Just Be Just

"Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks."

Now I understand that there is a lot in that passage so we are going to go through it kind of quickly.

Now in this passage we have two groups of people the one group that Paul calls weak that have a couple of hangs-up. 1. Eating meat, 2. Holy days and later on in verse 21 Paul reveals that had a problem with drinking wine as well.

These hang-ups were probably due to Jewish influence. The Jews thought that unclean food made the unspiritual.

The other group we see in the passage just as one hang-up, and that is group one. They feel free to indulge in meat, wine, and to worship on any day they wanted. Paul if you look down in verse 14 agrees with this group.

Now this conflict is not about essentials to the faith, but these people saw it as a matter of spirituality. Who was closer to Christ. The "weak" say the strong as unspiritual because they lacked discipline. The "strong’ saw the weak as unspiritual because that were hung up and not liberated as Christian.

Paul tells us they were both wrong down in verses 15-17; "Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

Now the reason there was some doubt about eating meat in those days was because when you went down to the market to buy meat you did not know whether it had to been sacrificed to some idol and then brought to market, or whether it was right from the farm. As we can see some Christians cared, others did not.

But how do we apply this to today. Well there are all kinds of things that we have gotten caught up in today’s church. There are Christians who still are debating over which day we should worship on Sat. or Sun. There are group who still say we cannot eat certain foods.

People also have other hang ups. How do you worship? Do you say amen out loud. Do you clap? To you raise your hands? How do you spent your resources? Should you own a fancy car for instances? Should you have cable TV in your home? And the list goes on and on?

And so many Christians uses issues such as these to determine how spiritual their brothers and sisters in Christ really are.