Now do please turn in your Bibles to the New Testament scriptures and to Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 14. We began last Lord’s Day, last Lord’s Day evening, to look at the last major division of Paul’s letter to the Romans that runs from chapter 12 through chapter 15, with the sixteenth chapter, which we’ll consider on Wednesday evening, standing alone containing Paul’s final greetings. And dominating this section from 12 through 15, really casting its shadow over everything Paul is saying, is the theme of love, of brotherly love, neighborly love, love for one another – in the church, chapter 12; love our neighbors in such a way that we become good citizens, honoring those in civil authority over us, chapter 13:1-7; and love of neighbor fulfills God’s law, chapter 13:8-14.
And now in our passage this morning, chapter 14, Paul applies our duty to love one another to the often difficult question of disagreements between true Christians. The church in Rome, it seems, was at risk of division. If you look at the passage, Romans chapter 14, you’ll see that there were some – Paul calls them “the weak” – there were some in Rome who were abstaining from meat completely, verse 2, likely out of a desire to find the simplest route to stay kosher, to observe all the dietary laws of the Old Testament. They also wanted to continue observing the Jewish liturgical calendar, viewing some days as having a special status above others, verse 5. The strong, on the other hand, a group among whom Paul counts himself, they know that now that Jesus has come all food is equally clean, equally acceptable, and the liturgical calendar of the Mosaic law has now been rendered entirely obsolete. But the difference of practice between these two groups in Rome was causing some friction. They were judging and excluding one another. And so Paul is writing in this chapter of his letter to call them back to mutual acceptance and patience and welcome.
Now last year, you may remember we studied together Paul’s letter to the Galatians. And in Galatia too there were some in the church condemning others for not observing the ritual requirements of the Mosaic law. And do you remember in that case Paul denounced those people in the strongest possible terms. He had zero tolerance for them or for their theology for the simple reason that they were destroying the very heart, the core of the Christian Gospel itself. They were preaching another gospel, Paul said, which is no gospel at all. They were telling people that in order to be saved we need to observe the ceremonial laws of Moses. They preached a salvation by works and not by grace. And whenever anything departs from the Gospel of free acceptance with God through faith in the imputed righteousness of Christ, whenever anything undermines that message, the apostle Paul is absolutely unsparing in issuing the most stinging and strident condemnation.
And if you look at Romans 14, you’ll notice at first glance a superficial similarity between the issues here in Rome and the issues Paul addressed in Galatia. Both in Rome and in Galatia there were those likely from a Jewish background who felt they should still keep kosher and observe Passover and so on. But in Romans 14:1, Paul strikes a very different tone with the Roman Christians than he did with his Galatian audience, doesn’t he? Do you see that in verse 1? Do you see how conciliatory and patient he is with the Romans? Now how do we account for that? Is he perhaps playing favorites – he just likes the Romans better? Or has he changed his mind on the issues and now deals with it in an entirely different way? Why does Paul say to the church in Rome, speaking about weak Christians who think that they should observe the Mosaic ceremonies, why does he say to the church in Rome regarding those weak Christians you should welcome them but not to quarrel over opinions, whereas to those in Galatia who said you should keep the Mosaic law, he denounced them as believing a false gospel? How do you account for that difference?
Well here is the critical difference – unlike in Galatia, at Rome it seems everyone agreed about the Gospel itself. Unlike at Galatia, those who kept the ceremonies of the law at Rome did so not because they thought that by observing them they could be saved, but because it was just hard having grown up with them all their lives to immediately go cold turkey all of a sudden and just stop now that they have come to trust in Jesus. But there’s really no evidence here in Romans 14 that these people were denying that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ’s blood and righteousness alone. Both the weak and the strong embrace joyfully and from the heart the same true, Biblical Gospel. And so while Paul is clear that this is not the correct position to hold, he calls them “weak” after all, nevertheless he wants the members of the church at Rome to practice patience with one another as people work through the issue. He wants kindness and generosity to prevail whenever the core of the Gospel is being held in common. He wants the church at Rome to be welcoming to genuine Christians, albeit weak Christians.
