Harmony Amidst Diverse Opinions
(Romans 14:1-23)
1. My young son ran to me, crying. “Daddy, I stubbed my toe,” he sobbed. “Let me kiss it and make it better,” I said. “Which toe was it?”
My son answered, “The one that has no roast beef.” [rd.com]
2. Would that life was so simple. It never is. Somehow, people expect church life to be simple. People gathering to learn about, serve, and worship God, how could that create a conflict? Yet thousand have died as a result of church conflicts over the years. As a matter of fact, one religiously driven war lasted for 30 years.
3. Wherever you have people, you will at times have conflict and you will at times have hurt. That’s how it was in even the very early church, which is often part of the reason that the epistles were written.
Main Idea: Differences between believers are not always about the Biblical vs. the Unbiblical; most differences are about the extra-Biblical or a misunderstanding of what Christianity is. We must therefore be careful in determining the hills for which we are willing to die.
I. In the Body of Christ, We Will Have Extra-biblical OPINIONS; We Should Respect Those Who Differ from Us in These Matters (1-12).
A. The stricter and the freer must not look DOWN upon one another, even if they disagree.
B. The Background: Jewish believers RETURNING to the church at Rome.
1. Emperor Claudius commanded all Jews to leave Rome in 52A.D. They were soon allowed to return. Since the original Christians in Rome were Jewish believers, they had previously been at the helm of the church. They returned to a gentile-led congregation by the time Paul wrote Romans in 57 A.D.
2. Because most meat in gentile areas was first sacrificed to idols and not killed in keeping with Kosher laws, and because wine was likewise made apart from Kosher specifications, “Jews simply refrained from meat and wine when questionable, ate vegetables and drank water, or brought their own food and wine. Thus, while Jews saw themselves adapting a kind and accommodating posture…gentiles generally saw things differently….The underlying separatism and notable judgment of their lifestyles often offended gentiles…” (Mark Nanos, The Mystery of Romans, p. 57)
C. We must let God SORT OUT these matters at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
1. Most conflicts among Christians are about extra-biblical matters.
2. Some gentile believers felt obligated to follow the ways of the Jewish believers, thus struggling with understanding exactly what Christianity is.
3. Christianity is trans-cultural Messianic Judaism.
Mark 7:18-19 suggest much of the Law was not necessarily about intrinsic right and wrong, but also about God singling out Israel to be unique.
And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
D. Paul gives us two EXAMPLES of the sorts of issues causing conflict in the Roman church.
1. Kosher FOOD vs. Non-kosher
2. Celebrating Jewish FEAST days or not celebrating them.
II. We Must Be Sensitive to the Danger of Making Others STUMBLE (13-23).
A. Some people value their KIND and slight others.
• In all these cases, the issue is not what the Bible says, but what people think it means or how it is applied.
• In the NT church, some Jewish believers who were out to promote their brand insisted that gentile believers become Torah observant; Acts 15 addressed that.
• Later, church leaders forbade Jewish believers from being Torah observant, thus insisting that they buy into the gentile brand of Christianity.
• At first, it was tolerate we gentiles. Then it was, “We won’t tolerate Jewish ways.”
B. Torah observance cannot be wrong unless it is attached to a mandate, but it can be UNNECESSARY.
C. When we are with another who is truly GRIEVED about our behavior, we should adjust.
1. As a church, we need to be sensitive to these kinds of issues.
2. E.g., Santa Claus.
3. Politics: many churches bundle their politics with their theology (both sides do this)
In 1996, our elders published a “Purpose and Principles” document available on our website. This was our decision regarding the intersection of faith and politics:
Political Activity
We recognize our calling as salt and light to the earth. (Matthew 5:13) This means that we seek to persuade men by telling the world the truth about God's hatred of sin, His inevitable judgment, and the good news that Jesus died for the salvation of those who believe. (2 Corinthians 5:11) At times, this means that we speak out concerning the sinfulness in our society, such as when we publicly condemn abortion.
We also recognize our residence in a free and democratic land. The issues debated in the public square today cry out for moral direction, which can only be found in the unchanging truth of God's Word and the love of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is right and proper that our people, as dictated by their conscience, should participate fully in the democratic process of our governance. If they speak out, let them speak with grace and truth. If they seek office, let them serve selflessly and righteously, while always remembering that a believer's citizenship is in heaven. (Philippians 3:20)
We, as a body, choose to refrain from endorsements or denouncements of particular candidates or political parties. We do so because we do not wish to be unequally yoked to ideologies and movements, which while appealing for evangelical support, are not truly Bible-based or accountable to the Holy Spirit. (2 Corinthians 6:14)
D. This is not the same as appeasing a spiritual BULLY or someone AGENDA-driven, which is more of a common problem.
E. The weak ENSLAVE themselves, so we must be balanced in our approach.
Galatians 5:1, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Colossians 2:16-23, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
F. The dangers include DESTROYING the faith of another and violating one’s conscience.
1. We should always be educating our consciences with God’s Word.
2. But many other things influence conscience, like upbringing or peers.
3. As we grow, we begin adjusting our conscience based more on God’s Word and less upon upbringing or peers. But this is a process, and it takes time.
4. Some people don’t want to grow, and so we have to make a judgment call.
Differences between believers are not always about the Biblical vs. the Unbiblical; most differences are about the extra-Biblical or a misunderstanding of what Christianity is. We must therefore be careful in determining the hills for which we are willing to die.
