How To Be More Encouraging To Our Brothers And Sisters In Christ Series

DANGER SIGNS:

1. AM I TRIPPING UP MY BROTHER OR SISTER IN CHRIST?

- Romans 14:13b, 15b.

- In church arguments and fights, so often our focus is on showing everyone how right we are.

- Here, though, in v. 13b, we are instructed not to put a stumbling block in front of a brother or sister.

- Let me pause, as I have throughout this series, and say once again that we are discussing disputable matters, not core Biblical principles. What might it look like to put a stumbling block in front of someone on a disputable matter?

a. Let’s say they’re a new believer. As they interpret a passage, they get one part right but a couple parts they don’t fully understand. In response we mock them and make them feel stupid. It creates a feeling within them that they can’t read the Bible right, so they stop trying. We’ve tripped them up spiritually.

b. Let’s say it’s someone who has been a Christian for a while but not as long as us. They share an opinion we disagree with and are vociferous in our reply. They feel badly and don’t want to come back to a church that treats them like that, so they quit going to church. We’ve tripped them up spiritually.

c. Let’s say that I get into an argument at work with a fellow believer from another church about a disputable matter. We lay into each other with our denominational arguments. Another person who is just getting started spiritually listens in and thinks, “If this is how mature believers act, I’m not sure that’s who I want to become.” She continues to go to church but the fire she had has been dampened down. We’ve tripped her up spiritually.

d. Let’s say I get into a heated discussion with a believer in my church about a secondary issue. Because I am so strong in my arguments, it leads that other person to go start studying how to prove himself right into such debates. His attention has been diverted from spiritual growth onto arguing skills and I’m the one responsible for the shift. I’ve tripped him up spiritually.

- The common denominator in all these is my concern is for proving myself right and trying to get everyone else to see things my way. I’m not really concerned about the impact I’m having on the other person.

- My focus is on “Am I right?” not on “Is he alright?”

- Going back to v. 13b, I need to pay attention to whether my actions and words is causing someone around me to be tripped up spiritually. Am I putting a stumbling block before someone?

- Verse 15b furthers the same point.

- The “by your eating” reference points us to an issue we’ve discussed in this sermon series: the concern they had back then for whether meat had been sacrificed to idols. There was a strong difference of opinion on whether it was acceptable to eat such meat. We can insert there any disputable matter.

- The word here is stronger than “tripping up” or “causing to stumble.” The word is “destroy.”

- There are a number of points to make off that, but let me limit myself to one. We don’t often think about the long-term damage we might cause from the argument we enjoy engaging in.

- But we all know of so many people who used to come to church, who used to walk with the Lord, who used to sit beside us in worship, who used to have a vibrant relationship with God – and now their spiritual lives have run into a ditch. In an uncomfortable number of those situations, the reason for that is the negative impact of someone else’s spiritual life. Now, certainly, it’s not always disputable matters. For instance, it might be blatant sinfulness of a Christian leader. But too many of them fall into this category. We’d never put it like this but the outcome sometimes is essentially, “I won the argument and all it cost was someone quitting church for 20 years!” Put in those terms, the high price is starkly revealed.

- There are so many people who no longer come to church because of the negative witness of a fellow believer. It’s so common that we cannot dismiss this point.

- Examples from NewPoint’s launch.

2. IF I'M DISTRESSING MY BROTHER OR SISTER IN CHRIST, AM I ACTING IN LOVE?

- Romans 14:15a.

- Here we again have the “eating meat” example, so let’s run with that. Some believers think it’s ok to eat meat; others don’t. I do whatever I want and cause someone in my church to be distressed about it. They’re troubled by my actions. Am I acting in love toward them? Not really.