Now if you look at the bulletin, you’ll see we call this message “The Virtue of a Catholic Spirit.” The word “catholic” there of course doesn’t mean Roman Catholic. Catholic is another word for universal. It is an ancient word that means universal. So when we say in The Apostles’ Creed, as we often do here at First Presbyterian Church, “I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church,” we are saying that as presbyterians we are catholics because we embrace the essentials of the one historical Christian faith professed by all true believers in every place across all the ages, proclaimed in holy Scripture and summed up in the great creeds of the church. That’s what it really means to be catholic – not to submit to the pope in Rome but to believe the once for all delivered Gospel message held in common by all Christians across the ages.
We are catholics, but it doesn’t mean that we won’t sometimes disagree. And sometimes those disagreements between Chrisians and between churches are substantive and important. And Paul isn’t minimizing for a moment the vital place of contending for the truth. But he is writing in this chapter, as we’re going to see, to give us some tools to avoid sectarianism and the sin of schism while we contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. And let’s face it, that’s instruction that I think we badly need. After all, there is a dizzying array of churches and traditions and theological positions out there, aren’t there? And so how should we treat genuine Christians with whom we have a difference of opinion on some of these matters? Or more pointedly and closer to the issue in our passage this morning, how should we deal with those that Paul calls “the weak”? That is, how should we deal with Christians who are wrong, they are in error, but only on secondary matters. It is an error, but not a big error. We embrace the same Gospel together, they are brothers and sisters – how should we deal with fellow Christians in that circumstance? That’s the issue Paul is setting out to address.
The chapter, you’ll see, divides evenly, almost evenly, into two sections. Verses 1 through 12, Paul gives us reasons to welcome the weak. Then 13 through 23, a roadmap for welcoming the weak. So reasons to welcome the weak and the roadmap for welcoming the weak. Before we look at those two themes, let’s pray and then we’ll read a portion of the chapter together. Let us pray.
Lord our God, we ask You now for the help of Your Holy Spirit. Give us understanding, give us eyes to see and ears to hear, give us hearts that are receptive. Grant us repentance where necessary and faith to walk in new obedience for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Romans chapter 14 at verse 1. This is God’s Word:
“As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 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. 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.
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. 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. For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 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. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.
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; for it is written,
‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’
So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
Amen, and we praise God for His holy Word.
Let’s look first at verses 1 through 12 that we’ve just read together and Paul’s reasons to welcome the weak. You will remember the expression Paul is using, “the weak in faith,” verse 1, has a very specific meaning here. He’s not talking about a lack of confidence or spiritual assurance. He isn’t talking about temperamental timidity. He isn’t telling the extroverts to play nice with the introverts or the jocks not to beat up on the nerds. That’s not what this is about. He’s talking about theological and convictional weaknesses. It’s not a fatal error these people have made, but it is an error. And yet for all their errors, they are true Christians, brothers and sisters in Christ Paul says, and so he wants us to “welcome them,” verse 1, but “not to quarrel over opinions.”
That last phrase, by the way, really clues us in to the apostle’s primary targets here in this chapter. Notice carefully he isn’t mainly correcting the errors of those who are weak. Calling them “weak” is about as forceful as he gets with them. No, Paul’s primary targets in chapter 14 are the strong. He goes after the Christians who have a much clearer grasp of the implications of Jesus’ first coming. Like the apostle Paul himself, in verse 14, these strong believers know that nothing is unclean in itself and that, verse 17, the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. They’ve got that crystal clear. But while they’re playing the part of theological watchdog, quick to denounce their weaker brothers and sisters for their mistakes, Paul wants them to understand that what they have overlooked is that they themselves aren’t seeing the implications of the Gospel in an entirely different area of their own lives. They are using their clearer understanding to validate and justify their judgmentalism. They judge and they exclude and look down upon those with whom they differ. Their commitment to doctrinal purity has masked their failure to practice a catholic spirit.
