last Sunday evening when I invited the church family over to our home, it was not just an attempt to get food out of our house, though it is nice to longer be tempted by the things my mother-in-law baked while we were away in Thailand! The Greek pastries are gone, no more Baklava, Biscotti or Kaloudia. It was a moving moment in time to get to know one another yet a little better, to embrace one another, to talk to one another, to learn what God is doing in the lives of one another.
Christianity is about love. Secondly:
II. Christianity is about Liberty (5-6)
5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.
Paul is saying that as Christians we have freedom, liberty in Christ. He unfolded this doctrine back in chapter 6. Romans 6:14, “You are no longer under law, but under grace.” Christianity is about liberty. We do not have to slavishly obey the Law in the hopes of pleasing God. But, at the same time, some persons may choose to continue to uphold certain elements of the Old Testament Law and if they do, they are free to do so. We should not judge them for doing so nor criticize them for doing so.
So he says in verse 5 that one person esteems one day above another while another person esteems every day alike. Hey, let each be fully convinced in his own mind. Paul is writing about certain days defined in the Old Testament Law as days to observe or celebrate, feast days, and probably including the Sabbath day, too.
The Sabbath day is technically which day? Saturday. We worship on Sunday because Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week, on Sunday. So we worship on Sunday. Paul says it really does not matter whether we worship on Saturday or on Sunday. But if we meet with a Seventh-day Adventist who insists worship should be held on Saturday, we say, “Fine. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.” I’ll talk more about this tonight in our “Digging Deeper” study of this text.
6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.
So Paul is saying, “We are free one way or the other.” We may observe a certain day or eat a certain food or we may not observe a certain day or not eat a certain food because, in either case, we “give God thanks.” In some sense, then, both positions are right because the hearts of both people are right. Both are capable of worshiping God, praising God, and “giving thanks to God.” So we must not judge one another or look down our noses upon one another because the other person has a differing position on an issue.
Leslie Flynn wrote a book called, Great Church Fights. Isn’t that a great title?! Hear what he writes:
Wide disagreements exist today in our churches over certain practices. A Christian from the South may be repelled by a swimming party for both men and women, then offend his Northern brother by lighting up a cigarette. At an international conclave for missionaries, a woman from the Orient could not wear sandals with a clear conscience. A Christian from western Canada thought it worldly for a Christian acquaintance to wear a wedding ring, and a woman from Europe thought it almost immoral for a wife not to wear a ring that signaled her status. A man from Denmark was pained to even watch British Bible school students play football, while the British students shrank from his pipe smoking. (as cited by Kent Hughes, Romans commentary).
Of course, meat-eating is not much of an issue today. In his commentary on Romans (pp. 261-262), Kent Hughes writes of at least 11 areas where he thinks this text may apply. None of these items are explicitly and specifically listed as taboo in the Scriptures, although Scripture does present some guidelines that pertain to them. Listen to these issues:
- Theater. Some Christians think they should never patronize a commercial theater. Others think they can, but that they should be selective, just as they are with the literature they read.
- Cosmetics. This is not the issue it used to be, but it is controversial in certain parts of the world. (Adrian Rogers was once asked whether it was a sin for women to wear make-up. He said that he had seen some woman for whom it would have been a sin if they had not worn make-up! Adrian Rogers said that—not your pastor!)
- Alcohol. The use of alcohol is a major issue among American Christians today. Ironically, while there is growing medical evidence of its harmful physical and social effects, more Christians are exercising their freedom to partake. Hence rising tension.
- Tobacco. Traditionally, the Mason and Dixon Line has been the dividing line for the use and non-use of tobacco among many evangelical Christians.
By the way, next week I plan to speak more pointedly as to how this passage applies to the drinking of alcohol today. I believe the wisest position for Christian living in America today is the position of total abstinence. I believe that for a number of reasons and I believe Romans 14, particularly next week’s text, supports that position not, however, on the same basis as the Jews believed in this text. In other words, I do not believe in abstaining from alcohol because the Torah forbids it, so this is not a matter of being a “weaker” or even “stronger” brother. I believe, however, that a wider principle surfaces from this chapter that teaches we are to do nothing that would cause spiritual or physical harm to anyone. I’ll talk more about that next week.
- Card playing. Because of its association with gambling, Christians are ambivalent about the use of traditional cards. The controversy can also include similar games.
- Dancing. For some Christians this is a litmus test, especially among youth.
- Fashion. Trendiness is viewed by some Christians as worldliness. Withering judgments are sometimes made both ways on the basis of clothing and hair style.
