Someone wrote, “Everyone has the fingerprint of God on his or her soul. God has created each person, knows him or her inside out. God has created each person and has plans and dreams for each one. God has created each person and so each one has incredible value. When we realize this, it changes how we see and treat each other. Accept one another. See them for who God has made them to be. There is a place for everyone in our church. God does not turn anyone away. He accepts all who come to him. How can we ever turn anyone away?”[1]
This morning, we will wrap up our series on “Accepting the Different” based on Romans 14:1-15:13. Allow me to summarize what we have studied so far using the acronym A-C-C-E-P-T.
First, we are to ACCEPT one another in Christ. Romans 15:7 command us, “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” [2] To accept means “to receive wholeheartedly, to warmly welcome them to yourself, to grant admission into your heart, to look beyond anything superficial and to be willing and open to build relationships.” God accepting us in Christ is the basis for our accepting one another.
Romans 14:1 command us, “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.” Note that there are disputable or non-essential matters and there are essential matters of the faith. Thus, we are to CONCENTRATE on the essentials. Truth divides as well as unites. Unity is based on truth. We don’t unite at the expense of the truth.
But we also need to CONCEDE differences. There will be some gray areas or “disputable matters” that we will never agree upon on this side of heaven. These are matters that are not worth fighting over. But it is worth accepting one another.
Romans 14:19 tell us, “So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.”[3] Instead of wasting time debating about our differences, we must EXERT efforts to edify or build up one another.
Romans 14:13 command us: “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.” So, we PASS judgment on no one.
Not all judging is wrong. One of the verses of the Bible that is most often quoted out of context is Matthew 7:1. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” But Jesus is not prohibiting judgment per se. What He was commanding was premature judgment. Look at verses 4-5: “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Before we judge others, we must first judge ourselves.
What is the judging that God prohibits? Now, note that “therefore” in verse 13: “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.” Why is that “therefore” there? This is a conclusion of a previous argument. Let us read Romans 14:9-12. “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’” So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.”
Note the words “judge” and “look down” in verse 10. The Amplified Bible goes like this: “Why do you criticize and pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you look down upon or despise your brother?” The fact that a person is different from you does not give you the license to criticize, look down or despise them. Being different is not necessarily sinful.
We are not to judge a person because of his appearance.[4] James 2:1-4 warns us, “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” We cannot base our acceptance of each other based on designer clothes. That means also that we are not to judge others based on their affluence or the size of their bank accounts. Someone noted that the rich tends to attract the rich and the poor tends to attract the poor. But the church of our Lord is composed of both the rich and the poor. Let the church be the church. We should not also base our acceptance on achievement like educational background for example. Colossians 3:11 tell us, “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” Barbarians were those who were uneducated. Greeks were those who were educated. Our treatment of people must not vary depending on the number of letters before or after their name such as M.D. or Attorney. Note also the words “slave or free”. Here in Makati Gospel Church, we see employees and employers worshipping together. There should be no such distinction here in this church. At the foot of the cross, we are all equal.
Some churches only wanted to attract the rich. They are afraid that the offering would dwindle because the number of the poor attending their church has grown. But the rich has withheld their offering because they want to show or prove who is in control of the church. Brothers and sisters, we give not to have control or say over matters of the church. We give because it is our responsibility to give. It is one of our acts of worship.
Lastly, we are not to judge others based on ancestry. Our church is a Filipino-Chinese church. We should never forget or erase our rich heritage as such. In a sense that is what makes our church unique. We have so many excellent Chinese qualities here such as being orderly or organized. However, our church is becoming a multi-cultural church. We are like the early church. In the beginning, it was merely composed of Jews. But, God brought Gentiles into the church. At first, it was uncomfortable. There were some issues that arose because of their different backgrounds. But Galatians 3:28 declares, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Paul reminded the early believers that even if we are different by blood we are one in Christ who shed His blood for us. In a sense, we are blood brothers and sisters.
I know we have and we will continue to have our cultural differences. I recognize that we are adjusting with each other. Sadly, there are some Chinese churches that have forgotten that. When non-Chinese people are growing in numbers in their church, they feel threatened. One Chinese pastor even told me that they faced that problem in one of their daughter churches. He sadly noticed that when the non-Chinese became numerous, the Chinese membership dwindled. Let us call it by name. That is racism. That is prejudice. That is sin in the eyes of the Lord. I thank God for that church because they dared to open their doors despite of the risk. Even if some members left because of discrimination, the leadership of the church continues to open its doors to everyone.
I also thank God for Makati Gospel Church for doing the same thing, for opening its doors to the non-Chinese. However, I pray the problem that happened in the church I mentioned will not happen in our church. That the Chinese here would not leave because there is a growing number of non-Chinese in our church. In the eyes of the Lord, there is neither Chinese nor non-Chinese. I appeal to you to remember that we have a common life in the Spirit. And the Spirit is thicker than blood.
We should not also pass judgment on anyone because we ourselves will be facing judgment. THINK of God’s judgment. Look at Romans 14:10-12. “For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.” We will all face judgment for how we have treated each other.
Let me clarify that our salvation is not at stake in the “judgment seat” mentioned here. If we study the end times, we will note a distinction between this “judgment seat” and the great white throne judgment mentioned in Revelation 20:11-15. “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
The “judgment seat” and the great white throne are separated from each other by more than 1,000 years. The judgment seat will happen immediately after the Rapture or when Christ takes the believers out of this world before God pours out His judgment on the earth during the Great Tribulation. Then our Lord would come back then reign for a thousand years. After that, a final rebellion would happen which the Lord will quash. Then the great white throne judgment would happen before God ushers the eternity future.
The great white throne has to do with salvation. But the “judgment seat” has to do with rewards for believers. 2 Corinthians 5:10 tell us, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” God will determine whether we will receive a reward or not for the things we have done for Him as believers while here on this earth. One of the things that the Lord will look into is how we have treated each other, how we have accepted one another. If God would judge us now, how would we fare? Will He reward us? Think of God’s judgment. Let us accept one another.
Romans 15:7 tells us, “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” Note the last clause, “in order to bring praise to God.” Brothers and sisters, if we want to glorify God, let us accept one another.
Let us pray…
[1]Adapted from the illustration database of Sermon Central.
[2]All Bible verses are from the New International Version, unless otherwise noted.
[3]New American Standard Bible
[4]I am indebted to Rick Warren’s “Developing a Faith that Works” sermon series for this portion.