And that’s an attitude, I think, we see all too frequently in the days in which we live, maybe especially in reformed and presbyterian circles such as our own. We love sound doctrine, don’t we? We like to be right. And that’s all well and good, but it should never become a license to look down on those who are still working things out. And so Paul offers here three primary reasons why the strong should welcome the weak. The first reason has to do with God’s own welcome of us. God has welcomed us and welcomed them and we are not wiser or purer than He. So look at verse 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. Who are you,” verse 4, “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.” So the strong were despising the abstemious weak and the weak were judging the strong for their unconcern about the law of Moses that was so precious to them. And Paul says, “No, no, don’t despise or judge one another.”
And the illustration that he uses in verse 4 to back his point up and drive it home comes from an ancient Greco-Roman household, servants working for their masters. And his point is, it is always inappropriate – we all get this instinctively – it’s always inappropriate to meddle in the homelife and relationships of other people. You’d never stick your nose into the domestic habits of your neighbors. “It’s none of your business,” that’s what he’s saying. It is before his own master that he stands or falls. Let each of us mind his own business, remembering that we will each give an account to our master, the Lord Jesus. The metaphor of the master in the house to whom each of us must give an account, the strong and the weak alike must give an account, highlights Paul’s central point. Weak or strong, either way we are all still servants in the master’s employ. We are all still members of the master’s household. God has welcomed us and we are not, you are not, I am not wiser, purer, more sound, more orthodox, more strict than God. And if God has welcomed your brother or your sister through faith in Jesus Christ, whatever false or failures to understand they may yet harbor, don’t you dare condescend toward them for their weaknesses and their blind spots. So reason number one for welcoming the weak – God has welcomed us, and we, therefore, out to welcome one another.
Reason number two you’ll see in verses 5 through 9. First, God has welcomed us. Secondly, Christ’s lordship. The word for “master” there in verse 4, we just saw it in verse 4, is really the same word that is translated as “lord” everywhere else in the rest of the passage, which means that in the six verses, from verse 4 through verse 9, the word “lord” appears 9 times over. The lordship of Jesus Christ dominates the text and Paul wants it to dominate our lives and our attitudes and our fellowship. The lordship of Christ. In verses 5 and 6, the issue of the observance of holy days is added to the question already raised of abstaining from food that is not kosher. And Paul reminds the Romans that those who observe these holy days do it in honor of the Lord, sincerely and earnestly from their hearts, just like those who do not observe them. Those who eat do the same, just like those who do not eat. Everyone must be convinced in his own mind, he says, and act in good faith before God for the honor of Jesus Christ, guided by their best lights. And so let’s cut each other some slack – that’s his point.
“If we live,” verse 7, “we live to the Lord.” Our lives are consecrated to Jesus Christ. “And if we die, we die to the Lord.” Our death is for His glory and brings us home to be with Him, to serve Him for His glory forever. Either way, verse 8, we are the Lord’s. Jesus is Lord over us. And that means we are simply not free to speak and act and to deal with one another however we see fit. Jesus is our master, our Lord. He regulates our lives and our relationships by His holy Word for His great glory, not for ours. That is the great implication of the Gospel that he wants to make sure neither side in this discussion in Rome overlooks. Verse 9, “For to this end, Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord of the dead and the living.” Why did Jesus die and rise? It’s the heart of the Christian Gospel. What is it about? Jesus came, bled, obeyed, bled, died and rose to become Lord and master in our hearts. He did it to enter into His Messianic mastery over all His people, to be highly exalted to the right hand of the Father and given the name that is above every name, that at the name Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The Lordship of Christ. And so as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 6:19, “You are not your own. You were bought at a price.” You belong to Him. He is Lord. He has purchased you with His obedience and blood and He is in charge, not you. Jesus died for you, rose for you. He reigns over you, so live for Him, die for Him, but put your petty judgmentalism toward one another aside, especially when each of you are sincerely seeking to live a life consecrated to Him.
