Text: Romans 14:1-12
Title: Weak & Strong Believers Pt. 1 The Gray Areas
Romans 14:1-18 Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. 2 One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. 3 The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. 4 Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 5 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. 7 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; 8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written, "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD." 12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
I. Accept One Another
a. The “strong” should accept the “weak
b. The “weak” should not condemn the “Strong”
c. Both the “weak” and the “strong” are accepted by God
II. Honor Your Own Conscience
a. Make an intentional decision
b. Always honor the Lord
c. We will all be accountable to God
Every year we used to do a big missions emphasis week here at church. We would highlight our different missionaries and their work. Well over the next two weeks we will have kind of a mini version of a mission’s emphasis. We will be presenting information about our different missionaries and their areas of ministry. We will start next week with an update on the youth mission trip to the Navajo reservation. The following week we will hear from our very own missionary to the Hispanic community here in Woodland,
Alex Garcia. Alex has been the pastor of the Hispanic church here for the past 4 years. He will tell us a little bit about his ministry and then preach a sermon for us. So please don’t miss the next couple of weeks.
In the Christian life, morality is usually divided up into three categories, black, white, and gray areas. There are some things that are just plain wrong, they are always wrong, they are wrong for everyone.
Then there are some things that are just plain right. They are always right, they are right for everyone.
Then there’s that pesky gray area of life. Those are the things that are right for some people, but wrong for others. They are the things that some Christians consider sinful, while other Christians have no problem with. They are the things that the Bible doesn’t specifically deal with, so we are left to draw our own conclusions.
Most of the passages of the Bible that we study have to do with clear black and white areas of morality. Like last week Paul instructed us to avoid carousing and drunkenness and sexual immorality and strife. These things are always wrong. The passage also talked about the importance of always showing love. That’s always the right thing to do. Very black and white.
Well in chapter 14 and part of 15 Paul turns his attention to address those gray areas of life- The stuff in the middle- The things that can be sinful to some, but not necessarily to all.
Before we dig in, let’s take a little test. I’m going to list some different things up there on the screen and we will need to determine if it is a black and white issue, or if it is one of those gray areas.
- Going to the movies
- Watching TV
- Playing cards
- Smoking- Pipe? Cigars?
- Getting drunk
- Drinking alcohol
- Celebrating Halloween
- Listening to Rock and Roll music
These kinds of things can cause sharp divides between believers. There have even been whole denominations that are characterized primarily by the things a Christian shouldn’t do. These kinds of things have a way of changing and evolving over time.
These gray areas are often difficult because you can have one Christian who believes that a certain activity is sinful and another who doesn’t. This isn’t a new thing, it was even a problem in Paul’s day.
The two biggest gray areas that Paul deals with have to do with the eating of meat that had been sacrificed to and idol and celebrating certain days. Some thought that eating meat sacrificed to an idol was like participating in idolatry. They didn’t want to have anything to do with that meat. I can understand that.
Others didn’t care where the meat came from. They didn’t believe in those false gods anyway. They thanked God for His provision. That makes sense too.
The other gray area had to do with which days should be celebrated. Some felt that the Sabbath and many other Jewish holidays should still be observed; others felt it was OK to serve God any day of the week.
Paul uses these two issues as examples of how believers were to behave when it comes to gray areas. While we might not wrestle with the same issues today, the lesson is no less applicable. We have a whole new set of gray areas that cause problems for us.
Paul spends nearly two full chapters on this particular topic. It is one of great importance to him because at its core it has to do with maintaining unity within the body. The church in Rome was a mixture of Jewish converts and gentile converts. There were a lot of differences.
The church is a place of amazing diversity, but it is also supposed to be a place of amazing unity. This is often a hard balance to strike. It won’t happen on accident. We have to be intentional about our desire to honor God by respecting each others differences.
Follow along as I read the first 12 verse in chapter 14…
First of all, Paul’s instruction is for us to accept one another. Paul refers to two types of people, the “strong” believer and the “weak” believer. Before we go any further we need to define these terms because Paul uses them a lot in the next few chapters.
The “weak” believer is the person who doesn’t understand their full liberty in Christ. They are often tied to legalistic rituals or would see anything in the gray area as black and therefore sinful. These are the people who continued to hold to the Jewish customs and holidays in Paul’s time.
They are labeled “weak” in the faith, because they either hadn’t come to fully embrace their freedom in Christ, or they had a conscience that prevented them from doing things in that gray area.
