Caring For The Weak Series

Paul has been talking about love since chapter 12.

• Our salvation in Christ leads to our love for God and one another, for our neighbours as well as for our enemies, those who are against us.

• Paul touches on the various aspects of loving others and putting them down in practical terms. To read and listen to what he says is effortless; to do them is tough.

• To pay lip service to love is easy (and quite worthless); to live out the love of God in real life calls for much more. It requires a selfless attitude and much sacrifice.

Imagine yourself giving food to your enemy because he is hungry, or a drink when he is thirsty. Or to submit to the authorities when you disagree with them.

• To love is the debt we owe one another (13:8). “Love your neighbour as yourself.” (13:9) “Love does no harm to its neighbour.” (13:10)

• To love your neighbours as yourself – this line alone is so weighed – it’s the fulfilment of the Law, Paul says (13:1).

• It can take us a lifetime to learn because we are naturally self-centred and self-focused in life.

• And that neighbour can be anyone, a stranger in need, or your spouse, your children, children with special needs…

And the list goes on. The call to love goes on until chapter 15.

• Last week in Romans 14 Paul exhorts us to love those in the community of faith.

• Not just Christians but Christians who behave differently from us.

• He calls them plainly the “weak in faith”, those who are growing in the faith and still learning about the truth.

• He says ‘welcome him and not quarrel over opinions’ (14:1 ESV) or NIV “disputable matters”. There are different views on eating meat and observing special days.

It’s so easy to love those who are like you and who likes you. It’s quite another to love those who are different from us or hold different views or opinions.

• And they are all in the church! They are of the faith, just that they are the ‘weak in faith’. We welcome him because God has welcomed him! (14:3)

• We can’t get rid of them; they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

• When we have people coming to faith in Jesus Christ from all walks of life and backgrounds, this is expected and inevitable.

Paul adds that all of us, whether weak or strong in faith, are answerable to God (14:4).

• We live and die to the Lord because we belong to Him (14:8) and we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ (14:10).

• That’s our common end! Ultimately we are going to face Him and we have to give an account of our actions before God, whether we eat meat or vegetables.

Paul isn’t finished with this call yet. He is going to talk more about it in today’s passage – Rom 14:13-23 and give us some principles that we can learn in co-existing with others.

Before we go there, let me set the context. Why is eating meat such a big issue?

• The eating of meat has to do with meat offered to idols or in a pagan temple. Some of these are brought back to the market to be sold.

• Some believers, especially those with a past in idolatry, felt that the meat has been used in pagan worship and still associate it with their past traditions and customs.

It is not a new problem. Right from the start, the early church was aware of such differences in customs because of the influx of Gentile believers.

• Remember the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 where the leaders met to resolve the issue of circumcision and other differences between Jewish and Gentile believers?

• Paul was there and the issue of eating meat offered to idols was raised in the official letter sent to the Gentile churches. Part of the letter read:

• Acts 15:28-29 “28For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

In consideration of the Jewish believers, Gentiles believers were urged to conduct themselves in certain ways to ease their integration into the church.

• That was in AD50 some 7-8 years ago. Now Paul writes, continuing from where we left off last week:

Romans 14:13-23

13Therefore 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. 14I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15For 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. 16So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.