We welcome each other in patience first because of God’s welcome, secondly because of Christ’s lordship, and then thirdly, verses 10 through 12, Paul says we are to welcome each other because of our accountability. God’s welcome, Christ’s lordship, our accountability. Look at the passage. Verse 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; for it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.” One day, you are going to stand before the God who welcomed you in by His grace. One day, you will find yourself face to face with the exalted Lord Jesus Christ who died and rose to become your Lord. And then how will you justify your judgmentalism toward your brothers and sisters whom God has welcomed and for whom Christ has died? How lame do you think it will sound in the tribunal of King Jesus on the last day to say in your own defense, “Well, I was right and he was wrong!” Well that may be, but the subject understood me isn’t simply who was the most correct, but who lived in obedience to the truth that they professed in Christlike humility and love. That we have used our orthodoxy as a cover for ugliness and unkindness will not be hidden on the last day.
Brothers and sisters, search your hearts. It is good and right to love sound doctrine and to strive to be accurate and precise and faithful in it; that is a duty that falls to every Christian. But if your grasp of the truth does not lead you to love your brothers and sisters in Christ who may not understand things as deeply as you do, perhaps you do not yet understand things as deeply as you think or as deeply as you should. The Gospel is the grounds of God’s welcome of you and the foundation of Christ’s Lordship over you. If we believe that Gospel, who should be more welcoming than us, more consecrated to our Savior’s honor and glory than us, more patient with those still growing in their understanding than us?
So three reasons to welcome the weak. Do you see them? God’s welcome, Christ’s Lordship, and our accountability.
Now look with me at verses 13 to 23 and the roadmap Paul now gives us for doing this thing, for actually welcoming the weak. The heart of this section is Paul’s understanding of the vital role of Christian conscience in shaping how we live and determining what we will allow. Christian conscience.
Did you know that the U.S. Treasury has a thing called “The Conscience Fund”? It is a fund established in 1811 because people keep sending, they still do it, they keep sending the IRS money driven by a guilty conscience. Of course not every conscience is equally well informed by righteousness. One donor sent money to be deposited in The Conscience Fund with the following note attached – “Dear Internal Revenue Service, I have not been able to sleep at night because I cheated on last year’s income tax. Enclosed find a cashier’s check for $1,000. If I still can’t sleep, I’ll send you the balance.” Conscience is important, but it has to be informed and guided and made strong by the Word of God. But how should we treat those whose consciences have not yet been sufficiently trained by Gospel liberties, in the Gospel liberties to which they are entitled? How should we treat consciences, weak consciences who are too narrow, too particular, who don’t understand the full freedom that they have in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teaching of God’s Word?
Well, you’ll notice in verse 13 Paul tells us not “to put a stumbling block or a hindrance in the way of a brother.” He means using your greater freedom of conscience to make your weaker brother follow you in your behavior out of intimidation or peer pressure – that’s the stumbling block he has in mind. If he is not fully persuaded in his own mind that you are right and he is wrong, if under peer pressure you persuade him to do what you are doing, you have caused him to stumble. And so Paul says in verses 14 and 15, “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. 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.” Jesus died for you, He did for her, He died for him. You may know that you are free to say, drink a glass of wine with dinner. Drinking wine in itself is not a sin, though drunkenness always is. But she may come from a tradition that thinks that drinking alcohol is always and under any circumstance sinful. And if you, by flaunting your liberty cause her to drink alcohol contrary to her conscience, you have led her to do what she believes God condemns and that is a desperately wicked thing. Remember Christ died for this person, Paul says. He gave everything up for them. But instead of giving up your freedoms for their sake, you parade your liberty to their destruction. You are no longer walking in love, says the apostle Paul.
And what’s more, when you act like that, verse 16, the effect is to “let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.” Do you see that language in verse 16? The strong at Rome knew they could have bacon for breakfast, pulled pork for lunch, and a Honey Baked ham for dinner if they wished. That would be perfectly fine. But by rubbing the noses of the weak, their likely Jewish brothers and sisters in the congregation, in their rejection of their kosher dietary rules, they weren’t helping them to live into the fullness of Gospel liberty; they were inciting them to speak ill of that liberty. They were giving them a reason to look on the blood-bought freedom of the Christian as something ugly and evil and to be disdained and rejected and avoided. Listen, a freedom paraded is a freedom debased. A freedom paraded, flaunted, is a freedom debased.
