Paul has been talking about love since chapter 12.
• Our salvation in Christ leads to our love for God and one another, for our neighbours as well as for our enemies, those who are against us.
• Paul touches on the various aspects of loving others and putting them down in practical terms. To read and listen to what he says is effortless; to do them is tough.
• To pay lip service to love is easy (and quite worthless); to live out the love of God in real life calls for much more. It requires a selfless attitude and much sacrifice.
Imagine yourself giving food to your enemy because he is hungry, or a drink when he is thirsty. Or to submit to the authorities when you disagree with them.
• To love is the debt we owe one another (13:8). “Love your neighbour as yourself.” (13:9) “Love does no harm to its neighbour.” (13:10)
• To love your neighbours as yourself – this line alone is so weighed – it’s the fulfilment of the Law, Paul says (13:1).
• It can take us a lifetime to learn because we are naturally self-centred and self-focused in life.
• And that neighbour can be anyone, a stranger in need, or your spouse, your children, children with special needs…
And the list goes on. The call to love goes on until chapter 15.
• Last week in Romans 14 Paul exhorts us to love those in the community of faith.
• Not just Christians but Christians who behave differently from us.
• He calls them plainly the “weak in faith”, those who are growing in the faith and still learning about the truth.
• He says ‘welcome him and not quarrel over opinions’ (14:1 ESV) or NIV “disputable matters”. There are different views on eating meat and observing special days.
It’s so easy to love those who are like you and who likes you. It’s quite another to love those who are different from us or hold different views or opinions.
• And they are all in the church! They are of the faith, just that they are the ‘weak in faith’. We welcome him because God has welcomed him! (14:3)
• We can’t get rid of them; they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
• When we have people coming to faith in Jesus Christ from all walks of life and backgrounds, this is expected and inevitable.
Paul adds that all of us, whether weak or strong in faith, are answerable to God (14:4).
• We live and die to the Lord because we belong to Him (14:8) and we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ (14:10).
• That’s our common end! Ultimately we are going to face Him and we have to give an account of our actions before God, whether we eat meat or vegetables.
Paul isn’t finished with this call yet. He is going to talk more about it in today’s passage – Rom 14:13-23 and give us some principles that we can learn in co-existing with others.
Before we go there, let me set the context. Why is eating meat such a big issue?
• The eating of meat has to do with meat offered to idols or in a pagan temple. Some of these are brought back to the market to be sold.
• Some believers, especially those with a past in idolatry, felt that the meat has been used in pagan worship and still associate it with their past traditions and customs.
It is not a new problem. Right from the start, the early church was aware of such differences in customs because of the influx of Gentile believers.
• Remember the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 where the leaders met to resolve the issue of circumcision and other differences between Jewish and Gentile believers?
• Paul was there and the issue of eating meat offered to idols was raised in the official letter sent to the Gentile churches. Part of the letter read:
• Acts 15:28-29 “28For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: 29that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
In consideration of the Jewish believers, Gentiles believers were urged to conduct themselves in certain ways to ease their integration into the church.
• That was in AD50 some 7-8 years ago. Now Paul writes, continuing from where we left off last week:
Romans 14:13-23
13Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. 19So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
20Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. 22The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
The principle that Paul set is this: DO NOT STUMBLE THE WEAK
• Paul is not talking about us doing something bad and thus stumbling someone.
• He is talking of us doing something right, but yet stumble the brother who is weak in faith, who cannot accept what we are doing as correct.
He says my action can “put a stumbling block or hindrance [obstacle] in the way of a brother” (14:13)
• 14:15 “For if your brother is grieved by [distressed] what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died.”
• 14:16 “So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.” You are not doing a bad thing but it is SPOKEN of as evil.
• 14:20-21 “20Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.
What is of the essence here is not about eating meat or drinking wine, but the welfare of our brother. That’s the greater concern.
Suppose you are standing at a traffic light crossing and waiting for the red man sign to turn green. It was a deserted road with no cars in sight. Only two small lanes and not a single car on the road. Will you cross? Or will you wait for two minutes for the green man to come on?
I believe most of us would cross based on our discretion. (Don’t tell the police)
But suppose now you are in the same place but with a young child beside you. You are holding her hands and waiting to cross. With no cars in sight, will you pull her hand and do the same, when the red man is still on?
Maybe not. What are you teaching her? That she can cross based on her own discretion and judgment? You would probably tell her, wait for the green man to come on.
We curtail our actions for the sake of the younger ones. As Paul says, we refrain from doing things that would harm the conscience of those who are growing in the faith.
BE STEPPING STONES OF FAITH
In most quarrels, our focus is usually on the contentious issue and we want to prove that we are right and win the debate, sometimes at all cost.
• But here Paul paints us a situation in which we are right and yet have to refrain from exercising our freedom to do what is right.
• Why? There is a high priority, a greater concern, a HIGHER GOOD - the spiritual wellbeing of our weaker brother. We want to “walk in love” (15) and aid them in their growth.
• We “pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (19). To edify one another is our greater calling.
So can we eat meat offered to idols? What is Paul’s stand? Yes, we can.
• 14:14 “I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself” 14:20 “Everything is indeed clean…”
• 15:1 “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.”
To have a fuller picture of Paul’s understanding of this, we can read 1 Cor 8.
• Paul was in Corinth when he was writing Romans and the issue about eating food offered to idols was right before him.
• He wrote to the church about a year before he arrived.
1 Cor 8:4-13 4Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
7However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?
11And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. 12Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
An idol has no real existence (v.4) and by implication, the meat is being offered to “nothing” and therefore it’s just meat and we can eat it.
• But among them are the weak in faith. Their past association with idolatry (v.7) and pagan worship causes them to think of the food as defiled.
• They are conscience-stricken; they felt that it is “unclean” and wrong to eat it.
And if our actions grieve them or worst still, influence them to copy us and do the same, when they are not ready, then we would have caused them to act against their conscience. Anything not of faith and against conscience is sin. We would have stumbled them (v.9).
• But why do we want to encourage them to do things in defiance of their conscience?
• Is eating meat so important? Will food commend us to God? Are we worse off if we do not eat, or better off if we do? (cf. 1 Cor 8:8)
Why quarrel over eating, drinking or observing days when there are greater things in the Kingdom of God like righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit? (Rom 14:17)
• Why major on the minor and lost sight of the more important things of God?
• Instead “Let us, therefore, make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” (Rom 14:19 NIV)
• We are to encourage and build up our weaker brothers and help them grow in their faith, to the point where they can fully understand the freedom we have in Christ.
• Until then, we love them and aid them in their walk with God.
How do we care for one another?
• Refrain from becoming a stumbling block to the weak in faith.
• Be stepping stones of faith to one another.
PRAYER:
Thank you, Lord for this community of faith. May we continue to grow in love and in faith. May all be edified and built up in the knowledge of Your Word. May our lives be an encouragement to another. Thank you Lord for your sustaining grace.
May your presence be felt in our gatherings with our families and friends over this week. Let all in our families know of Your love and their great need for You. May your Name be honoured through our testimonies and our time with them. In Jesus’ Name, AMEN.
You can hear this and other audio sermons with slides at https://tinyurl.com/KTCC-EnglishService
