Christian Liberty Series

Today, as we look at Romans 14, we want to come away with 7 Principles that build unity through liberty.

And the first principle of liberty is this:

1. Live in Liberty - vs. 1-5 - Paul says here in verse 1: Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. That’s the NIV. The NLT words it this way: Accept Christians who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong. Christian liberty is often used to tear others apart. But the true use of liberty is to “glue us together.” If you saw the movie “Fireproof” -- and if anyone wants one, I still have one last DVD copy for $8 -- in there the one firefighter superglues a salt and pepper shaker together to show that in a marriage the two are to be one. In the same way, in the church, we are to be united together. Jesus prays in John 17:11 - Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name--the name you gave me--so that they may be ONE as we are one. God’s desire for His church is for there to be unity. Christian liberty is the principle that should bring us together, not tear us apart. We need to learn to accept one another.

Ask yourself this question: Do the practices and lifestyle of others cause you to condemn them? If they are disobeying scripture, then Galatians 6 tells us we should humbly seek to correct them. But if they are simply making different choices than we have made, then we need to learn to love and accept them, even though they are different than we are.

Here in these verses, Paul gives us a couple examples of areas where liberty would come into play. First,

FOOD- Paul talks about vegetarians in verse 2. He doesn’t say whether a vegetarian is right or wrong: he simply reminds us that each person will give an answer to God for the choices he makes. We often see a Physician’s assistant here in town who is a vegetarian. Jacqueline has a friend at school whose family is vegetarian. They are all around us, but often we don’t know it. But whether you are a meat-eater or a leaf-eater, you are wrong when you look down on a person who holds the opposite view. Another questionable practice might be this: what about eating meat during lent? Do I need to eat fish on Fridays? Can I go to a fishfry at the Catholic church - I’m not Catholic, and I don’t follow the pope, but is it okay to go there to eat fish? There are lots of questions that can be raised about food.

In verse 5, Paul gives a second example:

Holidays - What holidays to you celebrate? For the Jewish Christians, they had to decide, would they still celebrate Passover? Yom Kippur - the day of Atonement. Rosh Hoshana - the head of the year- the Jewish New Year celebration?

We don’t wrestle with those questions. But what about Christmas? Can you decorate with a Santa? Can you have a Christmas tree? Can you exchange gifts? What about Halloween? Is it wrong to let your kids go out trick-or-treating? These are the type of Christian Liberty - Holiday questions we wrestle with today. And once again Paul tells us NOT to look down on other Christians who make different choices than you do.