And so instead of parading our freedoms, here’s the principle that should inform our behavior. Verses 17 and 18 – would you look there please? Verses 17 and 18, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.” God and people approve, they embrace, they welcome Christians who live out the fact that food and drink isn’t what really counts before God – righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, those are the things that matter. And if they’re what matters, Paul says, focus on those things and drop your insistence on baby back ribs at the next church supper. Put your freedom aside, he is saying, if necessary, so that righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit – don’t get obscured by your pride. Verse 21, he says, “It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.” If appropriate, if necessary, give it up. If by your freedom you make your brother stumble, give it up. Show them something of the likeness of Jesus Christ who gave everything up for them, shining from you.
And then in verses 22 and 23, Paul wraps up this part of his argument with some practical instructions. Would you look there with me please? Verses 22 and 23, “The faith that you have,” he says first of all, “keep between yourself and God.” He’s not saying don’t ever tell anyone about Jesus; he’s talking to the strong, remember, the ones who know better, who have a strong faith, an informed conscience. They live in the fullness of Gospel freedom and he’s saying, “Okay, you can have sausage on your pizza and you can have a glass of wine with your dinner; you know you don’t have to celebrate Passover anymore. That’s fine, but would you keep it to yourself and God, please? Don’t flaunt it when you know full well the division that it’s causing.” The priority here, do you see, is the unity of the fellowship of the church, not my entitled rights and freedoms. Love your church family so much you are willing to bite your tongue and flex your behavior and adjust your habits for their good ahead of your own. That’s Paul’s teaching.
And then Paul adds a vital, final principle. Look at verse 22. “Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 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 those are some really helpful criteria to use when you are doubtful about a course of action. Don’t you think? We’ve all been there sometimes, haven’t we, wondering, “Should I do this? Can I say that? Ought I to go there?” How do I know? Well, Paul says, do you pass judgment on yourself on the things you approve? Does your conscience sting? If it does, you ought not to do it, not until your conscience has clear warrant from the Word of God that settles the matter and directs you to the contrary. It is never safe to go against conscience.
What’s more, verse 23, “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” Faith submits to Christ and His Word. Faith is the principle of trust in the truth of God that allows us to live in the freedom the Gospel provides. Faith shapes our liberty as Christians. If your faith disallows a behavior, even if a fellow Christian says, “Join us! It’s all fine!” be warned, take caution before you act because “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” It is never safe to go against conscience.
And so listen, Christ rules our hearts by His Word and Spirit, shaping and informing our consciences. And it is our duty to get our consciences shaped by the holy Scriptures so we can be as free as the Gospel allows. But those who are more free never help those who are less free to embrace the true bounds of their freedom by despising them for their bondage. The roadmap to welcoming the weak, Paul says, is the Christlike path of sacrifice. Give it up. Surrender. The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That’s what counts most, at least the things that count most to you. Or are you all wound up about the color of the carpet or the timing of a meeting or the music you don’t like or the behavior of others you think ought not to be tolerated in the church? Give it up, you mature Christian. Christ died for them as well as for you. You’re not wiser nor more holy than he. If He died for them, like Him, you must die to yourself. Give up your liberties for their sake that we may be one to the glory of almighty God. May He make it so. Let us pray.
Our Father, we are, all of us, prone, we confess, to justify our judgmentalism because we believe we are right, using it as a cover for our contempt of those we think are wrong. Please have mercy on us and forgive our sin. Teach us that gracious humility that puts all who see it in mind of Christ who gave Himself up for us. Enable us to give ourselves, our freedoms, our rights up for our weaker brothers and sisters that we may nurture and encourage them toward the fullness of that freedom that is our birthright in Christ, for we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.