- Bible translation used. In some Christian circles your translation can be a quick ticket for acceptance or rejection.
- Sports. (Some) Christians consider competitive sports sinful and ego-exalting.
- Music. Today a heated controversy goes on regarding appropriate Christian music.
- Material wealth. This tension is manifested in such forms as: “Stop me if I’m wrong, George, but haven’t you—uh, been spending a lot of money on a car?” “Nope.” “No? You don’t think the money could be better used, say, in the leprosy fund?”
Hughes concludes: “According to Romans 14, wherever you stand on these issues, you must accept your Christian brother and sister who differs.” These are, in general, non-essential matters. There are some issues that are essentials and we must stand together on those, issues such as how we are saved and who God is, and so forth. There may be times when unity must be sacrificed for the sake of truth. I will speak more this evening on the differences between the essentials and the non-essentials of our faith.
But these 11 non-essentials do not mean that we can just do as we please: “Christianity is about Liberty!” and off we go and indulge ourselves. No, there are other biblical guidelines we must consider alongside these issues. We must consider our particular culture, context, and background. We must consider how our Christian influence and testimony affects others, particularly if we are leaders in the church and in the community. But in the main, I must recognize that people have differing views on differing subjects and I must love them in the Lord. See, if I love someone, I’m not going to do anything that causes them spiritual harm of any kind.
Some of you are going to be shocked when I share this with you, but years ago when I was a rugged parole officer for the state of Georgia, I found that a number of the officers indulged in the chewing of tobacco. Now, I didn’t chew tobacco, but these guys did and, before long, I tried it out, too. Well, it just seemed the thing to do now! We went out and checked on our parolees or went out to make arrests and I chewed tobacco along with my partners in crime. I had this little pouch of tobacco in the glove compartment of my truck. Now I wasn’t addicted to it or anything, though it is possible to get addicted to that stuff, but it seemed like a harmless thing to do. By the way, it’s very nasty. It’s a gross thing to do! But anyway, it seemed harmless and all the other guys did it, you know. Well, at the same time, I was a member of a church where God was growing me and Michele by leaps and bounds. We were just coming to understand God in a much more real, meaningful way. It was outstanding. Eventually, I would be ordained a deacon there and called into the ministry. But this was early on and one day I was asked to teach a Sunday school class. Well, I was honored to teach and I began to teach that class. And one day, I reached for that little pouch of tobacco and I thought, “You’re a Sunday school teacher. You’re a leader. Others may see you doing this and wonder about your faith in Christ. They may be turned off or turned away from Jesus.” And I made a decision then to get rid of that stuff so that no one would see me doing something that might cause them to be turned away from Christ.
Some months after that, incidentally, I was sharing that story with a friend in the church, another young man who would also one day be ordained a deacon in the church. We were just talking and it came up and I told him why I stopped chewing tobacco. I didn’t think much about it then, but later I learned that God had used my telling him that to bring him to the same conviction.
But you see it wasn’t a judgmental thing. It wasn’t, “I’m right and you’re wrong.” It was more like, “You know, I may be free to do this, but that’s not the point. I don’t want to cause anyone to be turned away from Jesus on the basis of what they see me doing. I’ve already got enough of my behavior to worry about, so I won’t add this to it.”
So ultimately, you see, Christianity is about Lordship. It’s about recognizing that we do not live to ourselves, but we live to the Lord, the Lord who expects us to love and honor one another. So Christianity is about love, about liberty and, number three:
III. Christianity is about Lordship (7-12)
7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.
See? We live our lives not to ourselves. We live before an all-seeing Lord, Jesus Christ who expects us to honor one another.
9 For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
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 shall give account of himself (not others!) to God.
There’s a sense of accountability here. In verse 11 Paul cites the Old Testament book of Isaiah in order to stress the judgment, the fact that one day every one of us will stand before God to give account of our actions. Paul brings this up in the context of our loving each other in spite of our differences. God will one day call us to give account of whether we loved and honored each other as we should. So let’s remember that and be careful to never, verse 10, “judge” our brother in a judgmental way over non-essential issues, that is, in a critical way that dishonors them, or verse 10, to “show contempt” for our brother, to look down our noses upon our brother.
As one commentator writes:
Should a man not lay his hand upon his mouth before he criticizes his brethren? When we pass swift, uninformed, unloving and ungenerous judgments, surely we have forgotten that if we speak evil of them, at the same time we speak evil of the Lord whose name they bear.
- Stand for prayer.
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