Sermon 5th February 2012
Rev Dr K Jeffrey
Romans 14
Introduction
Context: Food and diet among Jewish and Gentiles Christians in C1 Rome
As I explained last week, in Romans 12-15 Paul seeks to encourage the Romans Christians in how they ought to live out their Christian faith in practical ways in the midst of the real world.
He suggests, according to Stott, that its all about our relationships to God, ourselves, one another, and our enemies, and in chapters 12 and 13 he lays an emphasis upon the primacy of love.
In ch 14 Paul explains further what it means to ‘walk in love’, describes how two distinct groups within Christian community, whom he calls the ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ ought to live with each other.
Who were the ‘weak’ and the ‘strong’ whom Paul speaks about?
When he speaks of people being weak, Paul is not speaking about their character or will.
Rather he is speaking about highly sensitive Christians who were anxious about what they did.
It is suggested they were most likely conservative mind Jewish Christians who remained committed to Jew laws about food and diet, who only ate kosher meat, and who still kept their ‘holy days’.
The ‘strong’, then, were more liberally minded Gentile converts who didn’t share the traditions or culture of their Jewish brothers and sisters, who felt no conscience about eating meat of any kind or about observing special religious days.
There was a great risk of division within the early church between those from a Jewish and others from a Gentile background who held different views about food and diet and these ‘holy days’. Their disagreement threatened the peace and unity of their local congregations.
Paul counted self among the ‘strong’ and enjoyed his new found Christian freedom to not be bound by culture, tradition or law. He thought matters of food, diet and ‘holy days’ were ‘non essential’.
However, he did not insist that everyone agree with him. This, he believed, was a secondary matter, or what the Reformers might have called a ‘matter of indifference’. Still, Paul was concerned that those whose conscience did not allow them to enjoy such freedom should be treated gently.
Development
Exegesis [Meaning there and then] Turn with me, please, in your bibles to Rom 14, p 1140
1. 14 v1: The positive fundamental principle of acceptance
‘Accept him whose faith is weak’. Although they did not enjoy freedom Paul and others had found, while they appeared immature or simply mistaken, ‘weak’ were not to be ignored nor reproached.
‘without passing judgment on disputable matters’, neither should Christians get stuck or bogged down in discussion and debate about secondary, unimportant matters that cause disagreement.
2. The negative consequences
a. 14 v2-13a: Do not despise or condemn the weak person
Rather they should welcome him… because God has welcomed him, v2-3; because Christ died and rose to be the Lord, v4-9; because he is their brother, v10a; because they will all stand one day before God’s judgment seat, v10b-13. There is a ‘Xt truth’ upon which this exhortation is based.
b. 14 v13b-23: Do not offend or destroy the weak person
Paul moves beyond how the strong should regard the weak to how they should treat them, from attitude, not despising them, to action, not causing them to stumble, because, he says, he is your brother for whom Christ died, v14-16; because the KoG is more important then food, v17-21.
c. 15 v1-13: Do not please yourselves
Finally, Paul spells out what the ‘strong’ ought to do and what their responsibility is to the ‘weak’. First, we ‘ought to bear with the failings of the weak’, v1a; we should ‘not [to] please ourselves’, v1b. Rather each one ‘should please his neighbour for his good, to build him up’, v2, because…
Christ did not please himself, v3-4; because Christ is the way to united worship, v5-6; because Christ accepted you, v7; and because Christ became a servant of all, v8-13.
Application [Meaning here and now]
1. Discernment
These chps from Romans teach us not to elevate ‘non essential’ matters and make them ‘essential’.
Neither, also, must we marginalise fundamental matters of faith and suggest they are not important.
As Paul distinquished between what was essential and what was not, so must we.
a. The Non Essentials, today, include:
i. Worship Styles
ii. Forms of Dress
iii. Modes of Baptism
iv. Opinions about use of various Spiritual Gifts incl tongues etc
v. Precise nature of heaven and hell
b. The Essentials, today, remain:
i. The Lord Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus Christ is God’s only Son, that he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and that he was born of the Virgin Mary. We believe he was crucified, that he died and was buried, and that he descended into hell, but also that on the third day he rose again, that later he ascended into heaven where now he is seated with God, from whence he will come to judge world.
ii. The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible
The fact that God has chosen to reveal Himself to us through his Word, that through the Bible God has spoken and continues to speak, that in the bible we receive the teaching of Jesus Christ.
The fact ‘all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work’.
2. Mutual Acceptance
These chapters also teach us that we are called to accept one another since ‘God has accepted him’ 14 v3, and ‘just as Christ accepted us’ 15 v7. Our accept of one another means ‘we must avoid’.
a. Barclay’s ‘avoids’:
We must avoid irritation, becoming impatient and annoyed with those with whom we disagree.
We must avoid criticism and judgment of others with whom we disagree.
Rather, we must always seek to try and understand the other person’s point of view.
We must avoid ridicule, and laugh or pour scorn upon other people’s beliefs.
We must avoid evaluating and classifying, marginalising people accord to their beliefs.
We must avoid contempt, but should treat one another with respect.
b. ‘A church where everyone matters’
If we truly are a church ‘where everyone matters’ and where we ‘accept one another’ then we shall seek to grow in grace together, in different ways and at a different pace from one another.
We shall not try to convert one another. Rather we shall make room and provide space for each other to grow and mature in our faith accord to what God is doing in our lives in His own time.
We shall then become more patient with God and with one another as He reveals Himself to us and as we get to know Him better, as the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, as we come to know the hope to which we have been called, as our love abounds more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, that we might know his will and live a life that is worthy of Him.
Let us believe that the same God who began this good work in each of our hearts will carry it on, as He has promised, to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
c. At home and at work
Meanwhile, beyond church, among family, at work we must also learn to accept one another more.
Learn to truly accept others would immediately reduce our stress levels by at least 75 %.
Serenity Prayer, commonly attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, adopted by AA.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.
Conclusion
As minister of this old and fine church I value our unity and peace above all other things.
Indeed I consider the strength of CO to lie in its diversity, in the fact that we are not all the same and do not agree with one another on secondary matters.
Even while disagreements remain, it is vital and important that we remain united in Christ’s love.
Always and ever we shall follow the example of Him who bore with the weakness of others.
How then should the ‘strong’ regard and treat the ‘weak’.
Richard Baxter: ‘In essentials unity; in non essentials liberty; in all things charity’.
Study Questions
See John R.W. Storr, The Message of Romans , pp429-430
