Defer To One Another-2

Defer to One Another-2

Romans 14:13-23

More than any other individual, the apostle Paul was responsible for the spread of the gospel throughout the Roman Empire. He made 3 missionary journeys through much of the Mediterranean, tirelessly preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and establishing churches everywhere he went. Toward the end of his third missionary journey, while in Corinth and preparing to make his return to Jerusalem, he wrote this letter to the Romans in anticipation of visiting them one day soon.

You see, some of those who were converted to Christianity on the day of Pentecost many years earlier, had returned to their homes in Rome, carrying the gospel with them. They established the church in Rome and Paul had long desired to visit them to help build them up and strengthen their faith.

It was the simple fact that he had to put off that trip for a long time that led him to write this letter. His primary purpose was to introduce himself to a church where he was personally unknown but hoped to visit, and to teach the great truths of the gospel to believers who had never received apostolic instruction except for maybe on that day of Pentecost many years earlier.

Now unlike some of Paul's letters to other churches which needed correction of poor theology or rebuke for ungodly living, the church in Rome was fairly sound. However, like all churches, it was in need of the doctrinal truth and the practical instruction this letter provides.

For much of the first part of this letter, Paul established the fact that all mankind is under the curse of sin, that there is no difference between Jew or Gentile when it comes to being under that curse, that the deeds of the flesh will not save anyone, but that the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ will come to all who believe in Him. Whether Jew or Gentile, justification is by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

Then around chapter 12, Paul begins to demonstrate what the Christian life looks like in everyday life. That we are to be living sacrifices to God, being transformed by the renewal of our minds, loving each other without hypocrisy, giving honor to one another, being of one mind, and living in peace with all men.

Then in chapter 14 we’re made aware of an issue that the Roman church had to deal with. As is usually the case when people are involved, a division in the church started when some people began acting unkindly toward others who didn’t think exactly like they did. They were disputing among themselves concerning dietary restrictions and the observance of special days and seasons of the year.

In Rome at that time, whenever someone went to the market to buy meat, there was a good chance that the meat being bought had been offered in sacrifice to a pagan god at one of the many local pagan temples. Some Christians, usually those who were more recently converted out of paganism might feel as if eating meat offered to another god might not be a good thing to do. Others though, knowing that these pagan gods weren’t really gods at all, they were figments of the imagination, felt that there was nothing wrong with eating the meat.

Then another issue was concerning days, and seasons of the year. You see, practically all of the various religions, Judaism included, celebrated certain days or seasons as special times in their faith. Within Judaism there were 7 feasts and the sabbath that held much meaning to them. So, some wanted to continue celebrating these special days while others, especially Gentile believers who never had celebrated those days, might believe that all days are equal. All of that was part of the old economy which had been fulfilled in Jesus. So, because of things like this, there was division in the Roman church.

Now, we might be tempted to look at this as a minor issue that has no real bearing on ourselves today, but the truth is that we still fight and argue over issues just like this. There are Christians who still believe that we should observe certain days for worship, or that we should be celebrating the feasts and festivals of the Old Testament. There are some Christians who abstain from eating pork or certain sea foods, and still others who say that Christians can’t drink wine, smoke cigarettes, go to movies, wear cosmetics, or they’ll argue and split churches over the color of the carpet, the paint on the wall, putting up Christmas trees during Christmas season, or whatever. Even the celebration of Easter is controversial in some churches, and while I agree that the bunny and the eggs are purely pagan, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is something that we should sing and shout about.