By contrast, the “strong” believer is someone who understands fully the freedom and liberty they have in Christ. They understand that the Old Covenant Jewish requirements no longer apply. We now have freedom in what we eat, what we drink, and everything we do. They tend more to the Christian liberty side.
The question is, which one is right and which one is wrong? I think Paul tends to favor the strong believer. I mean in almost every situation I would rather be labeled strong than weak right? But the point of this passage is our need to maintain a high degree of respect and unity for people on the both sides.
The natural question for each of us to ask is, which one am I? Am I a weak believer or a strong believer? The answer is probably a little bit of both. There are no doubt certain areas of life that you shy away from for personal, moral reasons, and other areas that you have no problem with.
You might have a strong aversion to the idea of drinking alcohol, but have no problem with a friendly game of poker. Or you might feel that it would be a sin for you to smoke a cigar, but you have no problem listening to classic rock on the radio.
Paul’s instruction here is for those who are strong to accept the weak. It is never OK to condemn or mock someone else simply because they hold to a more conservative view of those gray areas than you do. The strong believer who thinks it’s OK to eat meat shouldn’t look with contempt on the weak believer who only eats vegetables.
Likewise, the weak believer should not condemn the strong believer. I think this is the more common error. People who have certain convictions in certain areas of life often want to apply those convictions to every Christian across the board. They believe that if it is a sin for them, then it must be a sin for everyone.
The biggest problem is when people try and twist the Bible around to support their personal opinion. The Jewish converts that Paul is addressing here used the OT to try and argue that certain meats should be avoided and that certain days should still be celebrated. But it was clear from the teaching of Peter and Paul that those dietary laws and old covenant restrictions no longer applied.
I am always amazed at how people who are thoroughly New Covenant believers, who understand salvation by faith through grace, will still go back to the Old Covenant to try and prove their point. They quote a scripture from Leviticus prohibiting tattoos in order to condemn getting a tattoo, but ignore the verse right above it that condemns trimming the edges of your beard. We no longer live under the legalistic requirements of the OT covenant.
But Christian’s today can still fall back into that exact same trap. They have a personal conviction in a particular area and feel like they have to hunt down a scripture to prove their point. Don’t misuse God’s word and force it to condemn something that it doesn’t really condemn or approve something that it doesn’t really approve. Just realize that maybe it is a gray area.
The weak believer should not condemn the strong believer. Those who feel that drinking is a sin shouldn’t react with shock and disgust at the Christian who has a glass of wine with dinner. There can be a tendency to think that you are more spiritual or godly because you avoid more gray areas. And there is a tendency to look down your nose at anyone who doesn’t avoid these gray areas. But it is not our job to condemn people who don’t hold to the same personal convictions as we do in these gray areas.
Paul calls for mutual respect and acceptance from both sides. Both the weak brother and the strong brother are accepted by God. This is a significant point for us to always keep in mind. We don’t have any right to force our convictions in gray areas on others.
The problem is that for the weak believer, actions like eating meat and honoring the Sabbath, or in our day, drinking or listening to rock music, are not gray to them. In their eyes they are sin. For them these things are black and white.
But we have to realize that God honors both the person who avoids drinking and the person who drinks in moderation. There are plenty of great reasons to avoid alcohol altogether; maybe a family history of alcoholism, maybe a past history of alcohol abuse. But there is no Biblical prohibition of alcohol. There is a clear Biblical prohibition of getting drunk. But not drinking in moderation.
Remember again, Paul’s primary purpose here is to make sure that there is ongoing unity in the church. He wants the different people in the church to show a real love for each other. Not arguing or condemning or fighting over non-essential issues.
Historically the church has been fractured over some very unimportant things. That should not be. We need to put aside our petty differences and make every effort to maintain unity.
Verse 4 says…”4 Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” We have no right to pass judgment on a fellow servant of the Lord in these gray areas. It is a matter that is between them and God. It is a matter of each one conscience.
So first of all we need to be accepting of each other’s differences of opinion in these gray areas. Second, we need to honor our own conscience. Again, this ties in directly with the instruction on sanctification we saw earlier in the book of Romans. Paul taught us that we are all born with a sin nature and a natural inclination towards sin. We are not all basically good, we are all inherently evil. When we place our faith in Jesus he gives us a new nature, a new heart, and a new set of desires. We have the Holy Spirit as a guide for our conscience. We have the ability to make the right choices. We still have that old sin nature that is fading, but now we have a new nature that desires to honor God.
When it comes to the different gray areas in life we have a responsibility to listen to our own conscience and make a decision about what to avoid based on how the Holy Spirit leads us. In order to do this we have to be honest with ourselves and make an intentional decision. Look at verses 5-12 again…
“5 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. 7 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; 8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 10 But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. 11 For it is written, "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD." 12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”
Each one of us has to be fully convinced in their own mind about what actions are acceptable for them. I don’t think we do this as much as we need to. I think that often we just don’t think about what we are watching, or what we are saying, or what we are doing. Often very negative things have a way of creeping into our lives simply because we don’t think about them. We don’t protect ourselves. We don’t set up healthy boundaries.
Do we sit down and intentionally think, “Is this TV show honoring to God?” Are there areas of life where we tend to be a little too obsessive? Do we maintain proper balance in all areas. Are there some areas of life that we know we will always have to avoid because of a tendency for it to be sin in our lives?
These are all questions that we need to answer for ourselves. I can’t answer them for you. I can maybe give you advice and some guidelines, but when it comes to the different gray areas in life, you have to determine your boundaries.
And the key to maintaining healthy boundaries is having the singular goal in mind of always honoring the Lord in everything we do. That is our litmus test.
Over in 1 Corinthians Paul deals with this exact same issue of the gray area around eating meat sacrificed to idols. He says, “Everything is permissible- but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible- but not everything is constructive.” His conclusion is, “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
Can we run all of our actions and behaviors through this test? Is what I’m watching honoring to God? Is what I’m eating honoring to God? Is what I’m drinking honoring to God? Is what I’m listening to honoring to God.
Are you able to live clear of conscience? It is so very easy to simply ignore our conscience. We can go for a long time ignoring God and behaving any way we want. Especially when it comes to these gray areas. But that is not honoring to God.
We have a responsibility to honor the Lord, because we belong to Him. We are not our own, we were bought at a price. We were redeemed by Him. Verses 7-8 says…
“7 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; 8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.”
Because we belong to God, we will each individually be accountable to God. Verse 12 says that each one of us will give an account of himself to God. There will come a time when we will need to answer for our actions. We will stand for God and have to justify our behavior. Is there anything in your life that you know is sin for you, even though it might not be sin for everyone? Is there an area of your life where your conscience lights up like a Christmas tree? Are there things that you know are not honoring to God?
We will all give and account to Him sooner or later. Paul isn’t trying to threaten us, but to remind us of our need to make sure that our profession of faith in God and our lifestyle matches up.
OK, so I think we can draw some conclusions from this passage so far. First of all, if you have a more mature view of your Christian liberties, don’t condemn those who have a weaker or more conservative view. Those who are weak shouldn’t think that they are holier than thou because they don’t do anything that might be a gray area.
So the weak guy can continue to only eat vegetables and observe Jewish holidays and be honoring to God. The strong guy can keep eating that meat and ignoring those old covenant holidays and still be honoring to God.
Or, to put it in a more contemporary context, this side of the room can avoid alcohol at all costs and this side of the room can keep enjoying a beer while watching the football game. As long as we are all honoring God in our actions, being true to our own conscience, and respectful of others, there should be no problems.
But there is one big problem with this whole discussion of gray areas. Paul expects us to behave with unity and charity and love with each other, even though we have drastically different views on certain issues. Can you see how this might cause a problem? Let me paint the picture for you…
You are the weak believer and I am the strong believer. Your conscience tells you that eating meat is wrong, mine doesn’t. We both go to the same church and fellowship together. What’s going to happen when I invite you over for dinner? Am I going to serve you meat? Am I going to only eat vegetables when you come over?
Or what happens when we bump into each other at the grocery store and I have a cart full of pork? You see me buying and enjoying meat and you might be tempted to eat meat too.
Or what happens when you have sworn off of alcohol and you see one of the church deacons drinking a margarita at a restaurant? Are you going to get angry, be jealous, or be tempted to drink yourself?
Are we supposed to give up anything that anyone might find sinful or offensive so that we won’t run the risk of causing them to stumble? Does this mean that all of us have to act like weak believers even though we are strong believers? How can we exorcise our Christian liberty without injuring our weaker brothers?
We will answer these questions, and many more, in three weeks from now. Stay tuned!
